Irvine-based apartment investor Advanced Real Estate Services Inc. has made one of its largest purchases to date in its buy of a 714-unit complex in Corona.
The company, which also operates under the ARES name, recently closed on Corona Pointe Apartments, a 27-year-old complex that runs along the Riverside (91) Freeway next to the Riverwalk Business Park.
Corona Pointe sold for $96 million, or a little more than $134,000 per apartment, according to ARES.
Records show Salt lake City-based AMC LLC as the seller.
ARES assumed nearly $70 million in financing from Fannie Mae in the transaction. The company also said it raised $34 million in equity, some of which will go to renovate the property.
“With the renovation funds, we plan to upgrade the property to give it more pizazz,” said ARES President Rick Julian.
About half of the equity raised came from a recent $150 million refinancing of existing properties ARES owns, he said, and the other half was new equity.
Corona Pointe, which was called Pinnacle Riverwalk Apartments under different ownership, has had a few sales over the past 13 years.
AMC paid a reported $73 million for the complex in mid-2010, buying it from San Francisco-based BRE Properties Inc.
That’s roughly the same price that BRE paid for the complex in 2003, according to regulatory filings.
An affiliate of Newport Beach-based Lyon Communities owned the complex prior to BRE. It paid a reported $53.5 million for the property in 2000.
Corona Pointe’s one- and two-bedroom units have rents of about $1,000 and $1,300, according to the prior owner’s website.
Advanced Management Co., ARES’ in-house management company, will manage the property.
ARES now owns and manages more than 7,000 units within 50 miles of Corona Pointe.
A month ago, it paid $14.2 million for Marquis Apartment Homes in Fullerton, an 88-unit complex at 1375 W. Valencia Drive.
Fast Finish
The home-building offshoot of Newport Beach-based cabinet maker RSI Holding Corp. said it’s moving ahead on a five-home project in Costa Mesa near the intersection of Placentia Avenue and Center Street.
The New House by RSI said it plans to build the two-story, 1,621-square-foot homes in just 90 days. It bought the half-acre site for the project, at 1856 Placentia Ave., two years ago for $850,000, according to property records.
The houses will be priced at $550,000 and up.
RSI Holding founder and Chairman Ronald Simon started The New House venture a few years ago.
The company specializes in developing easily built, affordable homes using many of the same manufacturing techniques honed by RSI’s cabinet business.
Garden Grove Sale
Park Grove, a 245-unit apartment complex in Garden Grove, has traded hands for a reported $47.5 million.
A Sherman Oaks-based investor that property records list as Park Grove Capital Partners LLC bought the 12-acre complex, which is just north of the Garden Grove (22) Freeway near the intersection of Magnolia Street and Garden Grove Boulevard.
The sale works out to a price of nearly $194,000 per unit for Park Grove, which was sold by a partnership between San Mateo-based Matteson Cos. and New York-based Blackstone Group.
The sellers acquired the property in early 2007, paying about $46 million for the complex, which previously was known as the Waterstone at the Grove.
CoStar Group Inc. records show the new owner to be a venture between Los Angeles-based apartment investor TruAmerica Multifamily and Tarzana-based Benedict Canyon Equities Inc.
Benedict Canyon Equities took part in another Garden Grove apartment purchase last month, paying $28 million for City Villa, a 148-unit apartment complex a block from the Christ Cathedral campus.
It’s unknown whether TruAmerica was part of the City Villa purchase.
The LLC buying the 245-unit Park Grove complex got a $37.4 million loan from Cleveland-based KeyBank National to help fund the purchase, according to records.
Shane Shafer, a broker with the Newport Beach office of Hendricks-Berkadia, handled the sale of the Park Grove complex.
Correction
In stories covering two of the larger industrial sales of recent months—5901 Bolsa Ave. in Huntington Beach and 12131 Western Ave. in Garden Grove—the Business Journal misspelled the name of Voit Real Estate Services’ Michael Hartel, a senior vice president at the brokerage’s Irvine office who worked on both deals.
