A 46,000-square-foot, Class B Century City office building is about to get rescuscitated.
Dr. Bruce Gillis, chief executive of medical diagnostic testing company EpicGenetics, acquired the four-story building at 1940 Century Park East last month for $23 million, or about $500 a square foot. The seller was Sacramento investor James Accinelli, who had the property on the market for about 18 months.
Gillis hired Westwood real estate services firm Cal Select Properties to manage the building and has already hired downtown L.A. architectural design firm Gensler to draft ideas for a makeover of the Century City building. Built in 1965 and renovated in 1998, the glass-fronted building already stands out somewhat for having drive-up parking on every level.
“We’re changing the façade of the building and the lobby,” he said. “I’m hoping it will turn out to be as iconic in Century City as (Walt Disney Concert Hall) is to downtown Los Angeles.”
Gillis declined to disclose his budget for the project while plans are still in flux, but said that he expects to complete the extensive renovation by the end of the year.
He has an incentive to get the renovations done as quickly as possible: Last week, Gillis moved his company into the building, where it occupies about 10,000 square feet. He was previously at a medical office building at 1919 Santa Monica Blvd., which he sold in October to Century City real estate investment firm Goldstein Planting Investments for $26 million.
Brokers Jeffrey Pion and Michelle Esquivel of CBRE Group Inc. represented the seller in the Century City deal.
Golden Lease
3 Arts Entertainment, a Beverly Hills talent management firm with clients that include a number of well-known comedians, has reupped its commitment to the Golden Triangle.
The management and production company signed an eight-year lease last week to renew and expand its space at 9460 Wilshire Blvd. in a deal valued at about $9 million. The firm, which previously had about 14,000 square feet in various offices scattered in the building, will consolidate onto two full floors – levels six and seven – taking about 16,400 square feet.
At about $5.70 a square foot a month, the lease rate is expensive, even for Beverly Hills. In the first quarter this year, the average Class A asking rent in Beverly Hills was $4.62, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
3 Arts, with clients such as Louis C.K., Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling, has production credits for TV shows such as “Louie,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Mindy Project,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and, most recently, “Silicon Valley.”
Michael Freiberg, a senior managing director who recently joined Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, represented 3 Arts in the deal. He said the firm still had two years left on its lease but was eager to have contiguous space in the building.
“An opportunity to expand in the building came up, so we ripped up their old lease and signed a new eight-year lease,” he said.
Landlord Universal Properties Inc. handled the transaction internally.
Pasadena Apartments
An apartment complex in Pasadena with mostly government-subsidized rental units sold last week for more than $15.7 million in an off-market deal.
NNC Apartment Ventures, a Long Beach real estate company that invests in high-risk multifamily properties in urban areas, bought the 114-unit complex, at 1070 N. Lake Ave., from Levine Management Group Inc.
The concrete block complex, developed in 1971 by what was then known as Ronald Levine Construction & Investment Corp., was in the family for more than 40 years before it sold for about $138,000 a unit.
David Kaufman of L.A. boutique brokerage Kaufman Commercial represented the buyer and seller in the deal. He said Levine, with offices on Robertson Boulevard just east of Beverly Hills, was looking to close the deal quickly to invest elsewhere.
“They wanted to raise cash for another deal,” he said.
Kaufman said the buyer plans to upgrade the property, which is now about 70 percent Section 8 housing, to have more market-rate units. Plans also include adding more amenities to the property, such as a gym and barbeque area.
Staff reporter Bethany Firnhaber can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.
