Apartment Sales.

Fowler, Shore and Flanagan has sold two San Gabriel Valley apartment complexes, one in Covina and one in Monterey Park.

Orange County-based J.H. Properties bought the 250-unit Covina apartments, at 1159 and 1160 N. Conwell Ave., for $19.7 million in an all-cash deal.

The institutional-quality complex, called Hallmark East and West, was built in 1972 by a life insurance company. It sold for the highest cost per unit of any building of its age in that city ever -- just under $80,000, said Robin Ossenbeck, vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap, who brokered both deals.

The seller spent close to $2 million to renovate the three-story, garden-style property and the new owner expects to spend at least that much on another renovation.

In Monterey Park, SAF Holdings LLC, which is advised by SSR Realty Advisors, bought the 184-unit Emerald Hills complex at 855 El Repetto for $15.2 million, Ossenbeck said. It is the largest apartment complex in the city that isn't subsidized under a Department of Housing and Urban Development program.

The three-story hillside complex, built in 1962, is fully occupied. It was renovated by the seller and is in excellent condition, Ossenbeck said. Monthly rents have risen from 75 cents a square foot two years ago to $1.08 today.

"We're seeing a lot of Northern California buyers here now because prices are so high in Northern California," Ossenbeck said.