Multifamily: Focus on Affordability

 Three recent blockbuster deals in the multifamily sector have been geared toward increasing OC’s inventory of affordable and workforce housing, another supply-constrained product type.
The deals, totaling nearly $426 million, are part of a workforce housing finance program created last year by the California Statewide Communities Development Authority (CSCDA).
The first of the three apartment properties, the 220-unit Alexan CTR City, closed at the end of December for $110 million under the new public-private partnership structure, marking the largest apartment transaction of 2020 (see listing, page 24).
In the second Anaheim deal, the CSCDA last month closed on The Parallel, paying $156 million for the 386-unit project built in 2018 at 1105 E. Katella Ave., in the Platinum Triangle.
The third sale, for the Jefferson Platinum Triangle complex, was completed late last month.
It sold for $160 million, or $400,000 a unit.
The new ownership structure is expected to cut rent costs at the 1,000+ apartment units in downtown Anaheim and in the Platinum Triangle.
“We are excited about this program and being able to work with the CSCDA,” said John Drachman, whose Newport Beach investment firm Waterford Property Co. has signed on as a project sponsor for two of the deals.
“It allows us to grow our assets under management while also fulfilling a need we’ve seen in the market, which is to provide affordable housing to a segment of the market that’s been missing.”
The statewide program is expected to quickly expand to other cities in Orange County, with deals in the works in Huntington Beach, Irvine and Santa Ana.