Ideal Capital Group Sells Redondo Beach Apartments for $75M

A local family trust purchased the property, Elements 616, a 105-unit apartment complex.

Ideal Capital Group has sold Elements 616, a 105-unit apartment complex in Redondo Beach, for $74.5 million to a Los Angeles-based family trust. The 81,647-square-foot property is on 1.2 acres near Silicon Beach.

A previous owner began a renovation program at the property in 2013, and Ideal Capital Group continued to carry out the plan when it acquired the asset in 2019. The new ownership plans to follow suite, renovating units as they turn. The property has a mix of 16 studios and lofts, 14 one-bedroom units, 25 one-bedroom den/lofts units and 21 two-bedroom units. There are only a handful of un-renovated units remaining.

The deal is sign of the recovery in the Los Angeles apartment market. Last year, research from Apartment List reveals that rents have increased 14.1% this year and 4.2% since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The recovery is notable considering that rents in the metro fell 9.6% in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Before the pandemic, rent growth has stagnated in the market with little to no growth each month, but the pandemic jump-started double-digit rent growth once again.

As a result, the apartment market is wildly competitive. Experts are recommending that buyers not only leverage relationships to win deals, but also come in strong and also have a good track record, and speed of getting deals done and doing due diligence early.

This year, experts expect that momentum to build. John Chang, SVP and director of research services at Marcus & Millichap expects this year to exceptionally be an active investment year, especially for the large apartment market, explaining that the investors he has spoken with have hundreds of millions of dollars on the sidelines.

Elements 616 has a lot of the characteristics these investors want in a deal. It has some upside through completing a capital improvement program, but it relatively stable, in a good market and near job centers. CBRE’s Dean Zander and Stewart Weston represented the seller in the deal, while Ryan Rembert and Mason Rowland with KW Commercial represented the buyer.