A 544-unit waterfront apartment complex in Marina del Rey has changed hands for $170 million, making it Los Angeles County's priciest multifamily transaction of 2026. Jackson Square Properties bought the Shores property at 4201 Via Marina, a 12-building, five-story community sitting right next to the marina, in a deal that works out to $312,500 per unit.
The sale was first reported by The Real Deal, which noted the deal ranks among the largest commercial real estate transactions in Los Angeles County this year. Seller Shores LLC sold the property, and JLL brokered the transaction. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors formally approved the assignment of the underlying ground lease from Shores LLC to Jackson Square Properties on June 16, according to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors records, with that lease running through July 31, 2063.
That approval step is not a formality unique to this deal — it's baked into how Marina del Rey works. The entire waterfront community sits on land owned by Los Angeles County, meaning property owners operate under long-term ground leases that require county sign-off whenever a property changes hands.
What Renters Get at the Shores
Units at the Shores span one- and two-bedroom layouts ranging from 762 to 1,284 square feet, with rents averaging $4,245 a month and ranging from $3,834 to $4,720, according to Multi-Housing News. The nearly 8-acre parcel includes more than 1,110 parking spaces across surface lots and a subterranean garage, plus electric vehicle charging stations. Fifty-four of the 544 units are dedicated affordable housing.
Amenities include a 2.5-acre courtyard, a pool, spas, a fitness center, a clubhouse, a bocce court, fire pits, barbecue areas and terraces. RPM Living manages the property day to day.
The Shores itself has a redevelopment story stretching back decades. The current complex opened in 2013 after replacing a decades-old garden-style apartment community that had sat on the site since the 1960s. Developers Jerry Epstein, Kirk Douglas and Herb Nadel built the original 202-unit Del Rey Shores complex, and the $165 million-plus redevelopment that produced today's 544-unit property was backed by a $125 million HUD-insured loan along with $31.8 million in equity financing from Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America, per the same account from Multi-Housing News.
A Buyer Doubling Down on the Marina
This is Jackson Square Properties' second major waterfront acquisition in Marina del Rey. The San Francisco-based firm previously bought the 205-unit Harborside Marina Bay Apartments at 14015 Tahiti Way for $86 million in 2019. Founded in 2004, Jackson Square now holds more than 70 multifamily communities totaling roughly 19,000 units across seven states, valued at over $4.5 billion as of mid-2026, the company says.
Real estate attorney Ira Waldman of Cox, Castle & Nicholson represented seller Shores LLC in the deal. Per GlobeSt, Waldman has advised on the Shores property for nearly 40 years, going back to ground lease extension negotiations with Los Angeles County in the late 1980s — institutional memory that spans the marina's entire modern development history.
Why the Marina Skips LA's Mansion Tax
Marina del Rey's status as unincorporated territory under direct county control carries a financial perk for sellers and buyers alike: transactions there are exempt from the City of Los Angeles' Measure ULA transfer tax, which can levy up to 5.5% on sales over $10.6 million within city limits. That exemption, as detailed by real estate industry sources, has kept institutional capital flowing into Marina del Rey even as Measure ULA has cooled high-value commercial sales elsewhere in the city since its 2023 enactment.
The Shores deal lands amid a broader surge in multifamily activity across the region. Los Angeles ranked third among U.S. metro areas in multifamily permitting, with 16,124 authorized units for the 12 months ending in June, a 94.9% year-over-year jump that led all major U.S. markets, according to a RealPage analysis of Census Bureau data cited by GlobeSt.
How Other Marina Deals Compare
Per-unit pricing across Marina del Rey has varied widely depending on ground lease terms and density. In October 2025, Carmel Partners paid $141 million for the 244-unit Stella at 13488 Maxella Avenue — a price of $578,000 per unit that made it the priciest multifamily trade in Marina del Rey in more than a decade at the time. Seller Nuveen took a 15% loss on that sale compared to the $167.3 million it paid for Stella in 2013.
Other nearby trades tell a similar story of steady turnover. Far West Management sold the 198-unit Villa del Mar at 13999 Marquesas Way for $62 million last July to an undisclosed buyer, after spending more than $27 million on capital improvements over the prior decade; Far West had developed that property roughly half a century earlier. In April, Watkins Commercial Properties paid $48.5 million for the 186-unit Upland Village Green in Rancho Cucamonga, or $260,753 per unit. Across the broader Los Angeles multifamily market, the average sale price stood at $280,591 per unit in the second quarter of 2026, up 3.3% from a year earlier, according to Kidder Mathews figures reported by The Real Deal.
