Grubb, PCCP Buy Hollywood Apartments for $98 Million

An apartment building with ground-floor retail on Hollywood Boulevard has some new owners.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Grubb Properties and Los Angeles-based PCCP have acquired a 280-unit apartment building at 5550 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood for $98.4 million, The Los Angeles Times reported. The sale from Vanbarton Group works out to $351,000 per unit. Walton Street Capital originated the loan to Grubb and PCCP.

New York-based Vanbarton Group bought the property, named Fifty Five Fifty, from Los Angeles-based Wood Partners in 2018 for $148 million, or about $528,000 per unit.

The seven-story building has 280 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 739 square feet. Amenities include a fitness center and yoga studio, a resort-style pool, two outdoor courtyards, a resident lounge and coworking spaces, as well as parking for 437 vehicles. Inside each unit, residents have washers and dryers, stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops and large windows with downtown views.

The 2018-built property also has 12,022 square feet of ground-floor retail.

“The Fifty Five Fifty Apartments is a high-quality property that addresses the unmet demand for well-designed, well-located, amenity-rich apartments offering exceptional values for renters in the middle of the income spectrum,” Clay Grubb, CEO of Grubb Properties, said in a statement. “The acquisition is an excellent buying opportunity to realize significant upside that required the expertise of talented internal and third-party teams.”

Grubb’s acquisition marks the North Carolina-based firm’s first takeover of an existing property in the L.A. market, though it has built communities before. Other Grubb developments in the works in L.A. include 151 units at 1200 Vine Street in Hollywood; 70 units at 1353 Western Avenue in Hollywood; 77 units at 950 South Berendo Street in Koreatown; 242 units at 1000 South Vermont Avenue in Pico-Union; 128 units at 5240 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood; and 60 units at 700 Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica.

— Chris Malone Méndez