TruAmerica enters ground-up development with 154-unit project

TruAmerica Multifamily broke ground Friday on River Walk Townhomes, a 154-unit rental project in Santa Clarita, California, marking the Los Angeles apartment owner's entry into ground-up development.

TruAmerica bought the roughly 10-acre site in August and recently closed construction financing with First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co., according to a release. Terms were not disclosed.

Allocators with TruAmerica exposure now underwrite construction and lease-up risk alongside the stabilized acquisitions the platform was built on. The open term is which vehicle holds the River Walk equity and the First-Citizens loan.

The project will have two-story, three-bedroom townhomes, 10 affordable apartments and about 8,500 square feet of commercial space, according to the release. Amenities include a clubhouse with a fitness center and resident lounge, a pool and spa, a tot lot, a dog park and outdoor BBQ patios.

The site sits next to the Santa Clara River Trail and less than a mile and a half from the Vista Canyon metro and bus station, which connects residents to Burbank and downtown Los Angeles. Santa Clarita, roughly equidistant between downtown Los Angeles and Palmdale, has "a huge amount of employment and employment growth," Cramer said.

The site had been planned for a denser building, but the purchase price allowed TruAmerica to redraw it as lower-density townhomes, Cramer said. "We were able to buy the land at a price where we could redesign it to a lower-density apartment, which we think hits the market in this suburban location very well," he said.

TruAmerica launched about 12 years ago as a workforce housing owner and has since moved into both higher-end and more affordable apartments, Cramer told Multifamily Dive. "At the same time, we've diversified into ground-up construction, and we also have a preferred equity program, so we just had a desire to be a more diversified company," he said.

With River Walk, TruAmerica's Southern California footprint reaches about 21,000 units across 85 owned and managed properties, according to the release. The 154 units come to less than 1% of that base.