Kort & Scott buys Chelsea Santa Monica apartments from Century West

Sep 22, 2017
By: Hannah Miet, The Real Deal

Seller turned profit after demolishing former office building on site to build residences

Platinum Acquisitions, a subsidiary of Kort & Scott Financial Group, acquired the Chelsea Santa Monica, a 53-unit mixed-use building at 1318 Second Street, for $56.8 million earlier this month, RCA data shows.

The sellers, a joint venture partnership between Century West Partners and BlackRock Realty Advisors, banked roughly $1.1 million per unit in the transaction.

Greg Harris, Ron Harris, Green and Joseph Grabiec of Marcus & Millichap’s IPA group represented the seller.
Century West acquired the property, which was then an office building, for a mere $6 million in 2011. It demolished the office to build the Chelsea, completing the project in 2016.

The Downtown Santa Monica project is a block away from the 3rd Street Promenade. Tenants at Chelsea’s roughly 6,000 square feet of retail space include CaVa and HiHo Cheeseburgers.

Kort & Scott specializes in mobile home communities. Its subsidiary Platinum Acquisitions has acquired nearly $350 million in multifamily product over the last 18 months and plans to continue to acquire in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, a company representative said.

Platinum paid $20.5 million, or $402 per square foot, for a 56-unit apartment complex just outside Koreatown earlier this year. Century West, led by Steve Fifield and Michael Sorochinsky, has developed multifamily projects in Santa Monica, Downtown L.A. and Koreatown. Its Next on Lex project is under construction in Glendale.