CAMARILLO, CALIF. — Kennedy Wilson (NYSE: KW) has signed a long-term ground lease for a 32-acre parcel in Camarillo owned by California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), with plans to build a new residential community. The master-planned project will include 310 market-rate apartments, 109 for-sale townhomes and 170 income-restricted apartments for seniors. It will also feature community-serving amenities.
The project site is adjacent to the university and at the western edge of the Santa Monica Mountains. Camarillo is about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The soon-to-be-named development contributes to Kennedy Wilson’s growing pipeline totaling approximately 4,700 multifamily units that are scheduled for completion by 2024. When the Camarillo project is completed, Kennedy Wilson’s global portfolio will total more than 33,000 units.
“Developing this new community is an important step in our larger partnership with CSUCI and will meaningfully contribute to a region that is short on supply of high-quality apartments and homes for faculty, staff and local residents,” says Nick Bridges, managing director with Kennedy Wilson. “Many people are rethinking how and where they want to live, and we continue to see a trend of residents moving from city centers toward communities that have access to the outdoors, are commutable to major employment centers and are relatively affordable.”
Kennedy Wilson expects to break ground this quarter. The firm will develop the wholly owned apartments, and Kennedy Wilson’s affordable housing joint venture, Vintage Housing, will use a combination of affordable housing tax credits and other financing sources to build the affordable seniors housing units. The townhome sites will be built and sold by Comstock Homes in a joint venture that includes Kennedy Wilson as a minority partner, as well as Hearthstone.
The project is a continuation of a seven-year partnership between Kennedy Wilson and CSUCI. Kennedy Wilson originally acquired a 386-unit apartment community from CSUCI in 2016 and has since invested roughly $8 million to upgrade the unit interiors and amenities. Kennedy Wilson has also committed $1.5 million toward the future construction of an early childhood education center on the CSUCI campus.
A global real estate investment company, Kennedy Wilson focuses on multifamily and office properties located in the Western U.S. as well as the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company’s stock price opened at $22.37 per share Wednesday, Oct. 13, up from $14.30 per share one year ago.
— Kristin Hiller