320-Unit Apartment Complex in Fullerton Sold to Brea Firm

In a sign that the depressed apartment market may be picking up, the 320-unit Highland Pinetree apartment complex has been sold by the Beverly Hills Business Bank for $13.6 million to Dasco Corp. in Brea.

The sale, announced Monday, is Orange County’s largest in financial terms since October, 1991, and the largest in number of apartment units since 1990, said Brad Turek, apartment market analyst with CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. in Anaheim. The transaction also involved a trade of the Indiana Street Apartments, a 104-unit complex in Paramount, which broker Rick Julian of Advanced Real Estate Services Inc. in Lake Forest purchased for $4.99 million to facilitate the Highland Pinetree sale.

Apartment prices, which have been averaging $58,834 a unit through the first half of 1992, are now low enough to attract investors, Turek said.

So far this year, Turek said, there have been only three sales of apartment buildings with more than 100 units. Last year, there were only five.