Prime Residential pays $275M for Equity Residential rental portfolio

450 units in Hermosa Beach gives firm nearly 25% of all apartments in city

Prime Group CEO John Atwater with Playa Pacifica and The Gallery (Brown, Marcus and Millichap)
Prime Group CEO John Atwater with Playa Pacifica and The Gallery (Brown, Marcus and Millichap)

With the purchase of a 450-unit apartment portfolio in Hermosa Beach, Prime Residential now owns almost 25 percent of all rentals in the South Bay city.

The company — a Prime Group subsidiary — acquired the 285-unit Playa Pacifica for $162.5 million and the 169-unit The Gallery Apartments for $112.5 million. Marcus & Millichap brokered the deal and announced the transaction. Prime Group’s founder and CEO is John Atwater.

Equity Residential was the seller. It bought the neighboring complexes — Playa Pacifica at 415 Herondo Street and The Gallery at 414 2nd Street — for $133 million combined in 2006. Both complexes were built in the 1970s and have undergone partial renovations. The properties consist of studio through, two-bedroom units, with various community amenities.

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Last month, Equity Residential said it had offloaded some of its “older, less desirable or regulatorily challenged assets” in California to fund acquisitions in Austin and Atlanta, as well as other markets. It acquired seven rental properties totaling 1,900 units for $645.7 million in the second quarter.

Prime owns a number of multifamily properties in Los Angeles, including Park La Brea — California’s largest apartment complex with 4,245 units. The firm will operate the two Hermosa Beach complexes as a single entity.