$120M Buys Two Apartment Complexes

RIVERSIDE, CA-Buyers from Northern California and Dallas have paid $73 million and $47.6 million for two apartment complexes here and in Anaheim Hills, ringing up two of the largest Inland Empire and Orange County apartment sales this year, according to CB Richard Ellis, which brokered the sales.

The complexes that sold were the 714-unit Corona Pointe Apartments at 3957 Pierce St. here and the 292-unit Cascades property at 8602 Whitewater Dr. in Anaheim Hills. Both deals were brokered by Sean P. Deasy of the Ontario office of CBRE and his Southern California Multi-Housing Partners team, with the buyers in both cases representing themselves.

In the Corona Pointe transaction, Deasy’s team represented a partnership between Lyon Capital Ventures and Lehman Brothers in the sale of the apartment complex to BRE Properties, a Northern California-based REIT, for $73 million. Deasy says the deal lends further credence to the growing reputation of the Inland Empire apartment market as a viable alternative for institutional investors.

In the Anaheim Hills transaction, a Dallas-based pension fund adviser acquired The Cascades from Northern California-based Prometheus Real Estate Group for $47.6 million on behalf of an institutional investor. Deasy was assisted in the Cascades transaction by Ray Eldridge of CBRE’s Newport Beach office and CBRE’s mortgage banking group, LJ Melody and Co. Troy Tegeler and Bruce Anderson of Melody’s Newport Beach office arranged new acquisition financing of $24 million.

The Corona Pointe property was approximately 90% occupied at the time of the sale and had been owned by the seller since December 2000. It includes 352 one-bedroom, one-bath units measuring 704 sf, 70 two-bedroom, one-bath units of 875 sf, and 292 two-bedroom, two-bath apartments measuring 986 sf. Rents average approximately $882.

The Cascades property was approximately 93% occupied at the time of the sale and had been owned by the seller since September 2000. It includes 92 one-bedroom, one-bath units measuring 822 sf, 36 two-bedroom, two-bath units of 1,027 sf each, and 164 two-bedroom, two-bath units measuring 1,054 sf. Rents average approximately $1,402.