Condo Developer Finds Opening With Vacant Lot

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A patch of dirt in Westwood has just sold for $13.3 million to North Hollywood’s Galvic Construction on its way to becoming high-end condos.

Located on the last vacant plot on Wilshire Boulevard’s condo row, the land has been permitted for a seven-story complex with 26 units.

Once completed, the condos will likely sell for about $2 million each, according to Joshua Levy and Matthew Dobson, managing partners at Arbor Realty Capital Advisors. The Pasadena-based pair represented the sellers, Hill Street Realty and Salem Partners, who spent two years planning the project.

“It’s a real challenging thing along that corridor because the homeowners’ associations are very vocal,” said Levy. “The community had a lot of involvement with the aesthetics of the building.”

The resulting design calls for a modern, midrise building far shorter than neighboring Wilshire buildings that tower as high as 28 stories. But because of that limitation, the footprint could make room for spacious patios.

The units will all offer either two or three bedrooms, at an average size of 1,550 square feet. Galvic plans to break ground early next year.  

“We had multiple offers,” said Dobson. “Ultimately, Galvic came in very aggressively and believed in the area.”

Vacancy along Wilshire’s so-called Golden Mile is as low as it’s been in 15 years, said Coldwell Banker agent Mark Rogo, who specializes in condo sales in the area. The inventory for sale is also at a historic low. Both factors are keeping condo prices high, about $1,200 to $1,400 a square foot for top-tier buildings. Some new buildings have even listed condos at $2,000 a square foot – a price Rogo said could be reasonable for Galvic’s project.

“Everybody wants new construction,” he said. “As long as they’re careful on the floor plans, the quality of the appliances, and the flow of the units, they’ll do just fine. There’s so much pent-up demand.”

El Segundo Soars

L.A.’s creative office wave just made a big splash in El Segundo.

An office campus off Rosecrans Avenue has sold for roughly $328 million – more than $600 a square foot.

That’s about twice the amount of other comparable office sales in El Segundo, said Mike McKeever, a senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle who foresees a strong future for creative offices.

“If you want to be a competitive company, you’re going to need to get into the creative products,” he said. “People aren’t going to go to work like our parents did.”

Called the Apollo on Rosecrans, the site encompasses about 547,000 square feet of office space on 13 acres. Its location along a bustling stretch of Rosecrans contributed to the high price tag, said McKeever. Other office parks ripe for creative conversions tend to be tucked away from main drags.

Intercontinental Real Estate Corp., based in Boston, bought the property from Invesco Ltd. of Atlanta. Invesco had nabbed the site in 2013 for just over $100 a square foot, and spruced it up with a basketball court, a dog park, and covered parking.

Tenants include health care company DaVita, clothier Just Fab, and ad agency Mullen Lowe, all of which moved in last year. They locked in, on average, 10-year leases that are already 25 percent below market value, said Jessica Levin, Sherman Oaks-based acquisitions director for Intercontinental. The complex has one vacant space left.

“There’s a lot of fundamentals we like about this area,” Levin said. “It’s poised for strong rent growth.”

With office rents that are 35 percent lower than in Playa Vista and 54 percent lower than in Santa Monica, El Segundo is quickly building its company roster.

Some 1.2 million square feet of creative office space are in the works – and are expected to command rates at least 18 percent higher than old-school competitors.

“The whole market used to go the way of those buildings. That’s not happening anymore,” said JLL’s McKeever.

And while brokers are wary of possible speed bumps in the tech industry, McKeever has his eye on something else: “People’s work habits are what you have to watch.”

Revamped Square

Pershing Square’s walls are about to come tumbling down.

Paris-based Agence Ter has been selected to revamp the outdated downtown L.A. park after an international competition spearheaded by City Councilman Jose Huizar and nonprofit Pershing Square Renew.

Working with several L.A. firms, Agence Ter plans to remove purple walls and parking lot ramps for easy street access, leveling the site to what it calls “radical flatness,” reminiscent of its original 1866 design. The project now needs to raise about $50 million before getting underway.

Staff reporter Daina Beth Solomon can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 237.

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