Good As Gold
Mirror staff
According to the experts, the rush of investors from
around the country to buy apartments in Los Angeles and Santa Monica
is be-ginning to look like the gold rush of a century and a half ago.
There are three bases for the rising interest: a
booming economy, an expanding population and a static supply. In
addition to increasing sale prices for investors, the rush is pushing
rents up, too.
The end of rent control in Santa Monica has triggered
a rush here, too, as made manifest by the recent sale of two of the
largest apartment buildings in the city and a full-page ad in the Los
Angeles Times.
The ad headline trumpets "The Crown Jewels of
Santa Monica,/ The Most Beautiful Apartments in the World / Million
Dollar Apartments from $2,000 per month/Seventy Luxury High-rise and
Apartment Communities."
Photographs of 13 apartment buildings are shown,
including Santa Monica Mariner Village, 2021 Ocean Avenue, Santa
Monica Sandpiper, 1115 Fifth Street, Santa Monica Bay Club, 855 Third
Street, Cape Santa Monica, 1015 Ninth Street, Santa Monica Grand
Harbor, 1127 Eleventh Street, Santa Monica Edgewater, 1021 Lincoln,
and Santa Monica Breakers, 911 Ninth Street.
Prices quoted in the ad range from $1395 for one
bedroom apartments to two and three bedrooms for $2995 and up.
According to the ad, the "crown jewels" have
been "developed by the Donald T. Sterling Corporation."