An affiliate of Lincoln Property Co. has purchased an office complex just east of Playa Vista and has plans to freshen up the 560,000-square-foot site. LPC Realty Advisors I bought the six-building Wateridge campus in Ladera Heights on behalf of a public pension fund for $135 million, or about $240 a square foot, according to a source close to the deal.
The site is about 70 percent occupied. Tenants include Evolve Media, Kaiser Permanente, and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
Lincoln’s finance director, Stephen Lindgren, said he expects to draw tenants ranging from tech and media firms to law offices and accountants for the remaining space.
“As Playa Vista and Corporate Pointe continue to tighten, we’ll be able to offer a lower-cost alternative to be in those same markets,” he said.
Several buildings recently traded at Corporate Pointe, about a mile away, for roughly $300 a square foot, with the new owners planning renovations. Right next door, IDS Real Estate Group is constructing a 281,000-square-foot office.
Lindgren said the developments bode well for Wateridge, especially as Playa Vista’s coveted leases get gobbled up and as plans progress for a football stadium in nearby Inglewood. Lincoln’s renovation will add retailers, replace furniture, revamp outdoor plazas, and spruce up empty offices.
The sellers were Mullen Co. of Irvine and Rockwood Capital of San Francisco, who bought the complex for $136 million in 2007.
Playa Vista isn’t the only office market drawing attention. A 1,900-square-foot office on North Highland Avenue in Hollywood sold last week for $1.8 million. That’s $947 a square foot – setting a record for a Hollywood office sale, according to Jones Lang LaSalle brokers Nicole Mihalka and Angela Sanders, who represented the seller. Lee Polster of Coldwell Banker Westmac represented the buyer.
Polster said the site is slated to become production offices and meeting space for entertainment professionals, particularly to promote the advancement of women in entertainment and media.
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