Hovnanian Markets Prado as Condominiums

PASADENA, CA–New Jersey-based Hovnanian Enterprises has acquired the newly completed 103-unit Prado on Lake Avenue luxury apartment development from the Hanover Co. of Houston and is marketing the property as a condominium building.Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Hovnanian likely paid well into the tens of millions of dollars for the building, based on the asking prices of approximately $530,000 to more than $1.3 million for the condominiums.Hovnanian bought the development, which is at South Lake Avenue and East Green Street, for an undisclosed sum in a deal that was brokered by Marc Renard, Marisa Bradanini and Manfred Schaub of the Downtown Los Angeles office of Cushman & Wakefield.The condo units average 1,228 sf, and the development features more than 30 floor plans. The units range from one-bedroom, one-bath flats to two-bedroom, two-bath-plus townhome-style condos.Amenities include a resort-style pool, a fitness center, a screening room with stadium seating, an Internet cafe, a demonstration kitchen and a business center with dedicated conference rooms.The Prado on Lake Avenue is one of a number of housing developments completed in or near Downtown Pasadena in recent years, a trend that Mayor Bill Bogaard discussed recently in his state-of-the-city speech. "For many Pasadenans, the most dramatic local experience this decade has been the amount of development in the Central Business District, including office buildings, the Paseo Colorado and the large number of multi-family residential units," Bogaard said.The city has encouraged such projects, Bogaard said, because they concentrate new housing in the Downtown area, near transit and above retail stores and restaurants and away from existing residential neighborhoods that Pasadena wants to preserve.Hanover developed the Prado on Lake Avenue project with MetLife and completed construction in November. The Houston-based company is also building 717 Olympic, a 28-story tower adjacent to Los Angeles' StaplesCenter.