REIT Purchases 450 Apartments in Studio City

Maryland-based Archstone Communities Trust acquired the 450-unit Studio Colony Apartments at 10979 Bluffside Drive in Studio City for $58.5 million last week in what was probably one of the largest apartment sales ever recorded in Los Angeles County.

Archstone, a real estate investment trust, bought the property from Los Angeles-based Bluffside Development Co., a subsidiary of Cleveland-based Forest City Development, according to Ronald Z. Harris of Marcus & Millichap, who represented both the buyer and the seller along with Vince Norris of Delson Norris Investments.

The Studio City sale “is one of many such Los Angeles deals currently under contract or in contract negotiations with large institutional investors or REITs [real estate investment trusts],” Marcus & Millichap said in announcing the transaction.

Apartment REITs with Southern California holdings are all pursuing individual strategies--some buying, some selling and others holding their properties, according to Philip Simmons, Encino-based development director for AvalonBay, an Alexandria, Va.-based apartment REIT. “We’re strongly focused on new development rather than acquisition,” Simmons said.

AvalonBay’s focus is on renovating the 6,000 apartment units it owns in Southern California and in construction of 1,000 units now under development by the company, he said.