$7,000,000
Sale price
Single Family · Mount Olympus
The Treehouse HH
8070 Laurelmont Dr · Sold · $7,000,000 · 2021 – 2024
48 mo
Acquisition to sale
30+
Caissons required
Mount Olympus
Hollywood Hills
The Investment
The project that changed how we underwrite hillside work — and the one we point to first when we talk about risk.
A hillside flag-lot rebuild in Mount Olympus that carried genuine new-construction scope under a remodel permit — new retaining walls and more than thirty caissons. The structural work materially exceeded the original pricing, and on a hillside site that overage is not recoverable through value engineering.
The extended timeline compounded the problem. Forty-eight months of debt carry and partner-level costs built up before the home sold for $7,000,000 in 2024.
The carry meant the project did not return the sponsor's equity in full — the only such outcome across 21 completed projects. We disclose it for the same reason it appears in the track record: an operator's record is only useful if it includes the deals that did not work.
Gallery
The Property.
The Outcome
How It Finished.
| Strategy | Result | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Studs-out rebuild — hillside flag lot | Sold — $7,000,000 | 2021 – 2024 |
Detailed project financials are discussed privately with investors we have an established relationship with. How we work with investors →
This project was completed by the principals through Thornton Development Group or an affiliated predecessor entity. It was not an Assemble Capital offering and did not involve Assemble Capital investors. Sale prices are recorded sale prices. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Investment Cycle
How the Deal Ran.
Every project follows the same arc — acquire, design and permit, build, market, exit. What changes is where the time and the risk concentrate.
2021
Acquire
Hillside flag lot acquired with a studs-out remodel scope underwritten.
2021–2022
Discover
Structural conditions required retaining walls and 30+ caissons — new-construction scope under a remodel permit.
2022–2023
Build
Extended schedule; debt carry and partner-level costs compounded.
2024
Market
Listed and sold into a functioning market at $7,000,000.
2024
Exit
Sold in 2024; carry costs meant sponsor equity was not returned in full.
The Takeaway
Project margin is not equity return. Underwriting must test the equity outcome, not just the spread between cost and exit price.
Accountability
What Changed Afterward.
A loss is only useful if it changes the underwriting. These controls were implemented across the platform following this project.
- Geotechnical and structural investigation before acquisition on all hillside deals
- Hillside-specific contingency and interest-reserve sizing, with maximum-duration limits in underwriting
- A severe-downside case required at investment committee — equity outcome tested, not just project margin
- Preference shifted toward ministerial and flatland product (SB 684, infill multifamily) at greater scale
Investor Relationships
Interested in How We Work?
We develop Los Angeles residential projects alongside investors we know well, and the principals personally guarantee the project loans, never our investors. Project details are shared privately, once we’ve gotten to know you. Nothing here is an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security.