Samuelian doubles Silver Lake site to 105 units using LA's ED1
The entitlement changed during escrow, and the unit count nearly doubled before the deal even closed.
Samuelian Group bought a three-parcel Silver Lake site already entitled for 54 units, then re-entitled it for 105 under Los Angeles’ Executive Directive 1 before the deal closed, a sequence that shows exactly where ED1’s value sits in a development pro forma.
Why it matters
The timing is the lesson. Samuelian did not buy an ED1 project. It bought a conventional six-story, 54-unit entitlement and rewrote it during escrow, nearly doubling the density on the same dirt without a discretionary approval fight. ED1 streamlines permitting and grants review exemptions for projects that are 100 percent affordable, and the trade-off is the rent roll: every unit is income-restricted. For a developer weighing a site in a neighborhood where a market-rate deal has to clear high land basis and a long entitlement calendar, this is the arbitrage. The buyer paid for 54 units and is building 105.
That also reframes the land price. At $5.28 million for 105 units, the site basis lands near $50,000 per unit. Against the original 54-unit entitlement it would have been roughly double that. The entitlement, not the land, moved the math.
The numbers
The El Segundo based developer paid $5.28 million for the three-parcel site at 825 Hyperion Avenue, a 22,651 sq ft lot, closing June 25. The seller was Hyperion Apartments, linked in state business records to developer Jason Lewis. The project, Silver Lake Flats, is a roughly 77,000 sq ft, six-story building with residential floors above ground-floor parking, plus a community center, playground and green space. All 105 units serve residents at 30 to 80 percent of area median income, or roughly $22,695 to $60,250 a year for one person.
R.D. Olson Construction is the general contractor and Kevin Tsai Architecture designed the project, which started construction this month and is expected to take about two years. Northmarq’s Mike Hanassab, who arranged the sale for the seller with Steven Goldstein and Elliot Hassan, said ED1 brought per-unit construction cost down to $50,000, a figure the developer has not confirmed.
What’s next
Samuelian says it is pursuing more fully affordable ED1 deals across Los Angeles County. The test is whether re-entitling in escrow becomes a repeatable strategy or a one-off, and that depends on ED1 surviving in its current form. More at the Los Angeles hub.