A strip mall in Beverly Grove is set to be redeveloped into apartments.
Newport Beach-based The Abraham Companies and Oklahoma Rock Holdings bought a retail center on about two-thirds of an acre, with plans to build at least 100 apartment units, according to a release from Kidder Mathews, which represented the seller in the deal.
Local investor Farshad Samadi sold the property for $26 million, public records show, though Kidder Mathews did not name the seller or the price. An entity linked to Samadi bought the property for $1.7 million in 1995.
Records also show the buyer was linked to Oklahoma City-based private financial firm MidFirst Bank.
Located at the intersection of South San Vicente and La Cienega Boulevard, the site currently houses a 17,228-square-foot retail center — home to a Persian restaurant, a Thai restaurant and an Indian restaurant, as well as a nail salon and alterations shop. It sits two blocks from the Beverly Center and across the street from a Trader Joe’s grocery store.
The Abraham Companies, which has built more than 12,000 apartments across the U.S. and Mexico, will build a “luxury” apartment complex with ground-level retail and restaurant space. No plans have been filed yet with the city of Los Angeles.
Multifamily investment and development has picked up in recent months, spurred by California’s housing shortage and soaring prices of investment sales. Investment in the multifamily sector made up 42 percent of all commercial investment across the U.S. in 2021, up from 36 percent in 2020, according to CBRE.
Around 32,400 multifamily units were under construction across Los Angeles in the first quarter of 2022 — a 5.6 percent increase compared to the first quarter of last year, according to a report from Kidder Mathews. Apartment vacancy rates dropped to 3.3 percent in the first quarter, from 5.4 percent the same period last year.