Posts Tagged ‘smoking ban’
Landlord imposes smoking ban on 2,000 California apartments
By Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times
The Towbes Group says it has become the largest apartment portfolio in the state to institute a no-smoking policy on individual units and common areas.
It recently became legal for California landlords to forbid apartment renters from smoking in their units, but few property owners do so.
In a decision affecting nearly 2,000 units in 13 apartment complexes, the Towbes Group Inc. of Santa Barbara said it has become the largest apartment portfolio in California to impose a no-smoking policy on individual units and common areas.
Starting this month, new residents of Towbes Group’s apartments in Ventura, Goleta, Santa Maria, Lompoc and Santa Barbara may no longer smoke in their units. Residents who moved in earlier have until the end of the year to comply with the new restrictions.
In addition to addressing secondhand smoke concerns, the prohibition on lighting up offers a financial boost to landlords, said Jim Carrillo, a Towbes vice president. His company “turns” about 1,000 units a year, which means they must be cleaned for new residents. The process costs about twice as much if the last tenant was a smoker.
“You can mask it with paint, but in order to totally remove the residue you have to scrape the walls,” Carrillo said, then put on primer and more layers of paint. Countertops and cabinets may also need intense cleansing treatments.
The landlord was partly inspired to make the change after spending $4,000 on insulation, caulking and other efforts to find and cover every possible opening between a smoker’s apartment and a nonsmoker’s apartment.
Since a majority of the company’s tenants were nonsmokers, company officials reasoned, “Why not go smoke-free?” Carrillo said.
The state Legislature approved a law that went into effect in January allowing landlords to prohibit smoking in rental units.
Developer Sares-Regis made a new 580-unit apartment complex in Pasadena smoke-free last year, even though the state ruling wasn’t in place. Tenants and visitors who felt compelled to puff could be seen lighting up across the street from the 8-acre Westgate Apartments near Old Pasadena.
Embassy Suites Valencia Hotel sells for nearly $20 million
In a sign of growing investor demand for hotels, the Embassy Suites Valencia Hotel was sold for $19.6 million to a Newport Beach real estate investment firm.
Clearview Hotel Capital bought the 156-room inn from Cerberus Capital Management, a New York financier. Cerberus funded development of the hotel on Westinghouse Place in Valencia. It was completed in 2007, near the last real estate market peak.
Clearview bought the property for less than it cost to build, said property broker John Strauss of Jones Lang LaSalle. Meanwhile, hotel occupancy and room rates in Los Angeles County rose in 2011 and are on pace to do so again this year.
“Investors are interested in buying at this point in the real estate cycle following the 2009 downturn,” Strauss said.
They have a strong appetite for hotels, he said, because the hospitality business is improving and few new hotel competitors are on the horizon. The recession brought commercial real estate development to a near halt and put a gap in the pipeline of new properties.
“For the medium- to long-term, there is limited new supply,” Strauss said.
