DOWNEY, CA-The 1031 exchange buyer of a 74-unit apartment complex here has doubled the number of units he owns and also stands to create upside in the property through rental increases, according to first vice president Steve Heri of the CBRE Private Client Group in Anaheim. The 74-unit property on Stewart and Gray Road sold for $10.25 million in a transaction that was brokered by Heri and two other members of the CBRE Private Client Group.

The apartment complex, called Downey Court, "represented an excellent opportunity for our investor to leverage his 1031 taxdeferred exchange dollars into a well located apartment building with rental upside," Heri says. Heri notes that the buyer also was able to arrange 75% financing for the acquisition.

The buyer, a local private investor, was seeking a multifamily investment in one of the strongest submarkets in Southern Los Angeles County, Heri says. The buyer will be implementing a programdesigned to create additional value to his return by moving rents to market rate.

With a 97% occupancy rate in the Downey multifamily submarket the buyer should encounter very little resistance with his rental increases, says Dominique Kehayias, an associate withCB Richard Ellis. Heri, Kehayias and Peter Gillin of the CBRE Private Client Group represented the buyer. The seller was represented by Doug Roderman and Jay Skendarian of Morgan Skendarian.