Standard Communities and Faring have closed on a $130 million deal to buy a 349-unit apartment complex on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County as part of the developers’ joint venture to add “missing middle” housing throughout California.
The deal was confirmed by Chris Cruz, Standard Communities’ Managing Director of the joint venture, called Standard-Faring Essential Housing.
The complex, called Monterey Station, is located at 180 E. Monterey Avenue in Downtown Pomona. The seller was Clear Capital, a multifamily investment company.
The four-story building went up in 2014 and was purchased by Clear Capital in 2017, according to that firm’s website.
Apartments in the complex range from studios to two bedrooms, according to a listing site, and currently command market rates: One 384-square-foot studio is currently leasing for $1,790, and a 956-square-foot two-bed is available for $2,173.
The complex, marketed as “ideal for anyone craving a stylish street-smart living experience in a modern and urban apartment community,” also has a “resort-inspired” pool and outdoor space with a barbecue area.
Century City-based Standard Communities plans to convert them into more affordable, middle-income units. So-called workforce units are intended to be affordable to renters who earn between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income – generally working people who don’t qualify for subsidized housing but who are nevertheless priced out of market-rate rentals in highly expensive areas such as L.A. County and the San Francisco Bay Area.
A recent wave of conversions of existing apartment complexes to workforce housing involve new owners who agree to charge less than market rate in exchange for financing from bonds issued through the California Statewide Communities Development Authority (CSDCA), a state-created joint powers agency.
The Pomona acquisition is also part of Standard’s much grander middle-income housing vision. Earlier this year, the developer announced it was scaling up its joint venture with West Hollywood-based Faring and aiming to add at least 4,000 new middle-income housing units in California within two years. The $2 billion initiative ranks as a major bet on the state’s housing market, and is also part of a public-private partnership with the California Statewide Communities Development Authority (CSDCA), a state-created joint powers agency that helps municipalities finance projects with a public benefit.
“This is a statewide problem that we’re only starting to scratch the surface of,” Cruz said following that announcement, referring to California’s middle-income housing shortage. “Our goal is 4,000 in the immediate to near-term, but over the next few years we want to do 10 times that.”
Another developer, Waterford Property Company, recently announced a different workforce housing deal in Pomona, paying $194 million for a 472-unit complex.
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