Developer Larry Bond and partner Canyon Johnson Realty Advisors have sold the landmark 625,000-square-foot mixed-use project Sunset + Vine for slightly less than $165 million.
SSR Realty Advisors Inc., a pension advisor for the California Public Employees Retirement System, bought the Hollywood complex for an undisclosed price, though sources close to the deal said it was below $165 million.
Calls to SSR weren’t returned but the sale was revealed to the building’s tenants in a letter dated Jan. 20. According to the letter, SSR has hired Irvine-based Legacy Partners Inc. to manage the property, which contains 300 loft-style apartments above 87,000 square feet of retail stores and an 883-space underground garage.
The deal gives Legacy a foothold in Hollywood just as the company is nearing the final planning stages of a $300 million mixed-use complex of its own at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.
Sunset + Vine’s retail space is fully leased to tenants including Borders, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Baja Fresh and Schwab’s Restaurant, among others.
Since leasing began in the middle of last year, Santa Monica-based Bond Cos. has managed to fill about 60 percent of the apartments, which after concessions rent for about $2.54 a foot. The complex also takes in revenue from leases on the project’s 20 billboards.
Bond and Canyon Johnson spent $115 million developing the 3.4-acre city block at the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street. Along with the Cinerama Dome redevelopment a block west, the project was a pioneer in a long-neglected area of Hollywood that had been unable to attract national retailers.
Bobby Turner, managing partner of Canyon Johnson, said the sale wasn’t a retreat from the Hollywood market and the firm continues to look for projects in the community. He said the fund typically holds assets between two and three years.
“Sunset + Vine was a significant anchor to the revitalization of that area,” Turner said. “In the next couple years you’ll see a couple thousand condominium and apartment units built in that immediate area.”
Bond already has several market-rate housing developments in various stages throughout Hollywood, and his firm is proposing to build a Whole Foods supermarket near the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue. Bond was traveling last week and didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Herb Chase, Curtis Palmer and Alex Quintana in the West L.A. office of Colliers Seeley International Inc. represented both sides in the transaction. Chase said the property attracted attention from a lot of national buyers, including other pension fund advisors and real estate investment trusts.
“The bids were all pretty tight,” he said. “Because of the complexity of the deal, it required folks with deep pockets to be the bidders.”
