$68.4 Million Fairfax Sale Tops LA’s Multifamily Charts

Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Seminole Real Estate Fund notched the No. 1 spot on the priciest multifamily sales list in the City of Los Angeles for the first three quarters of the year with a buy in the Miracle Mile area, according to Los Angeles County tax assessor data.

Jonathan Levy’s investment firm, which has ties to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, picked up the five-story Vinz on Fairfax, at 950 South Fairfax Avenue, for around $68.4 million on Feb. 11. The building is at the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard, just south of a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard known as Museum Row for the cluster of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Peterson Automotive Museum and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

This is the latest installment in a feature providing a weekly update on top sales by market segment, based on TRD Data for given periods. You can see the top 10 multifamily sales in L.A. by clicking here.

The seller of the property on Fairfax was Scottsdale, Arizona-based Alliance Residential, led by CEO V. Jay Hiemenz. It completed the five-story property in 2018, with $68.8 million in construction costs on top of the value of the land — which appears to point to a loss on the sale.

Vinz on Fairfax has 144 studio, one- and two-bedrooms unit apartments, putting the sale price at roughly $475,000 per unit. The building totals 120,381 square feet, per LoopNet, with 4,100 square feet of street-level commercial space..

Rents on studios start at $2,620 per month; a one-bedroom starts at $3,333 a month; and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit starts at $3,932, per listings for available units on the property’s website. Building amenities include a swimming pool, a fitness center and covered parking.

This sale marked Seminole Real Estate Fund’s first California buy. Financing included a $36.5 million loan from Northwestern Mutual, The Real Deal reported.

The Seminole Tribe established the fund in 2020 with a focus on multifamily investments. It owns 12 additional properties scattered across the country, from Issaquah, Washington, to Washington, D.C.The second- and fourth-priciest multifamily transactions in the first nine months of the year comprise a two-building student housing portfolio near the University of Southern California, which sold for $100 million. Landmark Properties along with investment firm Stockbridge acquired Icon Plaza at 3584 South Figueroa Street for $51.5 million and West 27th Place at 530 West 27th Street for $48.5 million, according to a press release from Landmark Properties.