A 169-unit apartment complex steps from Los Angeles's newest subway stop has changed hands for $70.5 million, a price that lands nearly $16 million below what its previous owner paid six years ago. The Preston, at 630 Masselin Avenue in the Miracle Mile, includes studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms with a resort-style pool, gym and lounges, and it was sold by Sares-Regis Group to Pacific Urban Investors via a fund, according to August property records.
The sale, first reported by The Real Deal, marks a sharp reversal from the property's trajectory over the past decade. Sares-Regis Group purchased The Preston for about $87 million in February 2020, having bought it from Hart Renaissance and Heitman, which had acquired the complex for $65 million back in 2013. That 2020 purchase was backed by a five-year floating-rate $65 million first mortgage loan from Mesa West Capital, debt that faced mounting interest rate pressure in the years that followed. Taken together, the price-per-unit math tells the story on its own: The Preston's per-apartment valuation fell from about $503,000 to $417,000 over six years.
Pacific Urban Investors, a Marcus & Millichap company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the deal, nor did Sares-Regis Group. Studios at the complex start at almost $2,400 per month, while two-bedroom units rent for close to $4,000 per month, per the property's own website.
A $4 Million Tax Bill Under Measure ULA
Buying big in Los Angeles now comes with a hefty add-on. City taxes totaled more than $4 million on the transaction, with the Measure ULA real estate transfer tax comprising the bulk of that bill. As of July 1, 2026, the city's transfer tax thresholds sit at 4% for sales between $5.4 million and $10.9 million and 5.5% for anything above $10.9 million, according to the Los Angeles Office of Finance — rates indexed annually to the Chained Consumer Price Index. Since the tax took effect in April 2023, it has generated between $1 billion and $1.2 billion in cumulative revenue across more than 1,400 property transactions citywide, per Matthews Real Estate Investment Services.
The Preston's discounted price fits into a broader pattern of institutional buyers snapping up repriced multifamily assets across Central LA. Pacific Urban purchased a Koreatown apartment building for $139 million earlier this summer, a price $50 million below what seller Equity Residential paid for it seven years earlier. That deal, detailed in Hoodline's earlier Koreatown coverage, closed with Pacific Urban putting 50% down and securing a $69.5 million loan on the 398-unit complex at 620 S. Virgil Avenue. Equity Residential's decision to sell followed its announced $69 billion merger of equals with AvalonBay Communities, aimed at consolidating more than 180,000 apartment units nationwide.
Pacific Urban's Buying Spree Continues
The firm's appetite for repriced LA multifamily properties isn't new. Pacific Urban Investors purchased a downtown Glendale apartment building for $76 million late last year — a property Equity Residential had paid $70.5 million for a decade earlier. Average monthly rents in Koreatown stood at $1,970 in mid-2026, roughly 18% below the greater Los Angeles regional average, with submarket apartment vacancy at 5.9%, offering a window into the softer rent growth pressuring valuations across these Central LA submarkets.
Meanwhile, the office towers surrounding The Preston tell a starkly different story of distress. Wilshire Courtyard, an approximately 1-million-square-foot office complex owned by Canadian developer Onni Group, carries a loan in default, with the owner now owing about $384 million after having originally borrowed $408 million. Onni requested the loan be placed into special servicing ahead of a July maturity, according to Morningstar Credit, and the company is now scrapping its office expansion plans at the site in favor of housing — a pivot Hoodline covered when Onni proposed twin 67-story towers there in May 2026. Parties to the Wilshire Courtyard loan are currently in talks.
Receivership Fight Down the Street
A few blocks away, MetLife has requested a receiver for Rockpoint's Miracle Mile office tower, alleging that a default occurred on Rockpoint's $164 million loan after the owner refused to repay a $2 million advance. Hoodline previously reported on the receivership push in its Miracle Mile tower coverage from June. The contrast is notable: while office towers along Wilshire Boulevard sink deeper into default and receivership proceedings, residential properties like The Preston continue to trade hands, even at reduced valuations, as investors bet on the neighborhood's long-term multifamily demand near the corridor's newly opened transit line.
