Marina City Club's Condos Come With a 2067 Clock. Here's What That Changes in a Sale.

The County lease under Marina City Club ends on July 29, 2067. HUD's leasehold rule requires that lease to run at least 10 years past a loan's maturity date. If you look only at that lease-term rule, a standard 30-year FHA mortgage on a unit at 4333 Admiralty Way stops fitting around July 2027, about nine months from now. Conventional loans follow the same math later. On their lease-term test, a 30-year loan sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac stops fitting around mid-2032.

Those two dates matter more to a sale here than spring versus fall. The number of buyers who can borrow against these units shrinks on a fixed schedule, and the costs of holding a unit go up on a fixed schedule too. If you're thinking about selling within the next decade, the timing of your sale depends on that schedule.

What a buyer at 4333 Admiralty Way actually receives

The County says plainly in its records that Marina City Club holds the only ground lease in Marina del Rey that allows condo ownership. Every other residential property in the Marina is rental apartments. The project has three high-rise towers with 600 condo units and 101 rental apartments. It also includes boat slips, retail and office space.

The word "condo" is used loosely here. The Board of Supervisors' February 2024 letter on Amendment No. 10 says these units are not technically condominiums under the California Subdivision Map Act. Each owner holds a prepaid subleasehold interest under a Master Sublease, and it lasts for the term of the County lease. That chain has several layers. Los Angeles County owns the land. A master lessee holds Lease No. 55624. A Master Condominium Sublease dated January 5, 1987 created the "condo" regime, and each unit was then assigned to an individual owner.

When each unit was first assigned, the owner signed a Condominium Subleasehold Deed of Trust in favor of the master lessee. It secures the owner's obligations under the Master Condominium Sublease. The County's 2024 letter also states that the property goes back to County ownership when the lease ends in 2067.

Ground rent was built to track apartment rent

The units converted from apartments to condos in 1987. At that point the parties agreed that owners would pay ground rent to the County, collected through the master lessee, at a level that would "mimic" what the County would have earned if the units had stayed apartments. That decision explains the cost structure today. The ground rent here behaves like a share of market rent, not a fixed land payment.

Amendment No. 10, which the Board approved on February 27, 2024, reset the formula after years of dispute. The County letter says the agreement came "after lengthy negotiations, with the threat of impending arbitration and litigation" over both the rent and the maintenance of the property. The current terms:

• Rate. Condo ground rent is 14.5% of an Assigned Rent Basis, up from 12.5%, effective January 1, 2024.
• 2024 total. The Assigned Rent Basis was $31,966,200, which made the annual condo rent $4,635,099, divided among the units on a schedule. Of that, $1,678,190 is a rent credit that goes into the MCC Repairs Account, so the County's net from the condos for 2024 was $2,956,909.
• Escalator. Annual condo rent rises 3.25% each year, starting January 1, 2025 and running to the end of the term.
• Rent credit end date. The repair credit runs through December 31, 2053.
• Exit fee. When a unit sells, the County receives an administrative transfer fee of 2.5% of the sale price on Category A units, or 1.0% on Category B units.

At 3.25% a year, a payment doubles in about 22 years. So the rent stream set in 2024 is on course to be roughly twice as large by the mid-2040s. That happens while the lease, and the asset behind it, keeps getting shorter. In 2004, only nine of the 600 units were Category B, and three of those have since converted to Category A. Amendment No. 10 lets the remaining six convert as well, so nearly every seller here should expect the 2.5% rate. On a $1,000,000 sale, that fee comes to $25,000, separate from the usual closing costs.

Repairs are funded, with a loan behind them

Under the lease, the master lessee is responsible for maintaining and repairing the buildings. Maintenance costs and capital contributions assigned to the condo owners are billed by the lessee, collected by the Condo Owners Association and passed back to the lessee. Amendment No. 10 added funding that hadn't existed before. Along with the rent credit, it required a $2,072,959 contribution from the lessee by the end of 2024, increasing 3.25% a year after that. It also created a Shared Area Reserve Account that started at $2,280,000 and grows 5% a year.

In December 2025, Western Alliance Bank announced $35 million in financing for the Marina City Club Homeowners Association, to pay for structural repairs without a special assessment. According to the bank's release, the scope includes waterproofing and resurfacing the recreation deck, modernizing the elevators, and adding barbecue areas, basketball and bocce courts, updated Court Club facilities and an indoor pickleball court. The release says Essex Property Trust and Los Angeles County worked on the structure with the association. A buyer's diligence here involves two things that most condo purchases don't: the association's loan documents and the County lease amendments.

The landlord changed this year. The clock did not.

On June 30, 2026, the Board of Supervisors consented to an assignment of Lease No. 55624. The lease moved from Essex Marina City Club, L.P. to 4333 Admiralty Owner, LLC, with Coastline Real Estate Advisors, Inc. approved as manager. The County's letter states a leasehold price of $24,750,000 and confirms the term still ends July 29, 2067. The Board letter also includes a form for assigning enforcement of the condo deeds of trust to the new lessee. For owners, that means the party holding those enforcement rights is changing. The rent formula is not.

The Real Deal reported on September 8, 2026 that Essex sold the leasehold for $24.8 million. Essex had bought it in 2004 for $28.2 million and later put $36.4 million into capital improvements. In 2004 the buyer acquired about 63 years of remaining term. The 2026 buyer acquired about 41.

The financing dates that belong on a seller's calendar

Each federal loan program sets a minimum gap between the end of the lease and the date the loan matures. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide requires the unexpired lease term to exceed the loan's maturity date by at least five years. Freddie Mac's Guide Section 5704.1 sets the same five-year minimum. HUD Handbook 4000.1 requires a renewable lease of at least 99 years or a term that runs at least 10 years past the mortgage maturity date.

Working backward from July 29, 2067 gives these dates:

These dates come from the lease-term test only. Each program has its own project-level and lease-document requirements, so passing the term test doesn't mean a particular loan will be approved. Shorter loan terms push each date later. A 15-year loan has 15 more years of room on the same math. After each date passes, a buyer who needs that loan product either chooses a shorter term or isn't in the market for these units. A seller in 2031 will likely be marketing to a different set of buyers than a seller in 2026. The 2.5% transfer fee and a ground rent that rises every January come with the unit either way.

This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Lender rules and lease terms apply differently to each buyer and unit, so confirm your own situation with a qualified lender, attorney or tax professional.

A few direct answers

Is a Marina City Club unit legally a condominium? The County describes the units as prepaid subleasehold interests, not condominiums under the Subdivision Map Act, even though the governing documents call them condos.

Who collects the ground rent? The Condo Owners Association collects it from owners and pays it to the master lessee. The master lessee is responsible to the County for the full amount, even if the association doesn't collect all of it.

Did the 2026 lease assignment change rent or the end date? No. The County letter keeps the July 29, 2067 expiration, and the action did not change the rent.

What happens in 2067? According to the County's 2024 letter, the property reverts to County ownership when the lease expires.

If you own at Marina City Club and are weighing a sale, the decision comes down to the dates and fees above: the 2027 and 2032 financing cutoffs, the 2.5% transfer fee, and the yearly 3.25% rent increase. Lauren Morelli can help you price your unit against that schedule and plan your marketing around the buyers who can still finance. Start with a free home valuation built on your unit's lease terms.