Demmon Partners Sells California Multi-Family Community for $48M

February 22, 2012
By Nicholas Ziegler, News Editor

FPA Multifamily L.L.C. has picked up Meridian at Stanford Ranch, a 452-unit multi-family community in Rocklin, Calif., for $48.3 million from Demmon Partners. Institutional Property Advisors, a multi-family brokerage division of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services Inc., represented both buyer and seller.

The community, located 20 minutes northeast of Sacramento and 100 miles from San Francisco, sits on a master-planned 3,500-acre lot. The sale price equates to $106,969 per unit, or $120 per square foot. FPA acquired the asset on behalf of its Apartment Opportunity Fund III, which aims to purchase $900 million of multi-family properties in the Western United States. Meridian has seen significant expansion throughout the years; it was constructed in 2000 on just 28 acres.

Meridian’s location is ideal for investors looking to find purchases outside of the core urban areas. “Sophisticated private buyers and select institutions are actively seeking opportunities in the Sacramento MSA where investment yields are more favorable than the core markets of the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California,” Stan Jones, an executive vice president of investments with IPA, said.

According to internal research by Marcus & Millichap, the Sacramento multi-family market is somewhat unsteady, but could have significant upside for investors. Government cuts have created uncertainty in the employment markets, but no new apartment supply slated to come online in 2012, vacancy rates are expected to decrease.

“Private investors will maintain the increase in transaction activity that started in 2010,” the report noted, “mainly due to the affordability of REO assets with potential upside.”

Phil Saglimbeni, a vice president of investments with IPA, noted the transaction was completed “subject to the assumption of an existing life insurance company loan.”