Lowe JV Buys 100-Unit Student Housing

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POMONA, CA-Lowe Enterprises Investors of Los Angeles has acquired the 100-unit Helix at University Village student housing complex at 510 E. Third St. in a joint venture with Carlsbad-based Virtú Investments Inc. for more than $15.12 million. The property, completed in 2005, serves the nearby Western University of Health Sciences and “is one of only a few new multifamily developments in Pomona in almost 20 years,” notes Alon Kraft, VP of Lowe Enterprises Investors.

Lowe Enterprises Investors, which is an affiliate of Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises, bought the student housing property on behalf of Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Income and Growth Partners, a $201-million value-added investment fund that targets commercial and multifamily investments nationwide. The four-story Helix at University Village was built in 2006 and is composed of 24 studios, 24 one-bedroom units and 52 two-bedroom units.

The property, which was 91% leased at the time of the sale, will be managed by an affiliate of Virtú. The population that it serves consists of graduate students at Western University of Health Sciences, which was founded in 1977 and is one of the largest graduate schools for the health sciences in California.

According to Virtú Investments principal Mike Green, the Helix has been a popular student housing choice since opening early last year. It is located in “an area of Downtown Pomona where the housing options are largely older apartments or single-family homes and most are not within walking distance of the university,” Green notes.

The new owners acquired the Helix from Pomona Helix LLC-Realm Real Estate of Costa Mesa. The transaction was brokered by Dean Zander of the Los Angeles office of Hendricks & Partners and Joe Leon of the Hendricks & Partners Newport Beach office.

In addition to the Helix, Lowe has a portfolio of more than 1,400 units or 4,600 beds of student housing primarily in southern and eastern regions of the US. With the Helix acquisition the firm is continuing to diversify the geographic mix of its portfolio.