Waterton Pays $156M for L.A. Multifamily Community

A Chicago-based investment firm expanded its multifamily portfolio at the end of last year after acquiring a community in Southern California for slightly less than what it sold for in 2015. 

Waterton acquired Motif, a 395-unit complex at 21021 Erwin Street in Los Angeles’ Woodland Hills, in late December for $156.3 million, PropertyShark records show. That’s $6.7 million less than what the seller, TruAmerica Multifamily, paid for the property 10 years ago. 

Motif, which Waterton plans to redub as Sorrel at Warner Center, is in the Warner Center master-planned community that began development in the 1960s.

“Motif stands out in a market where new [multifamily] development is limited,” Kol Rath, Waterton’s vice president of acquisitions, said in a statement. “The location in Warner Center provides convenient access to neighborhood amenities and employment nodes throughout the San Fernando Valley, and we look forward to updating the residences and common areas to a scope that will better compete with newer product in the area and enhance the resident experience.”

Motif is also near major employment centers, including the 1.8 million-square-foot Warner Center Plaza office campus, the 1.1 million-square-foot Warner Center Business Park and Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center. It’s also just a few blocks east of billionaire and L.A. Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s Rams Village at Warner Center, a $10 billion, 52-acre mixed-use development surrounding the Rams’ planned headquarters. 

Waterton, meanwhile, has pulled other major multifamily moves in the San Fernando Valley over the past seven months. In July, the Chicago firm paid $180 million for AMLI Residential’s Kitt at Wartner Center, a 522-unit complex about one mile north of Motif. The previous month, Waterton sold its 401-unit Chase Knolls complex to JRK Property Holdings for $129 million. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.