Utah Firm Buys Warwick Square Apartments

The 500-unit Warwick Square Apartments complex has been sold for nearly $19 million and will become an affordable-housing project.

The transaction represents the largest apartment sale in more than a year in Orange County, said Sperry Van Ness, the Newport Beach real estate firm that handled the deal. “There seems to be quite a bit of optimism about Southern California apartments in general,” said Marjorie Molloy, one of the real estate agents involved in the sale.

The new Warwick Square owner, a partnership headed by Salt Lake City-based Prowswood Equity Management, received low-cost financing from the state to buy the property. It plans to complete a $4-million renovation by the end of the year. The one- and two-bedroom apartments will rent for $550 to $775 a month.