Flow Enters West Coast With $175M San Jose Multifamily Buy
Flow, a residential real estate and property management company launched in 2022 by WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, purchased The Fay apartment building in San Jose for $175M.
It is the first West Coast acquisition for Flow, which also has property in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The 336-unit, 23-story high-rise at Reed and Market streets was about 60% vacant at the time of the acquisition, which was made through a JV with ASJ Development, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.
Flow intends to rebrand The Fay and activate vacant ground-floor retail on East Reed and South First Street. In January, an affiliate of Madison Realty Capital of New York City took possession of The Fay after the asset slipped into foreclosure, The Mercury News reported.
At the time, the property was valued at $110M, down sharply from the $182.5M construction loan Madison Realty Capital provided to The Fay developer Scape and its residential arm, Morro.
Shortly after the building went into foreclosure, the city of San Jose announced a plan to master-lease 197 one- and two-bedroom units at The Fay to boost the city’s supply of subsidized moderate-income housing for public sector employees and residents making between 80% and 110% of the area median income.
The lease deal with ASJ Development, a subsidiary of Vancouver, British Columbia's Westbank Corp., was for five years with two five-year options.
With its limited land and high home prices, San Jose is one of the tightest housing markets in the U.S. Developers are expected to increase the city’s apartment inventory by a mere 0.3% in 2026, according to Marcus & Millichap. Class-A multifamily properties in the city had 4.8% vacancy, with average rents of $4,335 per month, Institutional Property Advisors said in a first-quarter market report.
