TODAY’S DEALS: CBRE Completes $62.5M LA Sale

CB Richard Ellis completed the sale of a 204-unit L.A. apartment community; Cohen Financial arranged a $7.75 million loan; and J.I. Kislak Inc. purchased three distressed multifamily properties.

Canvas L.A.

Los Angeles–CB Richard Ellis completed the sale of a 204-unit apartment community in Downtown Los Angeles for $62.5 million. Known as Canvas L.A., the property is located at 138 N. Beaudry Ave. and totals 173,686 square feet. The seller was Alliance Residential Company, and the buyer was LaSalle Investment Management, which purchased this asset on behalf of its core commingled fund.  The sale ranks as the largest multifamily sale in the downtown Los Angeles submarket in 2011.

CBRE’s Southwest Multi-Family investment experts represented the seller in the transaction, including Tyler Anderson and Sean Cunningham of the Phoenix office, and Laurie Lustig-Bower and Adrienne Barr of the Beverly Hills office.

“The Downtown L.A. multifamily market has been largely built-out with very few development opportunities left for investors,” says Ms. Lustig-Bower. “This new building enjoys the barriers to entry for future development and the high-end, urban design, combined with projected occupancy and rental growth in the submarket, helped drive interest and ultimately, a very strong price for this asset.”

CBRE Econometric Advisors foresee 2.9 percent occupancy growth in downtown Los Angeles from 2011 to 2013, and 2.9 percent annual revenue growth through 2015.

Cohen Financial arranges $7.75 interest-only loan

McDonough, Ga.–Cohen Financial arranged a $7.75 million loan in connection with the acquisition of the Sundance Creek apartment complex.

The property is a “Class A” townhouse community located at 575 McDonough Parkway in McDonough, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta.  Sundance Creek features 232 units with detached parking spaces.  The property was built in 2004.

Mark Strauss, managing director and Kevin Greenberg, director in Cohen Financial’s Irvine office, secured the 10-year, fixed-rate loan at 55 percent loan-to-value (LTV) with a 30-year amortization schedule and two-years interest only.

The sponsor is Passco Companies, LLC.  The lender is Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital via its Freddie Mac program.  The financing closed in November 2010.

“As Freddie Mac’s year end pipeline began to fill and their processing capacity started to feel the strain, the timely and coordinated delivery of information and response to questions became even more important than usual, if we were to close on time.  Fortunately this was the Cohen Financial/Wells Fargo/Passco/Freddie Mac team’s fourth transaction and each party knew what to prioritize and how to accomplish the tasks required,” says Strauss.

J.I. Kislak purchases three Florida multifamily properties

Pensaclola, Fla.–J.I. Kislak Inc. purchased three distressed multifamily properties from Miami-based Ocean Bank.

The acquisition, which cost $11.5 million, included Villas at Jasmine Creek, Villas at Jasmine Field and all rental units from Villas at Jasmine Park, a fractured condominium, in a cash transaction without debt.

The properties have a total of 481 rental units and were recently foreclosed on. All three properties will undergo significant renovations over the next 12 months. The move brings the total number of units in J.I. Kislak’s portfolio to more than 3,100.

“We understand the Pensacola market, and are well-equipped to generate substantial revenues and increase occupancy in these properties to ultimately increase Kislak shareholder value,” says Thomas Bartelmo, President and CEO, J.L. Kislak.