Here are LA’s top multifamily trades of 2018

The top five multifamily sales of the year saw nearly 1,500 units trade hands. The top sale wasn’t in Downtown L.A., Santa Monica, or Hollywood — it was in Santa Clarita, just north of the San Fernando Valley.

A trio of San Fernando Valley assets appeared in the top five. MRK Partners bought two of them together, while LaSalle Investment Management picked up the other. A pair of student housing buildings also appeared on the list.

Stevenson Ranch, Santa Clarita ­— IMT Capital | $166.8M

IMT picked up this low-rise 510-unit complex in September for $327,450 per unit. The property, at 25399 The Old Road, was built in 1992 and has 722 parking spaces, a gym, tennis court, and volleyball court. The property is about 20 acres and located near the Vista Valencia Golf Course and a large shopping center. Goldman Sachs sold the property to IMT and had owned it since 2013 when it paid $123.7 million for the complex.

West 27th Place & Icon Plaza, Exposition Park — Greystar and Goldman Sachs | $162.5 million

In May, Greystar and Goldman Sachs picked up these two student housing complexes as part of a portfolio deal with American Campus Communities that included one other in the state of Georgia. Both cater to students at the University of Southern California. West 27th Place, at 27800 S. Figueroa, went for $96.3 million and Icon Plaza at 3584 S. Figueroa Street went for $66.3 million.

Triana at Warner Center, Woodland Hills — LaSalle Investment Management | $157M

The most expensive sale in the San Fernando Valley was this 362-unit complex at 6250 Canoga Boulevard in Woodland Hills near the Warner Center area. LaSalle is the investment wing of commercial brokerage JLL. The seller was PGIM, a subsidiary of Prudential Financial. The sale came out to around $433,700 per unit.

The property has all the usual trappings, including a swimming pool and gym, as well as a Morton’s Steakhouse restaurant on the ground floor. It last sold for $110.6 million a decade ago, shortly after it was built. It’s located in the center of the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan, which rezoned around 1,000 acres in what is now mostly a commercial area to allow more dense residential development and create a transit-oriented and pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.

Crescent Park at Playa Vista, Playa Vista | Clarion Partners | $117.5M

New York-based Clarion Partners paid around $593,400 per unit for this 198-unit, two-building complex in Silicon Beach. The seller was Connecticut development firm Crescent Park Corporation. It was the second-biggest sale of September. The complex has one- and two-bedroom units up to around 1,500 square feet.

Pioneer Gardens & Claremont Village, Santa Fe Springs and Claremont — MRK Partners | $108.6 million

MRK Partners, an affordable developer based in Century City, picked up these two apartment complexes together from KDF Communities. The 150-unit Claremont Village complex was sold for $53.7 million. The 141-unit Pioneer Gardens complex in Sante Fe Springs went for $55 million. Both are low-rise complexes dating from the early 1970s.

The top 5 Los Angeles multifamily sales in 2018