LOS ANGELES-The winning buyer submitted a bid of nearly $3 million over list price in what Sperry Van Ness describes as a "fever" of bidding for an 812-unit seniors housing portfolio that ultimately sold for $70.77 million. Brent Sprenkle of the Los Angeles office of Sperry Van Ness tells GlobeSt.com that the portfolio of eight properties in the Los Angeles area attracted bidders from throughout the US and internationally, ranging from small private investors to some of the largest institutional investors.

Sprenkle was part of a Sperry Van Ness team including Jereme Snyder of the firm's Irvine office as well as Geoff Tranchina and Tim Steuernol from the Los Angeles office who represented the seller, Encino-based Urbatec. The Sperry team also represented the buyer, a Los Angeles-based private investor.

The properties were developed by the seller and were built primarily in the 1970s, with the portfolio approximately 95% occupied at the time of the sale. Sprenkle points out that the deal closed with "zero contingencies" after a bidding period in which "The demand was much greater than we anticipated."

"The fever to purchase these properties was something we haven't seen before," Sprenkle says. He says investors and brokers called from Korea, Taiwan, Australia and other countries, with prospective buyers flying in from the Pacific Northwest, Northern California and other places in the US.

The intense bidding illustrates that "This type of senior housing is in very high demand" because investors have a very high level of confidence in Southern California and feel that the rental market will continue to grow, Sprenkle adds. He says that bidders ranged from small investors who wanted to buy just one or two properties to large institutional investors who wanted the entire portfolio.

The properties included the 110-unit Drake Manor at 200 Drake St. in Pomona; the 107-unit Regent Plaza at 201 W. Regent St. and the 199-unit Inglewood Meadows at 1 S. Locust St., both in Inglewood; the 89-unit Leffingwell Manor at 11410 Santa Gertrudes Ave. in Whittier; the 78-unit Cherrylee Garden Apartments at 11620 Cherrylee Dr. in El Monte; the 75-unit Casa Lucerna at 1025 S. Kern Ave. in Los Angeles; the 64-unit Arrow Plaza at 20644 E. Arrow Highway and the 90-unit Covina Gardens at 200-204 W. Rowland St., both in Covina.