Clear Capital Buys Inland Empire Multifamily for $82M

Foothill Ridge, 232-unit garden apartment complex in Upland, CA has 97% occupancy.

Clear Capital has purchased Foothill Ridge, a 232-unit garden apartment complex in Upland, CA, for $82M, from Virtu Investments. 

Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, brokered the deal for the Inland Empire multifamily. According to Yardi Matrix data, the buyer financed the purchase with a $65.4M loan from Starwood Capital Group.

The unit price for the acquisition was approximately $353K.

The apartment complex, built in 1973, has 30 one- and two-story buildings on about a dozen acres. The Class B community includes one- and two-bedroom apartments averaging 748 SF. The property includes a resort-style pool and a fitness center. Virtu invested $3M in capital improvements in the past three years.

IPA cited the location of Foothill Ridge—just a few miles from the border of San Bernardino County and the LA city limits, in close proximity to Interstate 15 and the 210 Freeway—the demographics of the region and the strong demand for multifamily housing in the submarket as factors that made the acquisition attractive.

Rents in Upland increased 34% in 2021, with the average rent topping $2,000 for an 881K SF apartment, according to Marcus & Millichap. Rent growth has continued in 2022.

“In the last 12 months, rents have increased by 13.3% in Upland. The average occupancy (at Foothill Ridge) has been 97%,” said Chris Zorbas, part of the IPA team that brokered the deal, in a statement.

In May, the median rental price for a single-family home in Upland was $2,414 and the median sales price for a single-family home was $575,100, according to Housable’s June city housing update for Upland.

The existing inventory of housing units in Upland totals close to 30,000, with multifamily units accounting for about a third of the total, according to Housable. The average housing density in the area (measured in people per household) was 2.88, compared with a state average of 2.97.

Vacancies in the Upland housing market were less than 1% at the beginning of the year, Housable’s report said.

According to Yardi Matrix, 3,000 multifamily units have traded in the Inland Empire since the beginning of the year, with about a quarter of the units coming from Class B properties.

Clear Capital’s multifamily portfolio has grown to more than $900M assets under management in the Sun Belt and Mountain regions. The company’s website boasts of a 30% annual return on investment on properties sold.