While many commercial redevelopers are turning their attention to office- and hotel-to-multifamily conversions, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Grubb Properties has its sights set on repositioning retail sites for new apartment development.
The developer plans to tear down three retail buildings in Southern California and redevelop the sites into a total of 375 new units under its Link Apartments brand. It acquired $20 million in debt financing, provided by Beverly Hills, California-based finance and investment company Bolour, to support the redevelopment.
The upcoming sites, all located in Los Angeles, include:
- 700 Santa Monica Boulevard, a 10,500-square-foot strip mall near the Santa Monica State Beach and Pier. Previous tenants, now vacated, included a tailor, a print shop, a photographer, a guitar shop and a Tibetan goods shop. The property is set to become the 99-unit Link Apartments Santa Monica.
- 1200 Vine St., a 27,000-square-foot retail center in the middle of Hollywood, formerly a Dollar Tree. The property will be redeveloped into the 151-unit Link Apartments Vine.
- 5240 Lankershim Blvd., a 30,900-square-foot strip mall property in North Hollywood set to become the 128-unit Link Apartments NoHo. Current tenants include the Laemmle NoHo 7 movie theater and a Chipotle restaurant.
Grubb’s Link Apartments brand is designed to provide moderately priced apartments with high-end finishes in urban locations, according to the developer’s website.
The company has a total of 16 Link Apartments properties across the country and is in the process of expanding westward from its base on the East Coast, according to the developer’s website. The Los Angeles retail redevelopment will join a pipeline of upcoming apartments in California and Colorado, the first of which — Link Apartments Four12 in Oakland, California — is set to open soon.
“Bolour [carefully evaluated] Grubb Properties’ strategies for these sites, including both maintaining the current retail properties on an interim basis and later redeveloping them as multifamily housing,” said Bolour CEO Mark Bolour. “The debt solution we structured provides flexibility to support Grubb’s business plan that will bring hundreds of much-needed new apartments to the supply-constrained Los Angeles market.”
