CIM Group Buys West Hollywood Apartments

CIM Group is growing its holdings in West Hollywood while dealing with distress in the Bay Area.

The Los Angeles-based firm just purchased the Domain WeHo apartment community at 7141 Santa Monica Boulevard for an undisclosed price, L.A. Business First reported. CIM acquired the multifamily property in partnership with Hulic Company.

RREEF Property Trust, the real estate investment arm of DWS Group, was the seller. RREEF bought the residences in 2019 for more than $103 million, The Real Deal reported at the time.

The seven-story building boasts 166 units and 9,000 square feet of retail. The property opened in 2017 and features amenities like a gym, pet wash, sun deck with a pool, outdoor kitchen and fire pit. More than 30 units at the property are designated as affordable housing.

Domain WeHo is across the street from The Lot at Formosa, a studio campus also owned by CIM Group. The firm transferred ownership of the property to an affiliate company as part of a recapitalization process.

CIM Group has been growing its presence elsewhere on the Westside. In January, it redeveloped a church in West Adams into Coro, a 168-unit apartment community at 3045 Crenshaw Boulevard. The following month, also in West Adams, CIM opened The Read, a 75-unit property at 5217 West Adams Boulevard.

CIM’s latest West Hollywood acquisition comes as the firm experiences distress in Northern California. Its Central Tower, an office building in San Francisco, and 1 Kaiser Plaza, the headquarters of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, have fallen into default, with both moving toward foreclosure as of this week.

In Greater Los Angeles, the multifamily vacancy rate was 5.5 percent in the second quarter as renter demand continued to outpace new supply, according to a Q2 report from Kidder Mathews. Average asking rents were also up year over year.

— Chris Malone Méndez