Developer applies Q brand to Playa Vista apartments

A local developer has rebranded a 376-unit apartment complex in Playa Vista, with planned luxuries to include a Tesla with driver.

California Home Builders, based in Canoga Park, bought the Modera West LA at 5901 Center Drive for $231 million last month. The seller was Mill Creek Residential, based in Boca Raton, Florida. The price worked out at $614,362 per unit.

Now the developer, known for its Q-branded multifamily developments in Woodland Hills, has removed the Modera West sign and replaced it with the Q Playa shingle, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

California Home Builders also launched a revamp of the three-year-old complex with features common to its luxe Q line.

They include a 24/7 concierge, complimentary valet parking, a Tesla with a driver, branded bicycles, a resort-style pool with cabanas, fitness and yoga facilities with classes and pet spas with in-house groomers.

The new owner also plans to upgrade furnishings, installing new landscaping, redesigning the interiors, painting the complex in new shades and adding EV charging stations. There’s even a new Q app, plus happy hours for more than 100 tenants.

The renovation is expected to take from eight to 12 months. The cost was not disclosed.

Rents at the Q Playa range from $2,665 to $6,358 a month.

The apartment buy is a departure from the San Fernando Valley developer’s usual business model.

“Typically, we build our properties,” Shawn Evenhaim, the company’s founder and president, told the Business Journal. “We wanted to expand the brand on the Westside and (acquiring a property) was the quickest way to do it. It had everything we wanted that we could take and transform into a Q property.”

There are five Q complexes either open or in the works in the West San Fernando Valley, each named for their respective streets. California Home Builders, founded in 1994, pivoted to building mixed-use, multi-family communities in 2016.

The first Q complexes opened at Warner Center in Woodland Hills, where the 245-unit Q Variel has been leasing for two years and the 347-unit Q Topanga began renting 10 months ago.

A 376-unit Q De Soto will open nearby in the middle of 2025. A 260-unit Q Erwin will break ground next year, while a 210-unit Q Califa will begin construction in 2025.

The Q brand was inspired by “quality” and “unique,” Evenhaim said. “The ‘q’ letter was so dominating. Usually when you have the letter ‘q’ you have the letter ‘u’ after it. To us, (the ‘u’) is the tenant.”

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

Los Angeles

California Home Builders pays $231M for Playa Vista complex

Los Angeles

California Home Builders wants to build a third major project in Warner Center