Santa Monica Units Asking $15,000
In an area where $2,000-a-month rents are not uncommon, the owners of a newly renovated apartment tower in Santa Monica are breaking the local price barrier by seeking rents as high as $15,000 a month for penthouse units.
Newport Beach-based Irvine Apartment Communities said its 16-story tower on Ocean Avenue near the popular Third Street Promenade will target high-income professionals by offering a wide variety of services and ocean views from most units. Rents at 1221 Ocean Ave., as the building is known, start at around $4,100 for one-bedrooms.
“We already have a couple of folks who are waiting [to move in] . . . and some of those put deposits down sight unseen,” said Clarence Barker, president of Irvine Apartment Communities, which is a subsidiary of the Irvine Co.
The luxury end of the apartment business has been booming in recent years thanks to the region’s ongoing economic expansion and a limited amount of new construction. In Santa Monica, the average rent in the largest apartment complexes is $3,053, according to a third-quarter survey by RealFacts, a Novato real estate research firm.
The 120-unit building, originally known as Champagne Towers, was completed in 1968 by a development firm controlled by the late bandleader Lawrence Welk, who lived in the building for many years.
The structure suffered substantial damage during the Northridge earthquake and has been vacant since 1994. In May 1998, Irvine Apartment Communities purchased the tower for $44.1 million from a partnership affiliated with Japan-based Fujita and launched a renovation and repair program.
Local real estate brokers and industry observers say 1221 Ocean will test the demand for luxury rentals on the affluent Westside, where monthly rents for the most expensive apartments top out at about $4,000. At those levels, the apartments will be competing with luxury home rentals.
“They are going to get a lot of bicoastal people--people who need to have a presence in Los Angeles,” said Earle Hyman, a broker at the real estate services firm Marcus & Millichap. “There is a demand for it. But lets now see if they fill 120 units.”
