It’s not every day I’m told I live in a luxury community worth nearly $100 million.
That happened about a week ago, when Irvine’s Real Estate Partners Inc., an investment and management company, bought the Seacrest Apartment Homes in San Clemente.
It’s the company’s first apartment buy in Orange County. Real Estate Partners also owns office buildings here.
The company paid $87.5 million, or about $238,000 per apartment, for the 25-acre site. The total paid makes it the priciest OC apartment deal of the year.
Seacrest is set on a hillside a few miles from the ocean. Residents have a view of the ocean, Catalina Island, and, recently, the Marblehead Coastal stores and housing development under way just off the San Diego (I-5) Freeway.
Seacrest has 368 apartments, two pools, covered parking and at least one real estate reporter calling it home.
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Seacrest apartments: the messy balacony is Mueller’s |
Real Estate Partners plans to spend another $10 million in upgrades, including improvements to the complex’s gym, new appliances and cabinets for the apartments, and the eviction of my noisy neighbors. OK, I made that last part up.
An arm of Real Estate Partners plans to manage the property and oversee the renovations.
The deal is Real Estate Partner’s largest dollar investment and the company’s second big local apartment buy this year. It paid $50 million in May for a 250-unit complex in Woodland Hills.
The company hopes to buy $600 million in apartments by the end of 2007, primarily in California and the East Coast, according to Chief Executive Dawson Davenport.
Sean Deasy, Bob Patterson and Ryan Fitzpatrick of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s Ontario office represented the seller, JP Morgan Investment Management Inc. of Los Angeles. Real Estate Partners represented itself.
How aggressive will Real Estate Partners be in trying to recoup their latest investment? I’ll let you know in November when my lease is up.
There’s a new retail developer calling Irvine home.
Manarino Realty, which plans to develop and renovate shopping centers on the West Coast, kicked off operations late last month.
Robert Manarino, who for the past decade headed up Western retail developments for Cousins Properties Inc., an Atlanta-based real estate investment trust, is leading the company.
Along with Manarino, the company has a number of other big-name investor partners.
They include Richard Ziman and Victor Coleman, formerly of Los Angeles-based office developer Arden Realty Inc., and John Long and Jack Mahoney, chief executives of Highridge Partners Inc. and Summit Commercial Properties Inc., both in El Segundo.
The company plans to focus on urban and suburban infill projects, primarily in Southern California and the Western U.S. Hybrid centers that combine one or two larger format tenants like a Target or a local grocer with smaller restaurants and shops likely will be a focus.
Office Profits Strong
It’s been another great year to be an OC landlord.
Higher occupancies and rents and fewer tenant concessions have combined to boost landlord revenues 15.9% in the past 12 months, according to a report by the local office of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co.
The previous year, landlord revenue grew by 12.9%.
By the end of 2006, average asking rents in the county are set to have grown by 8.3% to $2.34 per square foot. Effective rents will be up 11% to $2.03 per square foot per month. Vacancies, meanwhile, should be near 7.3% at year’s end, according to the report.
“Strong office market fundamentals continue to generate robust investor activity, which has produced soaring price appreciation,” said John Przybyla, regional manager of Marcus & Millichap’s Newport Beach office.
Capitalization rates for office properties locally stand at about 6.3%, down half a point from a year ago.
Chapman Real Estate Director
Michael McCarthy has been named director of the Roger C. Hobbs Institute for Real Estate, Law and Environmental Studies at Chapman University. He takes over Nov. 1.
McCarthy has expertise in land development, environmental planning and sustainability studies. He lectures, consults, writes and leads international expeditions on strategies for sustainable development, according to Daniele Struppa, Chapman’s provost and executive vice president
From 1988 to 1993, he served as dean of the College of Architecture at Texas A & M; University, where he also held an appointment as a professor of land development from 1993 to 2004.
The hiring comes one year after Chapman announced $13 million in donations for the new institute, including $10 million from real estate investor Roger Hobbs.
