A partnership led by Frank Afari sells Toluca Lake apartments for $15M

For cramped apartment-dwellers in L.A.’s urban markets, the valley is where you go when you seek to buy, or at least rent, a spacious home. Which is why it might seem surprising that an apartment building in Toluca Lake has asking rents that average $3,500 a month, higher than the average of $2,180 for two-bedroom apartments in the city of Los Angeles, according to Apartment List. It may be a bigger shock that the building is fully leased, and just sold at a premium. 

A wealthy individual purchased that property, the Verona Villas at 10640 Woodbridge Street, last week. She spent $14.7 million, or $701,190 a unit to acquire the 21-unit, 36,400-square-foot Class A multifamily building, built in 2008. The seller was a partnership led by developer Frank Afari, who runs the L.A. firm AFCO Development, The Real Deal has learned.

Matt Ziegler of Marcus & Millichap represented the buyer, while Jeff Louks and Daniel Hirth of the same firm represented the sellers.

The buyer plans to hold onto the property, Ziegler said, and will continue to operate it as an apartment complex while attempting to get higher rents. She may sell the units individually as condos further down the road.

The per-unit price she paid was so high that it might be a record for the area, Ziegler said. However, he stressed, a major factor is that the apartments are huge. The complex is comprised of two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments that average 1,700 square feet and meet the requirements to be sold as condos.

“This property will always lead the market because it’s unique,” he said. “Some of the units are penthouse style. They are just so big.”

Even still, the building sold for roughly $405 a square foot, which is higher than the $370 median per-square-foot sale price for Toluca Lake in the past year, according to PropertyShark.