Co-Living Operator Ollie Enters California Market

Co-living company Ollie has entered the California market. Located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of North Hollywood, Ollie at Noho has five units with 31 co-living bedrooms, all fully furnished and outfitted with everything from Wi-Fi to toiletries.

“We have been looking to enter the California market and Los Angeles specifically for the last three years. We have been spending our time trying to find the right partner, and marrying those things together takes the right partner and it takes opportunity,” Gregg Christiansen, president at Ollie, tells GlobeSt.com.

Ollie partnered with AVO Capital Partners and Six Peak Capital to bring this property to the market. They presented the opportunity in North Hollywood, and it was a perfect fit for Ollie’s co-living model. “The population of people that live in North Hollywood are really the demographic that we target. Our typical renter is 25 to 35 year-old that makes $50,000 to $100,000 per year. That market in particular caters to that demographic,” adds Christiansen.

Due to the pandemic and economic dislocation, many real estate owners are re-thinking pre-pandemic strategies, but Christiansen says that there is no reason to make any adjustments to the co-living investment model. In fact, the pandemic will likely amplify affordable housing challenges that made co-living viable in the first place. “Co-living was generated and created out of the need for more affordable housing that was code compliant, renter-friendly and capital market friendly,” says Christiansen. From a demand perspective, we have seen that community is needed and people do appreciate the fact that they are able to connect to people, even during shelter-in-place. If you get into large high-rise buildings, I think co-living still makes sense because you can build two-to-three bedroom co-living suites.”

In addition to adjusting in-unit cleaning teams and increasing access to cleaning products for residents, Ollie says the biggest changes will come from the regulatory environment, but even those won’t hamper demand. “I think that the product itself hasn’t taken a hit. I think the hit will come from governments and local authorities deciding that densification isn’t something that they want to do in light of COVID,” says Christiansen. “I think that just forces people to go back to what they were doing before, which is Craigslist and other markets. The need for co-living is still going to be there.”

Ollie launched the leasing website last week and plans to open the property doors later this year. “We have had a lot of inquiries,” says Christiansen. “We are starting to roll out our marketing campaign now, and so those numbers are going to continue to increase. Getting the lead bank built up in important. We are focused on getting that done, and I think we will have a very successful project here.”