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WEST COVINA, CA-The Los Angeles-based KOR Group plans a repositioning play after acquiring a 182-unit apartment complex here for $30 million, according to Sperry Van Ness. The L.A. investment and development firm's new asset is the Sunset Plaza apartment complex at 1234 W. Cameron Ave., which KOR acquired from Interstate Equity Corp. of Los Altos.

The sale was brokered by Kitty Wallace and Debby Emrani of the West Los Angeles office of Sperry Van Ness, with Wallace representing both the buyer and the seller and with Emrani also representing the seller. Wallace reports that the complex drew many competing offers and that the buyer assumed in-place financing.

The KOR Group plans to reposition the property through interior and exterior renovations, Wallace says, noting that the upgrades will continue a renovation program that was in place under the previous owner. Approximately 23 units have recently undergone luxury upgrades that included hardwood flooring, granite countertops, crown molding, new kitchens and new bathrooms.

The KOR Group will continue renovating the remaining 159 mid-range and basic units with similar luxury upgrades. The property includes three studio units, 75 one-bedroom units, 92 two-bedrooms and 12 three-bedroom apartments, with monthly rents ranging from $750 to $1,813.

Common area amenities at the Sunset Plaza property include a fitness center, four laundry facilities, two swimming pools, five landscaped courtyards and gated parking. The complex is blocks from Westfield Shoppingtown and the Interstate 10 Freeway.

Built in 1962, the low-density, five-building garden-style complex is situated on six acres and was 91.7% occupied at the close of escrow. It is one of a number of low-density apartment complexes in West Covina, where properties built in the 1960s often featured considerably lower densities than those built today.

Earlier this year, for example, an 85-unit apartment complex called South Hills in West Covina sold for $20.7 million, a price that it achieved in part because of its rank as one of the lowest-density complexes in the area at 16 units per acre. Other West Covina multifamily properties that have traded recently include the 250-unit Torrey Pines Apartments, which was built in 1981 and sold for $53 million.