Essex Property Trust Snaps Up South Bay Apartment Complexes

Essex Property Trust has picked up two new apartment complexes in separate deals in Campbell for a combined $240.5 million.

The San Mateo-based real estate investment trust bought the 252-unit Parc at Pruneyard at 215 Union Avenue and the 168-unit Revere Campbell at 1725 South Bascom Avenue, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

San Francisco-based Ellis Partners and New York-based Fortress Investment Group sold the Parc for $122.5 million, or $486,111 per unit.

Essex paid an undisclosed seller $118 million, or $702,380 per unit, for the Revere Campbell.

The sales prices could be a sign pointing toward rising property values in the area.

County estimates in January last year valued the Parc at Pruneyard at $107.3 million and Revere Campbell at $106.6 million, making purchase prices 14.2 percent and 10.7 percent above assessed value, respectively.

Essex has been on a buying spree across the Peninsula.

In January, the company purchased the 307-unit Plaza luxury complex in Foster City from Northwestern Mutual Life for $161.4 million. It also grabbed the 166-unit One Hundred Grand property just around the corner in Foster City for $105.3 million as well as the 146-unit Elan Menlo Park — since renamed ROEN Menlo Park — for $78.8 million.

At the same time, the REIT has been offloading properties in Southern California as part of a reallocation of resources toward NorCal.

This included the sale of the 350-unit Essex Skyline in Santa Ana to Miami’s Crescent Heights for $240 million and the 255-unit Highridge in Rancho Palos Verdes to Irvine-based The Bascom Group for $127 million, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Essex, founded by George Marcus in 1971, had $13 billion in assets under management at the end of last year, according to a regulatory filing. Last quarter it bought $345 million in properties across Northern California, financed via SoCal sales.

— Chris Malone Méndez