Laramar Group Makes Major L.A. Investment

LOS ANGELES—The Laramar Group has added eight multifamily properties to its Los Angeles portfolio, The properties range in size from 16 to 54 units, and include the company's fist mixed-use acquisition in the Los Angeles area. Over the next 12 months, the company plans to double its Los Angeles portfolio, illustrating its bullishness on the market.

“Los Angeles presents all of the key metrics that we look at on an investment front,” Matthew Levy, VP of acquisitions at the Laramar Group, tells GlobeSt.com. “Los Angeles is a collection of great neighborhoods that are not just really one city, and to have the opportunity to make investments across varying and diverse neighborhoods is exciting. These are precisely the types of neighborhoods that we are not only targeting here in Los Angeles, but nationally. The fact that we can target multiple neighborhoods in one city makes Los Angeles, in our eyes, a city where there is a long runway to continue to invest.

The acquisitions include the Towers on Western, Laramar's first mixed-use acquisition in the L.A. market, although certainly not its first mixed-use property nationally. The property has 54 apartment units and 11,000-square-feet of retail space. Located in Koreatown near another Laramar property, it is also located between two job centers, Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles, and has access to a metro line. “It is fitting for us to target mixed-use buildings,” says Levy. “To have the retail component, which we will reposition in the same manner we will reposition our apartment units, just speaks to the location that we are in. The Towers on Western is in close proximity to Laramar's other holdings, and it certainly makes sense for us to progress into that realm of urban retail.”

The eight properties are located in markets throughout Los Angeles, including the area around USC, another first for the investor. In keeping with Laramar's business strategy, all of the properties have a value-add component. According to Levy, the renovations and repositioning will vary greatly between units. “Each of these buildings are all in a varying degree of condition and size,” he says. “We are looking to have a post-renovated unit that is competitive with the modern amenities that a resident would expect to find in a class-A building, but in a smaller urban building where rents are at a significant discount to new construction.” He did not disclose the amount of capital the company plans to invest into each unit because it varies so much between properties.