Buyers pay $100 million-plus for East Bay apartments

Separate investors have paid well over $100 million to scoop up apartment complexes in Concord and Walnut Creek in deals where each were bought for less than their assessed value, according to documents on file at the Contra Costa County Recorder’s Office.

The 78-unit Atrium Downtown at 1812 Trinity Ave. in Walnut Creek was bought by a Fresno-based group led by Siegfried Fischer, chief executive officer of the publisher of the Valley Yellow Pages, for $31 million, documents filed on Aug. 20 show.

On July 30, Abacus Capital Group, acting through an affiliate, paid $98.3 million for the 259-unit Park Central Apartment complex at 1555 Galindo St. in Concord, according to county records filed on July 30.

The downtown Walnut Creek complex was bought for 3.4% less than its most recently disclosed assessed value of $32.1 million and the Concord purchase was 24.7% below its assessed value of $130.5 million.

These deals have been completed at a time when the apartment market in Contra Costa County has posted an uneven performance.

In 2023, NoMa Apartments, a 135-unit complex at 1910 North Main St. in Walnut Creek, was seized through a foreclosure of a delinquent loan.

In 2024, real estate firm Hines paid $57 million for the 97-unit The Rise complex at 1380 North California Blvd. in downtown Walnut Creek.

The Rise deal, which occurred slightly more than a year ago, commanded a price of $587,600 a unit, which experts deemed at the time to be on the higher end of per-unit prices for apartments.

However, the Contra Costa County deals of recent weeks point to weaker prices than a year ago, measured on a per-unit basis.

Atrium Downtown in Walnut Creek was bought for $397,400 a unit. Park Central in Concord went for a per-unit price of $379,500.