California investors shell out $82 million for Union City property
By Rachel Scheier Costar News
April 9, 2025 I 2:42 P.M.
A large Bay Area apartment complex next door to a BART station sold for almost 20% less than its assessed value from just over a year ago, as investors move to take advantage of relatively low prices in the region’s multifamily housing market.
Still, the nearly $82 million sale is among the priciest in years for the East Bay Area’s apartment market.
Two California investors, the San Francisco-based Roxborough Group and Los Angeles-based Camden Pacific Partners, purchased the 243- unit Union Flats apartments in the East Bay town of Union City for
$81.6 million, compared to the development’s assessed value of $100 million in January 2024, according to Costar.
The deal works out to $335,802 per unit, higher than the neighborhood’s average of roughly $300,000 per unit but lower than the greater East Bay Area average sales price of $350,000 per unit. The sale is the priciest for Union City in several years, CoStar data shows.
The complex, constructed in 2018, is at 34588 11th St., across from a BART station, reflecting the emphasis in recent years on building around public transit and developing multiuse projects that encourage people to “live, work and play” more sustainably without having to commute long distances in their cars.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development provides funds for “higher density affordable housing developments within one-quarter mile of transit stations.”
“Union Flats offers young professionals convenience and value,” Michael Pence, Roxborough’s head of multifamily acquisitions, said in a press release.
The complex is 93% occupied, according to the release, with a mix of junior one-bedroom, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and live-work loft units. It was built with green features such as a rooftop solar hot water heating system, green roofs on community rooms and electric vehicle charging stations in the garage.
Softening rents
Demand has remained steady for multifamily properties in the East Bay in 2025, with sales volume at $370 million by the end of the second quarter, CoStar’s Nigel Hughes wrote in a recent analysis.
“The steady demand for the East Bay’s multifamily properties is reflected in pricing, which has reached an inflection point, with the average capitalization rate inching down slightly,” Hughes wrote.
A six-year-old apartment complex with 224 units near Oakland’s Lake Merritt sold in January for $61 million, slightly over half of the property’s $115 million assessed worth in 2024, according to Costar.
New apartment construction in the Bay Area’s three major markets of San Francisco, San Jose and the East Bay has all but come to a halt in the past year, as the region’s famously high rents weakened in the post-pandemic era.
The combination of high costs and a softening residential market presents a particular conundrum in California, with its acute shortage of affordable housing.
Sales volume has been skewed toward sales of four- and five-star properties in recent months, with just four properties in this luxury segment accounting for almost $300 million. The largest sale was of the Star Harbor complex in Alameda. Strada Investment Group bought the 372-unit property, an adaptive reuse of the Del Monte warehouse on the Alameda waterfront, in February for $153. 7 million, or $413,000 per unit.