Pomona Multifamily Property Sells for $130 Million

By Hannah Madans Welk

​A large multifamily property in Pomona has sold for $130 million.

Century City-based Standard Communities, the housing division of Standard Cos., and West Hollywood-based Faring Property Group purchased the property from Clear Capital.

The 349-unit apartment complex, known as Monterey Station, is located at 120-180 E. Monterey Ave.

CBRE Group Inc.’s Dean Zander and Stewart Weston represented the seller in the transaction.

The property has 14 different floor plans and has a resort-style pool and spa, a fitness center, a dog run and a clubhouse for residents. It also has 38 live-work units, which CBRE said worked well for work-from-home or hybrid workers.

The brokerage added that there have been only 27 multifamily communities of 100 units or more added to the San Gabriel Valley since 2007, making properties like this rare.

“Due to the size, age, location and scale of Monterey Station, we received a tremendous amount of interest from private capital, institutional investors and funds,” Zander said in a statement. “The best execution, however, was offered by Standard/Faring, which purchased the property under their highly successful ‘missing middle’ bond program, ensuring workforce housing will remain in Pomona for many years.”

The so-called missing middle refers to residents who earn too much money to qualify for affordable housing but too little to afford market-rate units.

A large number of sales of properties with more than 100 units this year have been part of the bond program. The program, which began last year, uses tax-exempt bond financing to acquire multifamily properties which are then converted to middle-income housing.

“This was a unique opportunity for Standard/Faring to make a difference in the affordable housing space. They executed flawlessly,” Weston said in a statement.

Some of the other large sales using the bond program this year include the 507-unit Altana Apartments, in Glendale, which Waterford Property Co. and California Statewide Communities Development Authority purchased for $300 million; Residences at Westgate in Pasadena, which the two purchased from Equity Residential for $237 million; and the 357-unit Union South Bay in Carson, which sold for $220 million.

Faring and Standard have been very committed to middle-income housing. Earlier this year, Faring and Standard Communities announced a $2 billion joint venture to build housing across California for the missing middle. The companies, through their joint venture known as Standard-Faring Essential Housing, have around $500 million in active deals and have announced plans to build units in the next 18 to 24 months. They have already created more than 650 units of middle-income housing in Southern California.