Wood Partners Slates Ground Breaking of Rare Apartment Development in LA
Los Angeles developer Wood Partners is moving ahead with the type of construction project that has virtually disappeared in the past few years – a luxury apartment community.
General contractor WP West Builders LP, Los Angeles, will break ground on the $75-million Warner Park project in Warner Center during the week of Aug. 15. Construction time is estimated at 22 months with the first units to be available in early 2013.
The designer of the project is Architects Orange, Orange.
The four-acre site sits adjacent to Warner Center, a thriving mixed-use hub that is home to more than 50,000 jobs and millions of square feet of high-quality retail property, according to Wood Partners. It lies 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles, 20 miles east of Burbank and 16 miles from the biotech, high-tech, healthcare and insurance employment opportunities along the Route 101 corridor.
The 298-unit complex, evenly divided between one- and two-bedroom units, is located at 6701 & 6703 Eton Avenue in the Warner Center section of Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley. The property is six miles west of I-405 and the Van Nuys airport and two miles north of the Ventura (101) Freeway which provides direct access to Ventura and Santa Barbara to the west and north and downtown Los Angeles to the southeast.
Wood Partners said that after a strong period of build out in 2007, 2008 and 2009, there has been very little new apartment inventory released in the market and that will continue through next year. Based on projects in the pipeline, that trend will reverse beginning in 2013, according to the developer.
The Los Angeles apartment market has consistently outperformed the nation. From 1999-2007, Los Angeles posted an average occupancy of 96% and average rent growth greater than 6%. After bottoming out at 92% in the fourth quarter of 2008, the overall market has rebounded to just under 95%, with the San Fernando Valley submarket above 95%. Rents have stabilized and are expected to increase 5.8% in 2011 and 6.6% in 2012, according to Axiometrics, an apartment market research firm.
