Equity Residential, one of the biggest publicly traded real estate owners in the U.S. and L.A.’s largest landlord, sold Regency Palms, a 310-unit Huntington Beach multifamily property, after owning it for 28 years, according to an announcement on Jan. 17 and property records.
The Mogharebi Group served as a broker and announced the deal, but declined to name either the buyer or the seller, merely stating an institutional owner sold to a “private Orange County buyer.” Records show the buyer was Regency Palms LP.
Alan Bernard Dauger is listed as the agent on Regency Palms LP, according to California Secretary of State records from November.
Dauger is the co-founder of A&M Properties, a Huntington Beach-based real estate management company, according to the Apartment Association of Orange County’s website. Dauger did not return a request for comment.
Regency Palms LP scored a $68.7 million loan from mortgage firm Bellwether Enterprise, or BWE, loan documents show.
Equity Residential purchased the property back in March 1996 for $4.25 million, according to property documents accessed through PropertyShark.
The two-story residential building, located at 6762 Warner Avenue, includes one and two-bedroom apartments.
“Transactions such as these can be the early signs of a stabilizing market, and an indication of the long-term demand for Southern California assets,” said Bryan LaBar, a broker at The Mogharebi Group.
While it is one of the larger transactions over the past 12 months, it’s far from the biggest. Last month, Advanced Real Estate paid $234 million to buy a 714-unit apartment complex in Costa Mesa, CA.
And the value of the deal places the price per unit at $409,677, which falls below the benchmark set for multifamily pricing in Orange County set by MG Properties’ purchase of The Herald in Placentia. That complex sold for $605,000 per unit in May 2022, when interest rates were lower, prompting more sales.
Last fall, Equity Residential also put up for sale its 280-unit Summerset Village property in Chatsworth that it owned for 25 years.