Ridge Capital Investors Continues Bay Area Buying Spree
In joint venture with Contrarian Capital Management and Andell Holdings, the firm has acquired a two-property portfolio in the East Bay.
Ridge Capital Investors has closed on its third Bay Area acquisition in the last 60 days. In a joint venture with Contrarian Capital Management and Andell Holdings, Ridge Capital Investors has acquired a two-property apartment portfolio totaling 444 units in the East Bay.
In this latest acquisition, the joint venture acquired Gateway Apartments, a 236-unit apartment community in San Leandro, and Austin Commons, a 208-unit, garden-style apartment community in Hayward. Both properties are near a BART station. Ridge plans to execute a capital improvement plan, upgrading the amenities and interior units. FPI Management will manage the property.
In the last 60 days, Ridge has also acquired 52,000-square-foot office building in Walnut Creek and a 95-unit apartment community in Dixon. The four properties were acquired for a combined $189.5 million. The transactions illustrate the firm’s bullishness on the Bay Area market, which was badly impacted by the apartment. “We are investing with conviction that the overall economy will weather the effects of Pandemic conditions, and that life will return to normalcy over the near term,” said Trevor Wilson, managing director of Ridge Capital Investors, in a statement.
The two earlier acquisitions include Station Plaza in the Pleasant Hill Bart submarket of Walnut Creek, an office property, and The Mews at Dixon Farm in Dixon, an apartment community.
While demand abated during the pandemic, there has been optimism about a swift rebound. In the second quarter of 2021, office leasing activity totaled 1.1 million square feet, more than twice the previous quarter’s leasing activity, according to research from Savills, which catalyzed investor optimism in the market. More than half—59%—of the leasing activity was for new locations, and 61.5% of the leases were signed by tech companies.
The apartment market has been slower to rebound. Rents did begin to recover in 2021 after double-digit declines in 2020; however, at the end of the year, San Francisco posted a significant month-over-month decline, according to research from Apartment List. Experts note that tech hubs like San Francisco are “entering a second phase of COVID-related rental market softness.”