Essex Trust Buys DTLA High-Rise For $200M

Palo Alto-based Essex Property Trust just bought 8th+Hope, a 22-story, 290-unit luxury glass high-rise. We got a top California multifamily broker to give us some behind-the-deal details.

This morning we chatted with Colliers EVP Kitty Wallace, here in her Brentwood office, who tells Bisnow the apartment building is one of the nicest in all of SoCal, which led her to believe it would be scooped up by offshore money. Essex has been pretty busy in that end of the state, she says, scooping up a collection of adaptive-reuse apartments in LA and snazzy ones in Marina Del Rey. This deal takes it to the next level. She had heard the complex could go for up to $750k/door, making Essex's buy at less than $700k/door quite the deal.

The complex is one of the first post-recession residential towers to be built and listed for sale, with seller Wood Partners saying the building received loads of interest. The property, which opened last summer, is 55% leased and has some pretty sexy amenities, including a 10k SF rooftop deck and club room with retractable glass walls that lead to an outdoor social/dining area, spa, fire pit and garden retreat. 

Kitty says she's surprised offshore parties didn't outbid Essex because when you get into the $200M-plus range for a core Class-A product, it usually attracts groups with low yield requirements. And foreign investors have a real desire to pick up that type of product. She sold the 196-unit Potrero Launch green apartments in S.F. in 2012 for $90M (pictured). Colliers talked to Essex about that deal but they ended up not buying. She ultimately found LA-based CityView as the buyer, handing it off to the Colliers S.F. team.