It’s an increasingly rare find: a Downtown Sacramento apartment property with upside potential for a new owner. Such a description fits 32-unit Capitol Lanai, at 1300-1320 G St., on which a San Diego-based investor is set to close escrow Wednesday for $6.78 million. Joe Ramos, under the name Lanai Investments LP, is the buyer for Capitol Lanai, a ’70s-era property with a series of two-story buildings. At the expected sales price, the per-unit price would be about $212,000. Ramos did not return a message seeking comment. But Tim Swanston of North Coast Commercial Inc. said Ramos saw a way before the sale closed to make his investment more sound. According to Swanston, who is brokering the sale, Ramos asked the seller to keep some units vacant to make it easier to charge a higher rent from the outset.
At close of sale, Capitol Lanai had nine open units, an unusually high number for an area in which occupancies above 90% are common, especially for older properties. Capitol Lanai already had exterior improvements under the previous owner, so the other added value will come from better management practices, Swanston said. “Especially in Downtown and Midtown, the owners have them priced where added values are already there,” he said. Ramos has a portfolio of other Sacramento County properties and is familiar with the central city as a market, Swanston added. In addition to its Downtown location, Capitol Lanai has 32 parking spaces, making it more attractive than many other apartment complexes in the neighborhood with little or no parking. Swanston said he also expects demand for units to stay strong as the Railyards development begins to take shape to the north.
“It’s got a little bit of character,” he said. “It’s not a box by any means.” Records on Reonomy Inc. show New Century Partners LLC, with a Sacramento address at a property management firm, as the previous owner. A message left at the office was not returned, though an outgoing message said the office was closed in conjunction with stay-in-place mandates to lessen the spread of COVID-19.
