The real estate company announced Oct. 15 that it had purchased the 102,500-square-foot property for $153 million.
IRA Principal Samir Patel said the live entertainment and ticket selling company will remain in the building on an 11-year lease signed in 2019.
The four-story structure was formerly owned by Santa Monica-based Worthe Real Estate Group and Invesco Real Estate. Known as The Post, it is also the longtime home of a United States Postal Service branch, which will continue to occupy 8% of the building.
A spokesperson for Live Nation said the office is open on a flex basis for employees who choose to use the space.
The building underwent a $44 million redesign in 2019 led by Gensler, which outfitted the office building with airy working spaces accentuated by walls of glass and 22-foot ceilings.
Patel indicated that the purchase is one of many now being pursued by IRA.
“We are going to buy over $1 billion of assets in the next few months, and we are targeting entertainment and technology assets in and around the Los Angeles area,” said Patel.
The pandemic struck a mighty blow to the office market in Los Angeles and beyond, but spaces used by entertainment companies have proven relatively resilient to the downturn.
“We think there will be continuing investment by some of the large media companies because of the need for additional content,” Patel said. “These tenants are going to continue to get larger and stronger in terms of creditworthiness.”
With a business model reliant on the possibility of staging large gatherings, Live Nation was deeply affected by the pandemic — though the company has rebounded dramatically in the last few months.
The company reported revenue of $576 million in the second quarter of 2021, a more than seven-fold increase over the $74.1 million reported in the same period a year prior. Live Nation subsidiary Ticketmaster also recorded its fourth-best month in its history in terms of transaction volume.
With Covid-19 levels declining in the United States and both event venues and offices filling back up with people, Patel said, Live Nation is an attractive tenant moving forward.
“We think they’re a very strong tenant,” he said. “Certain types of tenants will continue to work from home for the long term, but we think more client-facing tenants like Live Nation will definitely return to the office.”
