Distressed Land Site Trades Hands

LONG BEACH, CA—Urban Pacific Multi-Housing has purchased a 15,000-square-foot land parcel in Downtown Long Beach from a failed condo project. According to Urban Pacific, this site was the last remaining distressed asset in the downtown market. The developer plans to build a 30-unit, transit-oriented multifamily development on the site.

The site was severely distressed and only 30% complete when the back pulled funding in 2008. Because this is a smaller parcel of land, it has gotten little attention from investors since the recession ended. “Our site, being partially built, need a much more creative hand,” Scott Choppin, founder and managing partner of Urban Pacific Multi-Housing, tells GlobeSt.com. “The original project was a 10-unit condo project with podium parking. We re-entitled the site for 30 apartment units, while keeping the ability to reuse the existing improvements for our new project. We did this predominately through use of the stacked mechanical parking lifts, which allowed us to increase the density of parking within the same original garage footprint.”