In 2004, Essex Property Trust paid $28.2 million for the apartment leasehold at 4333 Admiralty Way. Over the next two decades it spent another $36.4 million on capital improvements. Then in 2026 it sold that leasehold to Coastline Real Estate Advisors for less than the 2004 price, as The Real Deal reported in September. The County's approval letter puts the price at $24,750,000.
The property is Marina City Club, and it has three high-rise towers with 600 condo units. Anyone looking at a unit there should understand that sale. At Marina City Club, what changes hands is a block of time on land owned by Los Angeles County. That block ends on July 29, 2067, and the ground rent, the mortgage rules, the cost of selling and the price large investors will pay all follow from that date.
Marina del Rey's only for-sale homes on County land
Los Angeles County owns most of Marina del Rey and leases it to private operators. In February 2024, a Board of Supervisors letter called Marina City Club's lease "the only ground lease in Marina del Rey (and the only County-owned property generally) that allows condo/leasehold ownership." Every other residential property in the County Marina is rental apartments.
The legal structure is less familiar than the word "condo" suggests. The same County letter says the units "are not technically a condominium pursuant to the California Subdivision Map Act." Each owner holds a prepaid subleasehold interest under a Master Sublease, and that interest lasts as long as the master lease does. The master lease began November 7, 1986. When it expires in 2067, the property reverts to County ownership.
A buyer closing this fall gets a little under 41 years. That number is the main fact behind the price of every unit in the towers, and it shrinks every month whether or not anything else happens in the market.
A ground rent tied to apartment rents
Most condo buyers budget for HOA dues. At Marina City Club, owners also pay ground rent, and it was designed to rise.
When the towers converted from apartments to condos in 1987, the parties agreed that owners would pay the County ground rent that would "mimic the rent the County would have otherwise received" if the units had stayed apartments. Rent and maintenance disputes followed for years. The County letter says the condo owners association had been asking for County help with deferred maintenance since the late 1990s, and the talks eventually ran up against "the threat of impending arbitration and litigation."
The settlement was Amendment No. 10, adopted February 27, 2024. These are its terms for owners:
- Rent formula: Each unit pays 14.5% of its Assigned Rent Basis, up from 12.5%, starting January 1, 2024.
- 2024 total: The condo rent came to $4,635,099 across the towers and is allocated to each unit by a schedule. Spread evenly, that would be about $7,700 per unit for 2024, but actual amounts vary by unit.
- Escalator: Rent goes up 3.25% every year from January 1, 2025 until the lease ends.
- Repair credit: $1,678,190 a year of that rent goes into an MCC Repairs Account through December 31, 2053, provided the lessee meets its lease obligations.
- Shared-area reserves: The owners association's base contribution started at $2,280,000 as of the end of 2023 and increases 5% each year.
At 3.25% a year, the 2024 rent level nearly quadruples by 2067, and those larger payments come due as the remaining term gets shorter. The repair credit also ends in 2053, about 14 years before the lease does.
How mortgage rules count the years
This is where the 2067 date most directly affects whether a buyer can get a loan. Every major mortgage program measures the lease against the loan's maturity date, and every program needs the lease to last longer than the loan.
Fannie Mae's Selling Guide, in the version dated August 5, 2026, requires the lease to have "an unexpired term that exceeds the maturity date of the loan by five (5) years or more." Freddie Mac's Guide has the same five-year rule. FHA asks for more. HUD Handbook 4000.1, Update 17, requires a renewable lease of at least 99 years or a lease that runs at least 10 years past the mortgage's maturity date. The same section says subleasehold estates are not eligible for FHA reverse mortgages.
Applied to the July 29, 2067 expiration, those rules give these dates:
| Program rule | Latest loan maturity | Rough last start date for a 30-year loan | Rough last start date for a 15-year loan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, 5 years past maturity | July 2062 | mid-2032 | mid-2047 |
| FHA forward mortgage, 10 years past maturity | July 2057 | mid-2027 | mid-2042 |
These are the lease-term limits only. Lenders also review the project under each program's own condo and project standards, and Fannie Mae requires the lease to be recorded, in full force and not in default.
The table also matters for resale. A buyer in 2026 can still find a 30-year conforming loan under the five-year rule. Someone buying from that owner in the early 2030s may not. Each year the pool of buyers who can finance a unit gets smaller, and that affects the price an owner can expect when it's time to sell.
All of this is general information about published program rules, not legal, tax or lending advice. Anyone weighing a purchase should check their own loan eligibility with a lender and review the lease documents with a real estate attorney.
The cost of selling
A sale at Marina City Club carries one more cost that standard condo math leaves out. Under the Amendment No. 10 Board letter, the County collects an administrative transfer fee on each condo sale, set at 2.5% of the sale price for Category A units and 1% for Category B.
In practice, almost every unit pays the higher rate. In 2004, only nine of the 600 units were Category B. Three of those have since converted, and Amendment No. 10 approved converting the other six. That means 2.5% of the price goes to the County on top of normal closing costs, and it applies every time a unit sells.
What the 2026 investor sales show
Back to Essex. The leasehold it sold in 2026 covers The Promenade's 101 apartments, 303 boat slips, about 29,776 square feet of commercial space, a club facility and the parking structure. The Real Deal reported that The Promenade was 96% leased at the end of last year. Its amenities include a half-mile waterfront boardwalk, several pools, gyms and sports courts. The property was well occupied and had been improved.
The Board approved the assignment to 4333 Admiralty Owner, LLC on June 30, 2026, with Coastline Real Estate Advisors as manager. The County letter states that the deal "does not include any extension of the Lease term or modification of the existing rent structure."
The Real Deal didn't give a reason for the lower price. One obvious change between the two sales is how much time was left. The 2004 buyer was buying more than 60 years of term. The 2026 buyer got about 41, plus $36.4 million of improvements that will belong to the County in 2067. It is reasonable to read the lower price as reflecting that shorter term, and an individual buyer looking at a tower unit faces the same arithmetic.
The Shores followed the same pattern. The Board approved the assignment of that 544-apartment leasehold to Jackson Square Properties on June 16, 2026, two weeks before the Marina City Club approval, and the assignment letter shows its ground lease ending July 31, 2063 with no extension. The Real Deal put Jackson Square's purchase price at $170 million.
Why not expect an extension
A County that is negotiating long-term futures for its waterfront parcels could, in theory, add years to Marina City Club. So far, nothing on the record points that way.
The Department of Beaches and Harbors began planning for its expiring leases in 2025 under the name Marina del Rey for All: The Next Wave. Mar Vista Voice reported that 26 County waterfront leases would expire over the following seven years, and that a development toolkit was planned by the end of 2025. The County's March 2026 progress report still called the effort "Ongoing" and described it as early-stage foundation work. A June 2026 market-sounding survey on mdr4all.org asked developers about three Opportunity Sites chosen because their leases are nearing expiration. Its guiding principles list public access, recreation, affordable housing and coastal resilience, and it describes a process in which the County would sign a ground lease only after a selected partner gets a project fully entitled.
None of that work involves Marina City Club, and the only County action on its lease in 2026 left 2067 unchanged. Any valuation of a unit should therefore take 2067 as fixed.
Before writing an offer
- Get the unit's current Assigned Rent Basis from the allocation schedule and project the 3.25% increases over the years you plan to own.
- Ask the owners association what the MCC Repairs Account is paying for, and how the work will be funded after the County rent credit ends in 2053.
- Have your lender confirm, in writing, the latest maturity date it will accept against July 29, 2067, and its view on the project's eligibility.
- Account for the 2.5% County transfer fee in your resale math, along with how many years will be left on the lease when you expect to sell.
Common Questions
Do Marina City Club owners own the land? No. Owners hold prepaid subleasehold interests under a Master Sublease, and the land belongs to Los Angeles County.
Did the 2026 sale to the new master lessee change the owners' rent? No. The County's consent says the assignment did not change the existing rent structure or extend the term.
What happens in 2067? Under the County's 2024 letter, the property reverts to County ownership when the lease expires.
If you own a unit at Marina City Club, its value depends on the ground rent schedule, how many years remain, how lenders read those years and the transfer fee, along with the view. Laura Brau Estates can price your unit with all of those factors included and keep the process confidential. Request Your Private Home Valuation.
