REE Case Study: Market and Economic Analysis for the Gateway Transit-Oriented Community

The Challenge

The Gateway is a new transit oriented community in the City of El Monte and located adjacent to El Monte Station, which connects the San Gabriel Valley to Downtown Los Angeles and the rest of the Metro bus and rail system via the Metro Silver Line. The first parcel in the development by Grapevine Realty is Parcel 4, now known as The Paseo, a mixed-use development with 208 rental apartments above 25,000 square feet of retail. The City has partnered with the developer and agreed to provide a backstop for any shortfalls for the Parcel 4 project.

Solution

The RCLCO Team was engaged by the City of El Monte to evaluate the feasibility of both the apartment and retail components of the mixed-use development. RCLCO’s role was to provide market research expertise and an objective evaluation regarding revenue assumptions and absorption for the project overall and its component parts. Accomplishment of these objectives entailed the completion of the following tasks:

• Examine economic development trends throughout the region and locally within the City of El Monte specifically.
• Evaluation of relevant competitive supply of rental housing and retail development in the City, as well as proposed increases in the pipeline.
• Establishing achievable pricing for the proposed rental apartments and retail space.
• Developing detailed market demand and absorption projections for the apartment units and retail space.