One of the largest apartment development sites in downtown Anaheim has traded hands at a healthy per-acre price.
Irvine-based developer Shopoff Realty Investments recently completed the sale of a nearly 5.5 acre near the Anaheim Packing House to Anton Development.
Pleasanton-based Anton paid about $20 million, or just under $3.7 million per acre, for the site at 901 E. South St., which Shopoff got entitled for a 314-unit apartment development about a year ago.
The sale comes nearly a year after Shopoff sold an adjacent parcel, running about 15 acres to Irvine’s TRI Pointe Group Inc., for $48.3 million.
TRI Pointe (NYSE: TPH), the largest publicly traded homebuilder based in Orange County, is preparing to open model homes at a 232-unit, for-sale housing project on its land in January.
$68M of Sales
Shopoff’s deal with Anton brings the total land sales at the Anaheim project to about $68.3 million for Shopoff and its financial partner in the project, Wayne, Pa.-based Argosy Real Estate Partners.
The duo paid about $38 million for the site in 2016; it previously held a large industrial facility which was razed to make way for housing.
The 21-acre property is between East South and East Santa Ana streets, about three-quarters of a mile from Anaheim’s city hall.
The pair received entitlements in 2018 for a combined 232 detached homes and attached townhomes, and 314 rental apartments.
Anton Development is best known for building affordable apartment projects, like the Anton Monaco complex in Anaheim, and a series of projects in Irvine and Tustin. However, it is planning market-rate rental units for its new project in Anaheim, according to Shopoff officials.
Construction is expected to begin in early 2020 and take about two years.
Near City Hall
The site is a few blocks east of the Anaheim Packing House, the food hall built in 2014 by Shaheen Sadeghi’s LAB Holding LLC, and is next to Brookfield Residential’s Colony Park, a 670-unit housing development that was built in 2006.
The new project is the largest of its kind to be proposed in the immediate area since Brookfield’s.
Shopoff, best known locally for its efforts at getting infill development areas entitled for new uses, has also eyed the Platinum Triangle area of Anaheim for investments over the years.
There’s a growing demand for new development closer to downtown, according to Chief Executive and President William Shopoff.
“The project is a much needed addition to an attractive area,” Shopoff told the Business Journal.
“It’s close to, but not in direct competition with, the Platinum Triangle where there is a lot of product coming online.”
The new development is similar to another Orange County project that Shopoff Realty has in the works: the Uptown Newport mixed-use project near John Wayne Airport.
Leasing recently started for the first phase of the project, a 458-unit phase along Jamboree Road called One Uptown. Construction is scheduled to begin soon on one of two condominium phases.
The Newport Beach development will include more than 1,000 homes and apartments.
Shopoff is working with Newport Beach-based The Picerne Group Inc. on the rental portion of the Uptown Newport project, which is being built on land previously used for commercial purposes.
Surf City
Next up for the developer is getting entitlements for a 29-acre site near Pacific Coast Highway it purchased in Huntington Beach in 2016.
The site was previously home to three large above-ground oil tanks, which Shopoff has demolished and remediated the site to make way for a mixed-use development.
A public hearing is set for this week to discuss the developer’s current proposal, which consists of 250 homes and a 215-room hotel.
“We expect to start receiving the approvals later this year, and hope to begin construction in 2021,” Shopoff said.
