Grubb Properties Borrows $20M to Build Apartments in LA

Grubb Properties has secured a $20 million loan to top storefronts in North Hollywood, Hollywood and Santa Monica with a combined 378 apartments

The North Carolina-based developer led by Clay Grubb took out the loan from Beverly Hills-based Bolour Associates to revamp three retail sites into mixed-use buildings in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the Commercial Observer reported.

Terms of the loan were not disclosed.

In North Hollywood, Grubb plans to build a seven-story 128-unit apartment complex on a 0.7-acre parcel containing storefronts at 5240 Lankershim Boulevard, in the NoHo Arts District. A shuttered Laemmle Noho 7 cinema would be redeveloped.

In Hollywood, the developer plans to add 151 apartments to a 27,000-square-foot swath of stores at 1200 Vine Street.

And in Santa Monica, the builder aims to top 10,500 square feet of shops with 99 apartments at 700 Santa Monica Boulevard.

“The debt solution we structured provides flexibility to support Grubb’s business plan that will bring hundreds of much-needed new apartments to the supply-constrained Los Angeles market,” Mark Bolour, CEO of Bolour, said in a statement.

Grubb Properties, founded in 1963, has $2.5 billion in multifamily, office, retail and life sciences assets under management, according to the Observer.

In February last year, Grubb filed plans to build the seven-story, 70-unit apartment complex at 1353 North Western Avenue in East Hollywood. The Link Apartments Solana is among five Link-branded complexes with 650 units planned for Los Angeles, according to a Grubb announcement last year. The Link brand emphasizes affordability by design.

The firm has proposed building two complexes with 246 units and 77 units in Koreatown, the 128-unit complex in North Hollywood and the 151-unit complex in East Hollywood.

A commercial portion of Grubb’s 246-unit mixed-use complex at 1000 South Vermont Avenue in Koreatown was to include a 48,000-square-foot Target store, and was slated to open this summer.

Grubb Properties’ CEO Clay Grubb, author of a book on affordable housing, has spearheaded projects in more than a dozen cities, including Atlanta and Oakland. The firm recently made its way into New York with affordable housing plans in the Financial District and Long Island City.

Early last year, it bought an acre site approved for 161 apartments in Berkeley for $10 million.

— Dana Bartholomew