UPDATED, Jan. 22, 3:36 p.m.: A Chinese developer has paid big money for an El Monte apartment complex located close to a major industrial zone.
Uhon, Inc., a private equity firm tied to Chinese home builder Shenzhen Yuhong, paid Benedict Canyon Equities $40.5 million for the 177-unit property at 4608–4640 Arden Way, records show. The property, which is marketed as “The Parker,” is a complex of three single-story, garden-style apartments.
The asset is one of the only multifamily properties of its size in the area.
The buildings look out onto the development site for the Goodman Logistics Center, the Goodman Group‘s planned 1.2 million square-foot industrial park on Shirley Avenue that is slated for delivery in September 2019.
Jeffrey Tea, who leads Uhon’s acquisitions team, said he expects the property will “continue to be a stable cash-flowing asset” given the shortage of multifamily housing in the San Gabriel Valley.
The Goodman site is part of the larger Northwest Industrial District—a 400-acre light manufacturing zone that a 2008 city report described as suffering “from groundwater pollution, aging infrastructure, irregular parcels, and obsolete buildings,” The report also noted the district “could develop into the industrial engine for the subregion.”
The property is a five-minute drive away from the site of Wal-Mart’s failed bid to build a new Supercenter at the corner of Arden Way and Valley Boulevard.
The El Monte City Council killed the project last year after environmental groups successfully sued to block it, according to Gideon Kracov, a land-use attorney familiar with the case.
CBRE’s Dean Zander, Stewart Weston, and John Montakab marketed the property for Benedict Canyon. The seller confirmed the sale but declined to comment further.