Century City-based Standard Communities, the housing division of Standard Cos., West Hollywood-based Faring Property Group, California Statewide Communities Development Authority and the city of West Hollywood have acquired a multifamily property to be converted to middle-income housing for roughly $100 million.
“West Hollywood has some of the highest costs of living in L.A. County, with single-family homes averaging over a million dollars,” Jeffrey Jaeger, principal and co-founder of Standard Communities, said in a statement. “We are proud to partner with Faring, the CSCDA and the city of West Hollywood to create more housing opportunities for essential workers and middle-income families.”
The property, known as The Crescent at West Hollywood Apartments, has 130 apartments, including one- and two-bedroom units. It is located at 1274 N. Crescent Heights Blvd., a couple of blocks south of Sunset Boulevard. Built in 1985, the property’s amenities include a pool, spa, fitness center and a movie screening room.
“We are excited to partner with the city of West Hollywood to help bring this workforce housing project to life,” Chris Cruz, managing director of Essential Housing at Standard Communities, said in a statement. “With approximately $6 million in planned capital expenditures for renovations, this property is well positioned to address the city’s ‘missing middle’ housing needs for decades to come.”
“Missing middle” refers to people making too much money to qualify for low-income housing but not enough to afford luxury units.
“It is rare for a property of this scale to trade in the West Hollywood market, and when a sale does occur, rents usually go up,” Cruz added. “Our public-private partnership will allow income-qualified households earning up to 80% of area median income to save as much as $1,200 per month in rent, which shows the power of this program.”
The Crescent at West Hollywood Apartments is the sixth transaction made by Standard-Faring Essential Housing. The joint venture was announced in August, with plans to create more than $2 billion worth of middle-income housing statewide.
To do so, acquisitions of existing properties to be converted into middle-income housing and ground-up developments are in play. So far, the venture has created more than 1,300 middle-income units.
Most recently, Standard, Faring, the CSCDA and the city of Hawthorne acquired the Millennium South Bay Apartments in Hawthorne for roughly $140 million.
The acquisition was announced in January. The property, which has 230 units, was sold by Dinerstein Cos. The new owners set aside $17.5 million to support the five-story property at 12530 Crenshaw Blvd.
Other companies have been acquiring properties to be converted into middle-income housing as well using tax-exempt bond financing from joint powers like the CSCDA and the California Community Housing Agency. The workforce housing financing program was launched in 2020. Companies like Standard act as the property administrator in these acquisitions to lower the rents.
