Cabi West Buys Arden Portfolio

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Arden Realty Inc., one of the biggest landlords in Southern California, has agreed to sell a 33-property portfolio to Cabi West Coast Acquisitions LLC for just under $1.5 billion.


The deal for about 4.6 million square feet of office space includes properties in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange and Ventura counties. It is expected to close on July 10. Cabi West is the local subsidiary of Mexican real estate developer GISCA.


“I think it’s a fabulous acquisition for them,” said Bob Safai of Madison Partners, who represented Arden in the sale of four of the properties in the portfolio. “It’s a way to control a major portfolio and often times it takes a decade to acquire this amount of property.”


The 33 buildings range in size from 30,000 square feet to about 300,000 square feet. The portfolio includes 21 Los Angeles County properties. Some of the Los Angeles buildings are located in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Torrance and Glendale.


Safai said his firm represented Los Angeles-based Arden in the sale of office buildings at 2730 Wilshire Blvd., 1919 Santa Monica Blvd., 11075 Santa Monica Blvd. and 10350 Santa Monica Blvd.


“I think (Cabi West’s) goal is to acquire more properties and be a player in the real estate market here,” he said. Other bidders for the portfolio were Hines, Kennedy-Wilson Inc., Walton Street Capital LLC and Jamison Properties Inc.


Cabi West’s local operation is run by Henry Shahery, an investor with the Moinian Group on its Figueroa Central downtown mixed-use project, and Rich Mayo. The company declined to comment.


Cabi West is not as well known as some of the other real estate companies that were vying for the portfolio, but Safai said more deals like this can be expected.


“It’s just another example that there are more and more locally unknown players and global players coming into the L.A. market all the time,” he said.


Arden was acquired by GE Real Estate, a division of General Electric Co., for $4.8 billion last May. Since that acquisition, Arden has been selling off pieces of its portfolio.


“I think they are pruning some of the old, not-so-core assets,” Safai said.

Arden did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

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