Raintree Partners, a Laguna Niguel-based apartment and mixed-use property owner and developer, has added another big rental property in Tustin to its portfolio, thanks to a recent transaction it made with Irvine Company.
An affiliate of Raintree Partners recently completed the purchase of El Paseo, a 160-unit rental complex just south of the intersection of the Costa Mesa (55) and Santa Ana (I-5) freeways.
Its 14 two-story buildings were built on about six acres, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
The complex, at 14901 Newport Ave., sold for about $43.6 million, or a little under $273,000 per unit, according to the market tracker’s data.
Raintree took out a $28.7 million loan with Capital One Multifamily Finance to fund the purchase, according to property records. It’s the second big Orange County property it’s bought from Newport Beach-based Irvine Co. in as many months.
I wrote in January about Raintree buying The Galleria, a 182-unit complex near the Fountain Valley-Santa Ana city line, for a reported $52.2 million.
Irvine Co. also sold The Galleria in a rare commercial sale for Orange County’s largest owner of apartments.
El Paseo and The Galleria were part of a portfolio of apartment properties in Orange County and San Diego that it bought in 2013 from Archstone Inc., a one-time unit of New York-based Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The deal on undisclosed terms totaled about 5,000 apartments and included rental properties in local cities where Irvine Co. previously had no presence, including Aliso Viejo, Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Placentia, and Rancho Santa Margarita.
Irvine Co. officials, when I wrote about The Galleria sale, said another OC-based complex would sell early this year, a deal that turned out to be El Paseo.
Raintree, a privately held investor that focuses on properties in major metropolitan areas in Southern and Northern California, has made a big splash in OC’s apartment market over the past year, with its $95.8 million in Irvine Co.-related buys being just one part of that.
Last June it paid a reported $163.5 million for Axiom Tustin, a 628-unit apartment complex near the intersection of the 5 Freeway and Red Hill Avenue and about a mile and a half from El Paseo. The property, previously known as Eaves by Avalon, is the largest single-property apartment sale by total price in Orange County since 2010, according to CoStar records.
The company also is in the early stages of construction on a mixed-use project in Dana Point that will include 109 residential units and 27,000 square feet of commercial space, according to local news reports.
New Owners
Irvine-based Developers Research, a real estate consulting firm that provides construction analysis for real estate developers, homebuilders, and financial institutions, among other national and local clients, has a new ownership structure.
Longtime employees and husband and wife Scot and Laura Oldham recently bought the company from founder Barry Gross.
Scot Oldham now leads sales and marketing efforts and oversees the work product of the team, while Laura Oldham handles day-to-day operations.
The Oldhams have worked for Developers Research for nearly 20 years.
ARES Loan
Advanced Real Estate Services Inc. in Irvine has gotten $130 million in loans to refinance three of its apartment complexes, including two in OC.
The new financing is being used to refinance debt at the 243-unit Park Plaza multifamily community in Santa Ana, the 115-unit Twin Pines complex in Anaheim, and a 297-unit complex in Bellflower.
The owners “received significant cash-out proceeds for continuing asset improvements and future acquisitions,” said Michael Elmore, who arranged the loan. He’s executive vice president and managing director of NorthMarq Capital’s Los Angeles office.
The transaction was structured with a 10-year term with one year of interest only followed by a 30-year amortization schedule, according to NorthMarq.
