Standard Communities has greatly expanded its affordable housing portfolio across Los Angeles County with a new nine-figure acquisition.
The company purchased six Section 8 properties, totaling nearly 370,000 square feet, from Los Angeles-based real estate firm Goldrich Kest to the tune of $106.4 million. Dean Zander, Stew Weston, Tim Flint and James Flinn of CBRE (CBRE) brokered the sale.
The portfolio consists of the 42-unit Columbus Terrace at 8606 Columbus Avenue in North Hills; the 84-unit Rayen Park at 15247 Rayen Street in North Hills; the 74-unit Sherman Arms, at 17760 Sherman Way in Reseda; the 109-unit Oxford Park at 1920 South Oxford Avenue near Koreatown; the 48-unit Villa Marisol at 5301 Via Marisol in Monterey Hills; and the 50-unit Villa San Dimas at 249 South Acacia Street in San Dimas.
Standard plans to implement $8 million in renovations across the properties, according to the company. Rayen Park, Sherman Arms, Oxford Park, Villa Marisol and Villa San Dimas are senior affordable housing communities, while Columbus Terrace is not an age-designated community.
“The high demand for affordable rental housing in Los Angeles has created enormous investor interest in this specific product,” Zander said in a statement. “Occupancy rates are near historical highs with little sign of easing in the future due to the lack of new product in the pipeline.”
Standard partnered with the nonprofit Pacific Southwest Development Corporation to manage the properties. Standard also plans to extend the affordability of the properties by 20 years via new Housing Assistance Payment contracts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“Public-private partnerships play a pivotal role in addressing the need for affordable housing,” said Christopher Cruz, managing director at Standard Communities. “Our partnership with HUD and Pacific Southwest Development on this transaction allows us to preserve hundreds of affordable homes across Los Angeles County.”
Standard is one of the largest owners of affordable housing in the U.S., with nearly 18,000 units across 16 states and Washington, D.C., and has completed more than $4 billion of affordable and workforce housing developments, acquisitions and rehabilitations nationwide, according to the company.
Standard last year bought a 244-unit luxury multifamily complex in South Gate, Calif., for $130 million. Zander and Weston also facilitated that purchase, along with Standard’s 2021 acquisition of 349-unit Monterey Station in Pomona, Calif.
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
Barberry Rose Management’s Lewis Barbanel sold an uptown portfolio of rent-stabilized buildings at a $36.6 million loss, Commercial Observer has learned. Coney Realty’s Peter Rebenwurzel purchased the portfolio of 16 multifamily residential buildings spread across Inwood, Washington Heights and Harlem for $47 million. Cignature Realty’s Lazer Sternhell, who represented both the buyer and seller with Peter Vanderpool, confirmed the sale.
The 385,968-square-foot portfolio — which represented nearly half of Barberry Rose’s residential holdings — sold for roughly $122 per square foot. It contains some 433 apartments and two storefront units. The buildings are subject to rent regulation, and a portion of the units are rent-stabilized.
“The buyer took advantage of the condition of the rent-stabilized market,” Sternhell said. “The market has not seen prices this low in many years, and they believe over time prices will appreciate.”
Barbanel acquired all 16 of the buildings between May and December 2016 in four transactions totaling $83.6 million, selling them at a nearly 44 percent loss seven years later.
But he has publicly claimed that the pandemic took a serious toll on the portfolio.
In testimony before the city’s Rent Guidelines Board in June, Barbanel pleaded for significant rent hikes on his properties’ stabilized leases, citing the pandemic’s economic fallout, inflation, the cost of labor, materials and insurance as causes of continuing financial hardship for landlords.
“Since the outbreak of COVID, we have been collecting, on average, under 80 percent of the rent that is due,” Barbanel said during the testimony.
Barbanel and Rebenwurzel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Twelve buildings in the deal sit on opposite sides of a single block, at 109 to 133 Sherman Avenue and 22 to 38 Post Avenue in Inwood between Dyckman and Academy streets.
Two other five-story walk-ups in the portfolio — 252 Sherman Avenue and 66 Vermilyea Avenue — are also in Inwood. The final two buildings are in Harlem at 519 West 143rd Street and in Washington Heights at 574 West 161st Street.
Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com.
TruAmerica Multifamily is expanding with a purchase of a $103 million apartment complex in Orange County, Calif., the company announced Tuesday.
The Class A, 264-unit property known as Nineteen01 was acquired in partnership with investment management firm PCCP at a “significant discount to replacement cost,” according to the company. Nineteen01 joins three other sites that TruAmerica owns and manages in Orange County.
The property is at 1901 East First Street in Santa Ana and includes a mix of three- and five-story buildings constructed in 2016.
“The city of Santa Ana is undergoing significant revitalization, including the development of the nearby Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center, a planned streetcar system, and a proposed state-of-the-art soccer stadium,” Robert E. Hart, TruAmerica’s CEO, president and founder, said in a statement. “We believe this property fits nicely with the city’s plans for the future.”
Units in Nineteen01 are a mix of one- to three-bedroom apartments, with an average size of 1,033 square feet. The complex is about two miles from Downtown Santa Ana, just east of Interstate 5.
The acquisition comes after TruAmerica secured $300 million in refinancing earlier this year for five other properties across four states.
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
Haynes Academy site is attracting developers, appraisal happening soon
The future of eight acres in the heart of Old Metairie has many residents on their toes.”Metairie Road is a heavily traveled area, too heavily traveled,” said Muffin Balart, co-chair of Citizens for the Responsible Redevelopment of the Haynes Track. Balart is a longtime resident of Old Metairie, living just a few blocks away from the old Haynes Academy.She, along with many others, are rallying to oppose any commercial development. “It was bad enough to have the school. We love the school, but it was difficult because the kids were parking all over, but we learned to live with that, so trying to live with commercial on Metairie Road is not something any of us are even remotely considering,” Balart said. Balart isn’t considering it, but the Jefferson Parish School Board is. “Our goal, number one, is to make sure that we get the most out of that property for our students, and obviously, there’s people that want to keep it zoned residential, which is obviously the right thing for them to choose, but at the end of the day what we want to do is get the most for our kids,” said Michael Pedalino, Jefferson Parish School Board member. School board member Michael Pedalino says the main goal is to appraise the property, get it listed and get it sold. But to do so, the parish council would have to get on board with a zoning change. The property is currently zoned R1A, which is strictly family residential.”Right now, we’re just needing one school in particular, Haynes, to get that appraisal complete. Hopefully, we should have that tomorrow but no later than the end of the week,” said Patrick Jenkins, Jefferson Parish Schools’ chief operations officer.
METAIRIE, La. —
The future of eight acres in the heart of Old Metairie has many residents on their toes.
“Metairie Road is a heavily traveled area, too heavily traveled,” said Muffin Balart, co-chair of Citizens for the Responsible Redevelopment of the Haynes Track.
Balart is a longtime resident of Old Metairie, living just a few blocks away from the old Haynes Academy.
She, along with many others, are rallying to oppose any commercial development.
“It was bad enough to have the school. We love the school, but it was difficult because the kids were parking all over, but we learned to live with that, so trying to live with commercial on Metairie Road is not something any of us are even remotely considering,” Balart said.
Balart isn’t considering it, but the Jefferson Parish School Board is.
“Our goal, number one, is to make sure that we get the most out of that property for our students, and obviously, there’s people that want to keep it zoned residential, which is obviously the right thing for them to choose, but at the end of the day what we want to do is get the most for our kids,” said Michael Pedalino, Jefferson Parish School Board member.
School board member Michael Pedalino says the main goal is to appraise the property, get it listed and get it sold.
But to do so, the parish council would have to get on board with a zoning change.
The property is currently zoned R1A, which is strictly family residential.
“Right now, we’re just needing one school in particular, Haynes, to get that appraisal complete. Hopefully, we should have that tomorrow but no later than the end of the week,” said Patrick Jenkins, Jefferson Parish Schools’ chief operations officer.
New York University acquired a 23-story luxury residential building adjacent to NYU Langone Health’s Kimmel Pavilion inpatient care facility.
The university paid $210 million on Aug. 30 to purchase The Lanthian apartments at 377 East 33rd Street from Verbena Road Holdings, a California-based company run by Dallas-based investor Dennis Wong, according to property records.
It’s unclear what the school will use the building for. NYU did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Verbena and Wong could not be reached.
Sources familiar with the transaction said that Eastdil Secured‘s Gary Phillips, Will Silverman and Daniel Parker negotiated the sale. The debt on the asset was assumed by NYU.
Wong purchased the 209-unit building in 2015 from real estate investment trust AvalonBay Communities for about $173 million and secured a $100 million loan from the recently defunct Signature Bank for the purchase, Commercial Observer reported at the time.
In 2019, Verbena used a $103 million loan to upgrade residences and common areas in the building, the balance of which was assumed by NYU in the purchase, according to property records.
The building at the corner of East 33rd Street and First Avenue has changed hands several times since it was built in 1998, including Archstone picking it up for $131.5 million in December 2011, but ownership was transferred to AvalonBay and Equity Residential in 2012 when the two bought Archstone for $6.5 billion in 2012 from the estate of Lehman Brothers.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
(MENAFN– Lionel Joel) Thomas & Adamson, the international project management and cost consultancy firm, has announced that it is delivering cost management services on the new ‘Serenia Living’ luxury residential development. The luxury beachfront project is taking shape in the first plot of the West crescent of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai.
Thomas & Adamson (T&A) was appointed in 2022 under lead design consultant, Godwin Austen Johnson (GAJ), to deliver pre-and post-contract cost management services on this prestigious project, for UAE-based developer Palma Holding. T&A was appointed to manage costs amid challenging market conditions and inflation pressures. With more than 85 years’ experience, T&A has been a trusted partner in supporting organisations across Europe, the Middle East, and the USA in navigating the challenges of procuring, delivering, and operating assets.
T&A has delivered more than 330 projects, for 135 clients, with a construction value of more than AED22bn across its residential projects, globally, over the past four years alone. T&A Middle East boasts a running total of 4,225 residential units. Using this vast service and sector experience T&A lead value engineering and negotiation processes to achieve significant savings on the construction cost of the Serenia Living project.
The firm’s collaborative approach, working alongside all members of the design and project team and assisting with early strategic guidance on design and procurement solutions, was fundamental in its approach to this project. In addition to helping reduce the development’s overall construction costs, this also helped to identify and mitigate potential risks. T&A was thorough in ensuring the design was systematically thought through, cohesive and helped avoid unnecessary delay and disruption in the latter stages of the project.
The luxury beachfront project will also boast one of the largest wellness clubs in Dubai that will include several amenities including an expansive gym, training studio, and a spa with sauna, steam room and an ice plunge pool. A children’s play area with a games room, outdoor pool, cinema, and an array of external sports facilities and courts will also be included within the development.
Pre-contract cost management services were completed by T&A in May 2023, with the start of construction works and project completion slated for late June 2023 and December 2025, respectively. The handover of residences is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2026.
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BUTTE, Mont. — As more and more non-native Montanans call the Treasure State their home, it seems like people are learning that spots like Butte, America are a pretty cool place to be–even if it means the cost of living is a little more expensive than it was before.
Recently, the Montana Department of Revenue conducted its biannual appraisal of property value across the state.
Though a handful saw their numbers drop, property value is generally on the rise in most counties, including Butte-Silver Bow.
According to the findings, property value in BSB shot up 57%, while commercial property value is up 46% from 2021.
What’s the reason? The decline of the COVID-19 pandemic and a certain Hollywood production could be partly responsible.
“Some of [the increase] will be directly reflective of COVID and the mass amounts of people that are moving to our state,” property assessment division area manager of Region 4C Tedd Weldon said. “You could chalk some of it up, most likely, to the ‘Yellowstone’ series.”
“But, again, it’s just driven by market sales and people moving to our beautiful state,” Weldon continued.
While that influx is good for economic growth, it could put a bit more strain on existing taxpayers.
With property taxes in mind, seeing those 46% and 57% value increases could be a scary sight for renters or small businesses trying to keep the lights on.
But, keep in mind, those numbers are extreme. While property taxes are likely to rise as a result, there’s legislation in place that prevents such rises from being so drastic.
“You will most likely see some sort of tax increase,” Weldon said. “Will it be commensurate with your value increase? Certainly not.”
“Local taxing jurisdictions, or the county, they can’t just create a windfall of tax revenue if the values increase,” Weldon said.
Additionally, the Department of Revenue will be offering opportunities for both tax and income rebates. You can find more information on their website.
As for public feedback, property owners with questions or concerns are encouraged to share their voices at either of the two town hall meetings planned for next week.
The first meeting will be on Monday, July 10 at 1 p.m. at the Silver Bow Archives (17 W Quartz Street), while the second meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 12 at 6 p.m. at the Butte Justice Center (3619 Wynne Avenue).
THE PRICE DEVELOPMENT of new residential units has been weaker than official statistics suggest due to gaps in the statistical monitoring of prices, Juhana Brotherus, the chief economist at the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, stated to Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.
Brotherus believes the prices of new dwellings in housing companies dropped much more sharply in the first quarter of the year than the two per cent suggested by official statistics.
“[The drop] was much closer if not bigger than the one for old dwellings,” he said.
The prices of old dwellings in housing companies decreased by 5.5 per cent year-on-year between January and March, according to data released by Statistics Finland. The data also show that the sales of newly built dwellings decreased by more than 70 per cent from the corresponding period in 2022.
Brotherus, formerly the chief economist at the Mortgage Society of Finland (Hypo), is suspicious about the reported drop for new dwellings partly because prices have fallen especially for houses coveted by investors and located in more expensive neighbourhoods.
“Investors prefer new units and new units are more expensive than the rest of the housing stock. I’d be very surprised if the price development of new units was stabler than old units,” he said to the newspaper.
Another reason for his suspicions is the different type of data used to compile the price statistics for old and new dwellings.
Price statistics for old dwellings are based on information and transfer tax reports submitted to the Tax Administration, meaning the underlying data consist of almost all sales. Statistics for new dwellings, by contrast, are incomplete as they are based on reports made by real estate agencies and construction companies to the price monitoring service of the Federation of Real Estate Agency (KVKL).
“Statistical monitoring for new houses is of significantly lower quality than the really high-quality, transfer tax report-based monitoring for old houses,” Brotherus stated to Helsingin Sanomat.
The quality concerns stem from the fact that, unlike old dwellings, new dwellings are typically sold directly by construction companies – although they are increasingly turning to real estate agencies for help amid the market slowdown. Brotherus viewed that construction companies have an “obvious interest” to report high house prices but not low prices because they realise that agencies and households use the information to evaluate the market prices of vacant dwellings.
“It’s an open secret that price statistics for new dwellings aren’t of particularly high quality,” he said.
Construction companies also seek to fuel sales with various financial incentives that are not necessary reflected in the official price statistics.
Units built for the Housing Fair in Loviisa by Vantaa-based Cubesta, for example, include two years of free use of a Tesla 3, with a yearly maximum mileage limit of 15,000 kilometres, if the sale is finalised by the end of July.
“Honestly, I have to say that house sales are rather slow,” Ilkka Rainio, the managing director of Cubesta, explained the motivation behind the campaign to Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday, 3 June.
Brotherus on Wednesday pointed out that such offers are fundamentally price cuts.
“Price cuts are often not implemented as price cuts per se, but as cuts in maintenance fees or promises to pay for remodelling. Technically they’re price cuts,” he argued.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
An Upper West Side mixed-use residential building has traded hands for the first time since 1985 in a $120 million deal.
A joint venture among Slate Property Group, Avenue Realty Capital (ARC) and KABR Group acquired the 166-unit 600 Columbus Avenue from KB Companies, according to the buyers.
The JV purchased the building — which also has 27,500 square feet of retail and 100 parking spaces — with a $68 million loan from an affiliate of Apollo Global Management. The Real Deal first reported the deal went into contract in February.
“Manhattan has exhibited strong multifamily dynamics over the past 24 months while also remaining one of the most undersupplied housing markets in the nation,” Martin Nussbaum, principal at Slate Property Group, said in a statement. “This combination of factors gives us the confidence to expand our portfolio of long-term, institutional-quality assets in core New York City locations.”
While ground-up development of a property like this isn’t in the cards for many developers in the absence of 421a and harsh interest rates, Udi Kore, managing principal of ARC, said renovating the existing building would be more their speed.
The building stretches a full block along Columbus Avenue from West 89th Street to West 90th Street. The ground-floor retail space is also already leased with tenants such as Ace Hardware, Atmosphere Kitchen & Bath, Round Star Soccer and Columbus Pre-School.
Slate and ARC have partnered on nine other residential acquisitions in the past, all adding up to $450 million in purchases, according to the JV.
JLL’s Bob Knakal, Jon Hageman and Hall Oster brokered the deal but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
MaxCap has revealed a big move in its so-called “buy-to-rent-to-sell” strategy, assembling a $95-million portfolio of 125 recently completed apartments across four buildings.
The apartments, all in Melbourne, would be offered to rent “and, later in the cycle, for sale”, MaxCap head of direct investment Simon Hulett said.
The buildings from which the apartments have been acquired are Sapphire by the Gardens, 308 Exhibition Street; Premier Tower, 138 Spencer Street; St Boulevard, 601 St Kilda Road; and Australia 108, 70 Southbank Boulevard.
Hulett said that MaxCap had formed a partnership with Melbourne property services business and sales agency Colliers Residential Victoria to pick the apartments.
“Our ‘buy-to-rent-to-sell’ strategy … offers a low-risk strategy with diversification, income and liquidity that appeals to our investors—different to residual stock lending and different to build-to-rent investment,” Hulett said.
“We adopted a rigorous and highly selective approach in identifying these 125 one and two-bedroom units across four new buildings.
“We are bullish about the basic supply and demand fundamentals of the Melbourne residential market.
▲ Apartments in Sapphire by the Gardens (pictured) and Australia 108 (main image) are among those MaxCap has compiled for the strategy.
“Further, by eliminating construction risk and acquiring completed stock, we are able to enter the tightly held rental market immediately and are able to take immediate advantage of both income growth and capital growth.”
MaxCap executive director Brae Sokolski said Melbourne was experiencing a significant housing shortage. This is primarily because the supply of new projects was being hindered by rising costs and a decrease in pre-sale investors.
“Residential apartment completions for the city are forecast at 46 per cent below the five-year average for the next five years.
“When overlaid with vacancy rates of less than 1 per cent and forecast population growth and shrinking average household sizes driving increased demand over coming years, this is significantly concerning.”
Sokolski said he believed the ‘build-to-rent-sell’ approach could assist in solving some of Melbourne’s future supply requirements given demographic projections have the greater city heading for 6 million people by 2030 and surpassing Sydney in size.