The nine-digit sale of a large Torrance office campus topped the list of the largest office investment deals last month and was the only one to break the $100 million mark.
The top-five sales of June totaled $401.3 million and were spread around Los Angeles County, from Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley down to Torrance in the South Bay. The numbers were compiled using data from PropertyShark.
1. Torrance Technology Campus — FRM Associates| $124M
FRM Associates picked up this sprawling 26.7-acre campus for $216 per square foot. The Torrance Technology Campus includes five buildings and 574,000 square feet of space. The seller was a joint venture of PM Realty Group and Platform Ventures. The sale was a quick turnaround for them — they paid $67 million for the property in November 2016 and spent $30 million to improve it. The defense communications company L3 Technologies is the biggest tenant of the Torrance facility, leasing about 80 percent of the campus. Property records indicate that an LLC connected to Kansas City investor Maxus Properties has a 14 percent stake in the property.
2. Marina Park Business Center — LaSalle Investment Management | $83.8M
JLL’s investment wing scooped up this Marina del Rey office campus from a joint venture of SteelWave and AllianceBernstein, which paid $50.5 million for it as part of a portfolio deal in 2016. Marina del Rey is seeing increased investment as tech firms look there for rents cheaper than what is available in neighboring Santa Monica and Venice, which make up the core of Silicon Beach. The two three-story office buildings at 4551-4553 Glencoe Avenue total 148,000 square feet. The complex was built in 1984 and is currently leased by an aviation company and the Girl Scouts Council.
3. 331 N. Maple Drive — DivcoWest | $82.2M
DivcoWest moved into the Beverly Hills Media and Entertainment District with the purchase of this roughly 90,000-square-foot office building built by entertainment titan David Geffen as the headquarters of Geffen Records. The price pencils out to around $912-933 per square foot. The seller was RREEF America, the asset management wing of Deutsche Bank. Geffen built the three-story building in 2000. It includes a number of high-tech and media amenities, including a 45-seat theater, sound-proof recording studios, and a custom audio and video conferencing system. It is currently 60 percent occupied by a single tenant.
4. Taft Building — Ocean West Capital Partners | $70M
The 12-story Taft Building has sat at 1680 Vine Street for 95 years and once housed early Hollywood star Charlie Chaplin’s business office. Ocean West picked up the historic high-rise from the New York-based firm DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, which paid $28 million for it in 2011 and spent $15 million on renovations. Ocean West’s purchase came out to around $555 per square foot.
5. Chatsworth Business Center — Atlas Capital Group | $41.3M
UBS Realty offloaded this San Fernando Valley business park to Atlas Capital Group 12 years after purchasing it for $35.5 million. It was Atlas’ first purchase in the Valley since 2016. The New York firm has mostly focused its efforts in L.A. on Downtown properties. The business park includes four low-rise buildings that add up to 214,000 square feet. Tenants as of 2016 includes the State of California, City of Los Angeles, home security firm ADT, and the University of West Los Angeles School of Law.