Services

Metro Investments identifies and skillfully executes the acquisition of multifamily, office, industrial, and retail properties, along with the acquisitions of development sites. Our acquisitions are targeted to address the demands of a given marketplace that meet or exceed the investment parameters of our institutional and private capital partners. Our extensive market research of the Southern California’s sub-markets, focuses on the key elements driving residential and commercial product success: population and employment growth, socio-demographic movements, and supply/demand balances. In-depth evaluation of the specific nuances of a given sub-market, enables Metro Investments to acquire well located properties and development sites that possess a competitive edge on their competition, and are individually positioned to meet the needs of the sub-market.

Metro Investments identifies and skillfully executes the development of small-lot, multifamily, and commercial development projects. Metro Investments’ development structures include acquisition sourcing, development joint ventures and fee development.  We skillfully coordinate a team of carefully selected real estate specialists, directing these professionals through the development process: from land acquisition and entitlements, through site planning and design, through marketing and product definition, through financing, through construction oversight and ultimately through the sale of the asset. Metro Investments offers a unique understanding of Southern California’s residential and commercial property development fundamentals. From an optimum entitlement strategy formulated for success and ease of approvals, to floor plans geared towards the end-user’s needs, to utilizing building materials that require minimum maintenance, we bring a unique mix of aesthetic and market appeal to every one of our development projects. It is this blend of insightful knowledge, plus our ability to visualize the ideal development program for a given site, that has enabled us to maintain our successful development record.

Metro’s unique architectural experience provides the vision necessary to identify in-fill redevelopment and repositioning opportunities for residential and commercial properties. The mature Southern California real estate market offers an ideal forum to reposition obsolete buildings to better meet the current needs of their sub-market. Based upon a solid foundation of architectural knowledge and local building codes, coupled with an understanding of the nuances of various building types, Metro is able to quickly assess and compose a redevelopment/repositioning plan for a given project site. It is this blend of insightful knowledge, plus or understanding of the current needs of each sub-market, that allows Metro Investments to quickly close on a given property with a specific redevelopment plan in mind.

The real estate entitlement process is frequently a political one, which involves uncertainty and often extensive negotiations and concessions in order to secure the necessary building approvals and permits. Metro’s principal, Art Simonian, is a City Commissioner in the City of Glendale, California where he serves on the city’s Design Review Board. Mr. Simonian has spent decades collaborating and building meaningful relationships with local government staff and local neighborhood activists. Said relationships enable Metro Investments to understand the nuances of each Southern California neighborhood and community, and to formulate a project vision and a project design that caters to the intensions of the surrounding community. 
 
In the planning and design phase of each project, we meet and obtain feedback from the surrounding residents and businesses. Our intention is to create a substantive dialogue between the development team and the community. This dialogue gives us an opportunity to incorporate the needs and concerns of the community into our planning, design and execution of the development strategy. Such community outreach ultimately creates a structure to mitigate potential conflicts and to fully integrate the project into the fabric of the community.

A meaningful feasibility analysis identifies the unique factors that may affects the development potential of a given property while also identifying potential development risks. Our clients benefit from Metro’s understanding of the individual nuances of each Southern California sub-market and we identify the highest and best use for a site that addresses the demands of a given sub-market. Metro Investments then assembles a suitable design team consisting of architects, civil, soil, and structural engineers and other consultants to help formulate design studies that will maximize the development potential of a given property.
 
Metro Investments’ principal, Art Simonian, is a California licensed architect and Metro integrates its architectural knowledge base, with its development knowhow and experience, to formulate the ideal development plan for a given site. Our in-depth understanding of the development process, from land acquisition, to building design and entitlements, to product definition, to project financing, to construction methodologies enables us to provide our clients with feasibility analysis services for both residential and commercial property types.

Metro Investments has extensive architectural and planning experience in small-lot, multi-family, commercial, and hillside project designs. Metro Investments’ principal, Art Simonian, is a California licensed architect, and Metro integrates its architectural knowledge base with its entitlement and development experience, to formulate the ideal design solution for a given development site.

Metro Investments possesses vast design experience and knowledge relating to the Los Angeles small-lot subdivision ordinance, and we have designed and build numerous small-lot development projects. In addition, Metro has design-built many urban infill, multi-family, projects throughout Southern California. Lastly, Metro has substantial design experience with complex hillside development project sites that require creative on-site and off-site design solutions.