Santa Monica’s SeaCastle Building Brings Top Dollar

The storied and newly rebuilt SeaCastle apartment building on the beach in Santa Monica was sold last week for one of the highest prices paid for an apartment building in Los Angeles County this year.

San Francisco-based SSR Realty Advisors, an advisor to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, acquired the 178-unit luxury property for $48 million in a partnership with CalPERS, said Dale Gruen, a portfolio manager with SSR.

The price, $270,000 per unit, is one of the highest per-unit prices paid for a Southern California apartment building in several years, according to broker Melinda Russell of the Los Angeles office of Hendricks & Partners, who represented SSR and the seller, Newport Beach-based developer the Province Group.

The SeaCastle, once a hangout for Hollywood celebrities, was built in 1926 as the private Breakers Beach Club. It later became the Chase Hotel and the Monica Hotel before being converted to apartments and renamed the SeaCastle in the 1960s.

The building, known for its garish turquoise color and Art Deco design, was deemed uninhabitable after the Northridge earthquake in 1994. It was further damaged by fire in 1996 and was sold in 1998 to the Province Group, which recently finished rebuilding the structure from the ground up.

Although the SeaCastle is unoccupied, it was still considered a desirable investment, Russell said.

“There is no other product like this that is brand new and right on the sand in Santa Monica,” Russell said. The building occupies more than 200 feet of beachfront just south of the Santa Monica Pier.

Institutional investors such as CalPERS and their advisors want to buy large apartment complexes in Southern California, Russell said, but few are on the market.

The SeaCastle only recently became available for occupancy, said Mark Kerslake, a Province Group managing principal. The Province Group initially hoped to complete the building by March 2000, he said, but construction was delayed.

Kerslake and Gruen said they expect the SeaCastle to fill quickly, possibly in three or four months, because of its waterfront location.

The building’s 178 apartments--25 studio and 153 one-bedroom apartments--include 45 units set aside for renters of low and moderate income, which will rent for $570 to $1,090 monthly. Up to 50 of the remaining 133 units will be corporate housing, where rents will start at $3,450 per month for a furnished studio apartment and $4,000 for a furnished one-bedroom.

The remaining market-rate apartments will start at $1,995 for a studio and $2,195 for a basic one-bedroom, Gruen said. Some larger one-bedroom units with the best views will command considerably more per month.

Tenants who lived at SeaCastle during the Northridge earthquake will have first choice of both the market-rate and the low- and moderate-income units before the apartments are made available to others. The former occupants have a month to decide whether they want to return.

The SeaCastle was rebuilt according to provisions of Santa Monica’s Earthquake Recovery Act, which required the new structure to fit within the dimensions of the original and have the same number of units.

The Moderne-style building was designed by Santa Monica architectural firm Killefer Flammang Purtill and built by Keller Builders Inc. of El Monte. It will feature such amenities as a fitness center, penthouse lounge, valet parking and concierge.