Walnut Creek, Concord Apartments Sell for Discounted Prices

Two apartment complexes in the East Bay have traded hands in recent weeks at discounts from their previous values, the latest entries on an up-and-down scorecard for the year so far.

The Atrium Downtown apartments in Walnut Creek sold to a Fresno-based group led by Siegfried Fischer, CEO of the Valley Yellow Pages, for $31 million, the Mercury News reported. Walnut Creek-based Sequoia Equities offloaded the 78-unit property at 1812 Trinity Avenue in a deal that works out to $397,400 per unit and places the sale price at 3.4 percent less than the complex’s most recently assessed value of $32.1 million.

Abacus Capital Group affiliate paid $98.3 million for the 259-unit Park Central Apartments at 1555 Galindo Street in Concord. That sale, equating to a per-unit price of $379,500, pinned the property’s value at 24.7 percent lower than its assessed value of $130.5 million, per the Mercury News.

The two deals are the latest in a trend that started in January, when the Martin Group bought a 224-unit property at 1889 Harrison Street in downtown Oakland for $61 million, or about half of its assessed value. In December, Three Steps Properties snapped up the 254-unit apartment building at 447 17th Street for $99 million, marking a 53 percent drop from its assessed value.

In March, Artemis Real Estate Partners bought Berkeley Central at 2055 Center Street in Berkeley from Los Angeles-based developer CityView for $55 million. And last month,

Oakland-based real estate investor Lakeside Group dropped $97.5 million for the 23-story Grand apartment building at 100 Grand Avenue in downtown Oakland.

The multifamily market in Contra Costa County, home to Walnut Creek and Concord, has seen highs and lows over the past two years.

In 2023, the 135-unit NoMa Apartments at 1910 North Main Street in Walnut Creek was seized through a foreclosure of a delinquent loan. By contrast, last year, Hines paid $57 million for the 90-unit The Rise complex at 1380 North California Boulevard in downtown Walnut Creek, working out to $587,600 per unit, estimated to be on the higher end of per-unit prices. In recent weeks, however, deals in Contra Costa County signal weaker per-unit prices than a year ago, according to the Mercury News. — Chris Malone Méndez