$36M Loan Issued for UC Berkeley Student Housing
FCL Management will manage the property, as well as another recently acquired by the same buyer.
JLL Capital Markets secured $36 million in acquisition financing for Hawkins Way Capital to acquire Varsity Berkeley, a 79-unit, 308-bed student housing property near the University of California at Berkeley campus that changed hands for $46.3 million. It was the second purchase for Hawkins Way in Berkeley, Calif., and sixth in Northern California in recent weeks.
Working on behalf of Hawkins Way, JLL arranged the two-year, floating-rate loan for Varsity Berkeley through Limekiln Real Estate Investment Management in September. The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory team representing the borrower was led by Managing Directors Brandon Smith and Annie Rice and Director Gyasi Edmondson.
Baring was the previous owner, acquiring the newly developed property in December 2015, for $51 million from a private individual, according to Yardi Matrix information.
Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, arranged the sale with IPA Executive Managing Directors Peter Katz and Salvatore Saglimbeni representing Barings and also procuring the buyer. Tony Solomon, senior vice president and district manager, is Marcus & Millichap’s broker of record in California.
Hawkins Way, a Beverly Hills, Calif.,-based real estate investment firm, plans to upgrade all the units with a more contemporary design by summer 2025.
FCL Management will manage the property, which will be operated as FOUND Study Downtown Berkeley. The property management firm has also been tapped to manage a second Berkeley student housing community recently acquired by Hawkins Way–Garden Village, a 77-unit property located at 2201 Dwight Way.
Garden Village highlights
Garden Village, acquired just weeks after Varsity Berkeley, has been rebranded as FOUND Study Southside Berkeley. The property is a 7-minute walk from the UC Berkeley campus, three blocks from the city’s main thoroughfare, Telegraph Avenue, and one block from Shattuck Avenue, where residents will find Downtown Berkeley’s shops, restaurants, bookstores and entertainment venues.
Garden Village offers fully furnished studios, and two- or four-bedroom apartments. The apartments feature 9-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows along with quartz countertops, Energy Star stainless steel appliances, wood plank vinyl flooring and other modern finishes. In-unit bike storage is also available.
Active development pipeline
UC Berkeley’s total enrollment for fall 2023 was approximately 46,000 students, up slightly from 45,307 registered the previous year, according to Yardi Matrix information. There were about 10,478 beds off- and on-campus serving the university in 2022.
At least two new student housing developments are planned for the UC Berkeley community. In late September, Valiance Capital, The Martin Group and Canyon Real Estate Partners formed a joint venture to develop The Valiant, a Class A, 83-unit, 262-bed student housing property at 2538 Durant Ave. The partners secured a $38 million senior construction loan from Kennedy Wilson for the project, which is slated for completion prior to the 2026-2027 academic year.
