Modesto, California, might best be known as an urban center within an agricultural area that grows everything from peaches to almonds, but the city of 220,000 residents is also earning a reputation for attracting Californian apartment renters away from higher-priced areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Residential property has become so coveted in Modesto that when a 196-unit property went up for sale in a single portfolio sale, 13 hopefuls put up a half-million dollar deposit for the right to bid on the properties.
The winning bid saw the new owner agree to pay $42.7 million for the 153,328-square-foot property known as The Edge at 1401 Lakewood Ave. It became the year's largest multifamily transaction in California's Central Valley, a 20,000-square-mile region that is home to about 6.5 million residents in such places as Sacramento and Bakersfield.
The project has been selected as the winner of the 2024 CoStar Impact Award for sale of the year, as judged by a local team of real estate professionals familiar with the market.
About the Project: The deal saw New York-based Osso Capital and Graceada Partners sell the property for $9.4 million more than it paid for 32 months earlier in April 2021. It was the third sale of the property in the span of five years after the original owner Meadow Lake Investors held it for 26 years from 1992, according to CoStar data.
What the Judges Said: "The sale of the Edge in Modesto highlights the fervent investor appetite in well-maintained, stabilized multifamily product in the region, which more broadly represents deep investment into the recent growth of the Central Valley, particularly its increasing importance as a robust labor pool and strong desirability for families," said Victor Adjei, director of asset management for Graceada Partners.
They Made It Happen: Otto Ozen and Brian Nakamura with The Mogharebi Group served as listing brokers for the sale.