WALNUT CREEK — A big apartment complex in the East Bay has been bought for more than $100 million by a new owner whose stated goal is to keep rental housing affordable.
Walnut Creek Manor, located about a mile from the Pleasant Hill BART station, has been bought for $101 million, according to documents on file with the Contra Costa County Recorder’s Office.
Bridge Investment Group Holdings and Bridge Workforce Funding — real estate groups that acted through an affiliate — now own the apartment complex at 81 Mayhew Drive in an unincorporated area near Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill, the public records show.
Utah-based Bridge Investment heads up a fund that is dedicated to investments in apartment complexes that can provide housing for middle-class workforces.
In 2022, Bridge completed raising a fund totaling $1.74 billion dedicated to “building, preserving, and rehabilitating” selected housing developments.
Bridge is seeking to invest in housing that meets the needs of the large and priced-out “missing middle” of US renters, the real estate firm stated in 2022.
The apartment complexes would primarily be those whose residents make less than 80% of the area’s median annual income.
“Our commitment to preserving and rehabilitating housing for America’s workforce demonstrates our firm’s environmental, social and governance mission,” said Bridge executive chairman Robert Morse.
The just-bought Walnut Creek Manor complex contains 418 units and was built and opened in 1964.
Until the recent property purchase, the property was owned continuously by a family affiliated with Boswell Alliance Construction Co., a Bay Area company. In 1965, a published report stated The Boswell Alliance, then headed up by John Boswell, built the apartment complex.
The apartment buildings in the complex are all one-story, according to the Apartments.com website.
The property includes a pool, clubhouse, lounge, laundry facilities, on-site maintenance and a manager on site.
At the time of the June 18 purchase, the Bridge Investment affiliates obtained a $75.4 million loan from Newpoint Multifamily Housing Corp., the county records show.
In 2022, an estimated 82% of Bridge’s workforce and affordable housing residents earned less than 80% of the area median income and more than 96% were not cost-burdened, often defined as people who spend more than 30% of their income on rent, estimated Rachel Diller, co-chief investment officer for Bridge’s workforce and affordable housing group.
This is in sharp contrast to the housing pressures facing millions of United States residents, in Diller’s view.
“The U.S. has an affordable housing crisis, with an estimated 10.5 million households paying more than 50 percent of their annual incomes for housing,” Diller said.
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