Santa Monica antique store acquired for mixed-use development

One of L.A.’s most active apartment developers has purchased the site of the Wertz Brothers Antique Mart in Santa Monica as dramatic changes are planned for properties near a future stop on the light rail Expo Line.

Wertz Realty Investments sold the antique store building and parking lot at 1613 Lincoln Blvd. to Century West Partners for more than $11 million, public documents indicate.

Century West plans to incorporate the site into its proposed Lincoln Boulevard Collection, which is to be comprised of four apartment buildings on Lincoln Boulevard with a combined total of 421 units. The complex is to have shops and restaurants on the ground floor.

City officials have approved mixed-use development around stops on the Expo Line that is to connect Santa Monica with downtown Los Angeles in 2016.

“They hope this will make downtown Santa Monica more pedestrian friendly,� said real estate broker Patrick Wade, who helped broker the deal and two others last year near the intersection of Lincoln and Colorado Avenue with his partner Alex Kozakov.

The three sales — with a combined value of $36 million for a total of 102,000 square feet — demonstrated a jump in appeal for the Santa Monica neighborhood. The prices were as much as seven times higher than previously assessed values.

“The elevated apartment renter demand in Santa Monica combined with the tech business growth and high barriers to entry for retailers make the city one of the most desirable real estate markets in the nation for developers,� Wade said.

Century West, which is which is headed by developers Steve Fifield and Michael Sorochinsky, has other mixed-used residential projects planned in Santa Monica as well as in downtown Los Angeles and the Koreatown district.

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