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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Luxury Apartments Planned for Former Hospital Campus

Real estate investor IMT Capital LLC plans to knock down the former Northridge Hospital Medical Center campus on Sherman Way to make way for a luxury apartment complex. Officials with IMT, which purchased the Van Nuys property last month for nearly $15 million, say plans call for a high-end residential community with about 360 apartment units and townhomes. Demolition of the former hospital campus is planned to happen about 12 to 18 months from now, and the development should be open for leasing in about 36 months, said David Tedesco, principal with IMT Capital. The project, referred to internally as IMT Sherman Circle, is slated to include a yoga studio, two swimming pools and a business center equipped with computer work stations, printing capabilities, meeting areas and wireless Internet. IMT’s plans underscore the strength of the multi-family market in an otherwise dismal commercial real estate industry. Multi-family housing is becoming increasingly popular in the greater San Fernando Valley region as people move closer to employment centers to save money and live an urban lifestyle and because the single-family housing market remains constrained by strict lending requirements, experts say. Twenty-something residents — who typically rent apartments — also are encouraging such development. Multi-family permits issued in August in Los Angeles County jumped to 1,120, up 98.6 percent from last year, the Los Angeles and Ventura chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California said. The vast majority of permits issued in August were for multi-family, not single-family developments. Data for August is the latest available. Tedesco said the project will bring new investment and high-end options to the Van Nuys community. “The finished product will be (like) something … you would find on the West side or Encino,” he said. The Northridge Hospital Medical Center Sherman Way campus closed in 2004. The King’s University, a Pentecostal seminary, purchased the property in 2006 and planned to transform it into a school, complete with classrooms and dormitories, according to a listing on LoopNet. The King’s University, which had used the property for additional administrative services, remains in businesses and is located down the road on Sherman Way. Officials with The King’s University could not be reached for comment. Lee Black, an executive vice president with NAI Capital Inc., represented both the seller and buyer. Black said several buildings that were part of the former Northridge Hospital campus and not owned by King’s were not part of the deal. Those will not be demolished. Last month, IMT announced it closed a $350 million investment fund to acquire multifamily projects throughout the country. That fund, Tedesco said, was used for the Northridge Hospital acquisition. Despite all the new multifamily projects in the works in the region, Tedesco said he’s not worried about flooding the marketplace. “We are not meeting the actual demand of the population growth,” he said.

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