The South Bay office market is heating up.
TA Associates Management LP, a private equity investment firm in Boston, bought Park Del Amo at 2355 and 2377 Crenshaw Blvd. for $34.5 million from TPG Capital LP of Fort Worth, Texas. TPG acquired the complex as part of a much larger 52-property portfolio from Prologis Inc. in 2011.
Also, Beverly Hills’ Omninet Capital LLC acquired Pacific Pointe at 879 W. 190th St., for $43 million from Chicago’s Pearlmark Real Estate Partners, which acquired the property for $58 million in 2006.
The sales, both in Torrance, were the second and third largest of their kind in the South Bay this year. Only the recent acquisition of 200 and 300 Oceangate in downtown Long Beach by Angelo Gordon & Co. in New York was larger. The buildings, largely occupied by Molina Healthcare Inc., were part of a $159 million package that also included an Ohio office building.
“The market for suburban office and markets like Torrance have clearly improved and the depth of buyers has improved,” said Kevin Shannon, vice chairman at CBRE Group Inc.’s El Segundo office, who represented both sides in both transactions.
Both TA Associates and Omninet were interested in the purchases for the value-added opportunities each building provided, Shannon said.
Park Del Amo is a 205,000-square-foot, two-building complex that was built in 1985. It is 87 percent leased to tenants including insurance brokerage Keenan & Associates. TA Associates is planning to upgrade the lobby and common areas of the building.
Pacific Pointe is a 258,000-square-foot building that is 73 percent leased to tenants including Northrop Grumman Federal Credit Union and Farmers Insurance. It sits on a 10-acre site, which can accommodate a second office building should the new owner seek entitlements for one. It was built in 1988 but last renovated in 2008. Omninet, a real estate investment vehicle operated by L.A. billionaire Neil Kadisha, is planning extensive upgrades to the property.
Michael Moore, Scott Schumacher and Bill Bloodgood of CBRE also represented both sides in the deal.
Expanding Gold
Rosland Capital LLC is moving and expanding its headquarters in Santa Monica.
The firm, which sells gold and other precious metals, signed an eight-and-a-half-year lease last month for 15,000 square feet at 1333 Second St., known as Second Street Plaza, with landlord Douglas Emmett Inc., a publicly traded Santa Monica real estate investment trust. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Rosland is housed in about 8,000 square feet at 429 Santa Monica Blvd., which could not accommodate its expansion.
The company plans to move in October.
Trevor Belden, a principal of Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura, represented Rosland in the deal. Douglas Emmett was represented internally.
Burbank Sale
A 34,000-square-foot office building in Burbank traded hands for $10 million last month.
Burbank private investor Gerro Realty bought the four-story building at 2727 W. Alameda St. from Cafesjian Family Foundation Inc., according to CoStar Group Inc.
The sale closed days after the fully occupied building’s two tenants, FotoKem and Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, renewed their leases.
Dean Hawthorne, a vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., represented both sides of the deal. He said Burbank’s flat office leasing market with slow rent growth makes it attractive to cost-conscious firms.
“The city will continue to be attractive to companies looking to escape the high rents of West Los Angeles,as well as those who wish to capitalize on the benefits the city of Burbank has to offer,” he said.
Jones Lang LaSalle’s Corey Spound also represented both sides in the deal.
New Valuation Group
Lee & Associates has opened an L.A. office for its new valuation and consulting services division, an appraisal service line for the real estate firm.
The Southfield, Mich., real estate brokerage opened its first appraisal office in January in Atlanta. The L.A. office, in City of Industry, opened in March and is managed by Larry Johnson, a 10-year real estate industry veteran. Johnson is the senior appraiser, responsible for the preparation of real estate appraisals, feasibility studies and market studies of commercial real estate in the L.A. area.
The firm has also opened an office in Irvine and is close to opening six others in cities including Chicago and Washington.
Daniel Boring, the new division’s chief executive, said the decision to open in Los Angeles as the firm’s second location was driven by Lee’s deep ties to the city.
“L.A. is frankly a sweet spot for Lee & Associates,” he said. “Of the 48 national offices, 22 are in Southern California and that’s where Lee got its start in the ’70s. So that’s the power base and we are leveraging off of that.”
Staff reporter Jacquelyn Ryan can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.
