BERKELEY — A Berkeley apartment complex that’s a short distance from the UC campus has been foreclosed at a sharply discounted price compared with its prior value.
The University Park residential hub at 1709 Shattuck Ave. went through a foreclosure proceeding on Jan. 22 that placed a $25 million value on the property, according to documents posted for this week’s trustee’s sale of the site.
The 97-unit property had been owned by an affiliate of Academy West Investments, which specializes in student housing and apartment investments and is associated with Sunstone Development, Alameda County real estate records show.
The foreclosure proceeding forced Academy West Investments to lose its ownership of the property, which the real estate firm had bought in 2020 for $34 million.
In 2023, Terra Property Trust provided the Academy West affiliate with a loan for the University Park apartments that totaled $28.3 million, the county property files show.
This means the foreclosure value was 26.5% below what the prior owner had paid for the property. It also was 11.7% less than the loan amount.
Academy West staged a battle in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to attempt to stall or ward off the foreclosure proceeding.
Some filings in the bankruptcy case indicate that Academy West wasn’t collecting nearly enough from rents to cover the property’s monthly mortgage costs, let alone other crucial expenses such as insurance, maintenance, and property taxes.
Academy West was losing money each month for at least a one-year period that ended in September 2025, court papers showed.
During that time, Academy West managed to generate roughly $147,600 a month from rent collections. The rents were the then-owner’s sole source of income related to the property, a September 2025 court filing by the lender stated.
However, the monthly mortgage payments over that duration topped $300,000, according to the filing with the court by the property’s lender.
The University Park loan default is far from the only East Bay complex that has been jolted with loan issues. In recent months, lenders have seized multiple apartment buildings to satisfy delinquent or failing loans. Among the problem properties:
— A 206-unit, 24-story housing tower at 1700 Webster St. in downtown Oakland was taken back on Aug. 28, 2024, by its lender due to a delinquent $90 million loan.
— The Logan, a 204-unit apartment complex at Telegraph Avenue and 51st Street in Oakland, was taken by a real estate firm that had bought the property’s loan and then foreclosed on the financing vehicle on Nov. 27, 2024.
— In September 2024, Bayview, a 186-unit apartment complex in Emeryville, was seized by its lender, CIM Group, through a deed in lieu of foreclosure procedure.
— In April, Orion, a 241-unit apartment complex in the Brooklyn Basin area of the Oakland waterfront, was taken back by its lender, UBS Realty Investors.
At the time the Academy West Investments affiliate bought University Park, which is two blocks from the UC Berkeley campus, the then-owners brimmed with confidence that the property offered plenty of upside. In 2018, real estate executives Blake Wettengel and Tanya Muro formed Academy West.
“We thought the location of the property was unsurpassed since it’s within a 2-minute walk to campus and near downtown, a major transportation center, and an arts and cultural district,” Muro said in a statement regarding the purchase.
Academy West was also betting on the long-term trend of housing supply constraints in the area.
“We are excited,” Muro said, that upgrades to the units would help University Park “command premium rents considering the demand for luxury housing within this highly desirable market.”
Leave a Reply