Commercial Real Estate: Petaluma apartments attract $68 million

Also: Investor buys Vacaville Yardbirds; Jensen's iron acquires location in NapaA 492-unit south Petaluma apartment complex, one of the largest in Sonoma County, sold for $68 million to a Southern California institutional investor, 15 months after it was purchased for $52 million.

KW G&I VI Petaluma LP acquired Enclave at Adobe Creek from AMFP QVT Enclave LLC. The sale of the complex, located at 1 Lakeville Circle and formerly called Lakeville Resort Apartments, was recorded Monday.

[caption id="attachment_30010" align="alignright" width="315" caption="Enclave at Adobe Creek"][/caption]

The off-market property was 97 percent occupied.

“As the multifamily sector stages a strong recovery, pricing will continue to increase, particularly in prime locations,” said Phil Saglimbeni, one of the brokers for the sellers.

KW G&I VI Petaluma LP is made up of Beverly Hills-based Kennedy Wilson Holdings Inc.’s Kennedy Wilson Property Fund III and DRA Growth & Income Fund VI, an affiliate of New York-based DRA Advisors LLC.

Among about a couple dozen other multifamily properties publicly owned Kennedy Wilson manages are two North Bay properties, the 260-unit Bay Village Apartments in Vallejo and 66-unit Rutherford Townhomes in Napa.

AMFP QVT purchased Lakeville Resort Apartments in October 2009. The investment fund is led by New York-based multifamily advisor Abacus Capital Group and Los Angeles-based real estate private equity fund QVT Mount Auburn Capital LP.

Abacus Executive Vice President Greg Lyden said the investment was part of the company “value-add” strategy for its institutional investors.

“Abacus recognized that the property could be repositioned both physically and operationally to garner a greater share of the higher end of the market,” Mr. Lyden said.

Higher rents and better collections have lifted property revenue in January nearly 17 percent higher than it was in October 2009, according to Mr. Lyden.

Upon purchasing the property, the partnership immediately invested $2 million into resolving deferred maintenance, undertaking capital-improvement projects and rebranding the property. The projects included renovations to the clubhouse and certain unit interiors.

Stan Jones and Mr. Saglimbeni of Marcus & Millichap's Institutional Property Advisors represented AMFP QVT in the sale, and the brokerage represented it in the original purchase.

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A Sacramento-based real estate investor acquired a long-vacant former Yardbirds store in Vacaville with plans to upgrade the 45,000-square-foot building with 8,500 square feet of covered garden area and 6,000 square feet of yard space in the Browns Valley Marketplace shopping center.

Browns Valley Vacaville 2010 LP, managed by Ray Stone Inc. of Sacramento, acquired the Vacaville store on Dec. 13 from Vacaville Property LLC. The property had been foreclosed last year, for outstanding debt of $2.5 million, or nearly $43 a square foot. First Community Bank financed the acquisition.

"It's the fastest close we've done with anything," said J. Todd Stone, president and chief executive officer. Ray Stone Inc. manages about 3,000 standard and senior-living apartments and 700,000 square feet of commercial space in Northern California, New Mexico and Texas. "The bank had an incentive to get a troubled asset off its books for 2010."

The Home Depot purchased the Santa Rosa-based Yardbirds regional home-improvement retail chain in 2006 and closed the stores in mid-2009. Junior anchor tenants in the shopping center are Bed Bath & Beyond and Nugget Market.

Ray Stone Inc. has experience in turnarounds. In Albuquerque, a former Wal-Mart store with garden center was converted to three stores. Philip Hawkins Architect of Roseville is coming up with options for Vacaville, such as modernizing the exterior to match the rest of the center, providing for up to three spaces of 20,000 square feet each and adding a restaurant by enclosing the outdoor area.

"We're not going to do a full façade until we get one or two tenants," Mr. Stone said.

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Santa Rosa medical device startup Sapheon Inc. found a place to base development of a less-painful treatment for varicose veins. The company signed a two-year lease for 5,227 square feet at 3579 and 3581 Westwind Blvd. near Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport north of Santa Rosa.

Paul Schwartz of Cassidy Turley BT Commercial represented Sapheon, and Dave Peterson and Jeffrey Wilmore of Keegan & Coppin represented Westwind Business Park.

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Jim and Jennifer Jensen together with Lance and Dana Stafford, the third generation of ownership in Napa-based architectural ironworks shop Jensen's Ornamental Inc., purchased a 6,350-square-foot warehouse at 561 California Blvd. in Napa from Sue Branson on Jan. 31 for $879,000.

The company is relocating from 625 Burnell St., the site of the future Napa County Transit Center.

Michael Holcomb and Matt Connolly of Strong & Hayden Commercial Real Estate represented Ms. Branson. SBA financing for the purchase came from Sonoma Bank and conduit Capital Access Group.

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San Rafael-based landscaping supplies retailer Watersavers Irrigation Inc. on Feb. 1 expanded and relocated its Petaluma store to 840 Perry Lane, a 10,000-square-foot industrial building that was vacant after it was completed in 2007, according to Keegan & Coppin agent Nathan Ballard. He represented Watersavers along with Haden Ongaro of Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank in the five-year full-building lease with Rental Center Properties LP, which represented itself.

Started in 1988, Watersavers has had a store in Petaluma for 17 years. The previous store was in 4,000 square feet at 1004 Lakeville St. Other stores are in Livermore, Brentwood and San Jose.

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Submit items for this column to Jeff Quackenbush at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com, 707-521-4256 or fax 707-521-5292.

CORRECTION, April 27, 2011: First Community Bank financed the acquisition of the former Yardbirds store in Vacaville, according to public records. A reliable source incorrectly identified the financier of the deal as Five Star Bank. Five Star Bank was partly involved in financing the property but exited the relationship in 2010, according to Mike Lee, chief regulatory officer.

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