Boston Properties paid $616 million for the ground lease at the Santa Monica Business Park, the massive office campus located at 2850 – 3420 Ocean Park Boulevard, The Real Deal has learned.
The Boston-based real estate investment trust confirmed the sale as part of its first quarter results late Tuesday afternoon. The deal works out to $616 per square foot.
The seller, Blackstone Group, listed the ground lease on the 1 million-square-foot, 40-acre complex in June.
Eastdil Secured had the listing.
The firm acquired the business park in 2009 as part of its $39 billion leveraged buyout of Equity Office Properties.
The land, however, is owned by an entity connected to Tom and Roberta Irish. Tom Irish manages the holdings of the Torrance-based Transpacific Development Company, which originally developed the office park in 1980. It underwent a renovation in 2000, according to Real Capital Analytics.
Snap Inc., the parent company of the messaging application Snapchat, cut a deal to occupy 300,000 square feet at the property in January 2017. It also has the option to add another 100,000 square feet as other tenants exit.
Other tenants at the business park include Pandora, Activision Blizzard, Treyarch and Cypress Creek Renewables.
Douglas Emmett, a REIT that owns several Class A office properties in Los Angeles, was a leading contender for the site. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, another REIT, was also on the shortlist, sources said.
Boston Properties made a big move into the L.A. real estate market in May 2016 when it paid over $500 million for a 50 percent stake in Colorado Center, a six-building office campus at 2401-2501 Colorado Boulevard and 2400-2500 Broadway.
CEO Owen Thomas later said the purchase was its first step in establishing the West Coast city as its fifth core market.
Blackstone has been slowly unloading some of its trophy properties in L.A. It listed and sold the buildings at 1299 Ocean Avenue and 1999 Avenue of the Stars, as well as a pair of office buildings in Glendale.