An Art Deco-style apartment building near the Santa Monica Pier has a new owner, who plans an extensive upgrade.
Sean Baker, who owns about 25 apartment buildings around Los Angeles, has just added the Ocean Front Terrace to his portfolio.
The 30-unit building is at 1659 Ocean Front Walk, between Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and the pier. It was originally constructed as a hotel in 1930, then converted to apartments in the ’50s, said Rod Delson, president of Delson Norris Investment Properties in Woodland Hills.
Delson represented the seller, a group of local investors, and buyer, a limited partnership of which Baker is the president. Delson’s partnership is investing about $3.1 million to purchase the building and renovate it inside and out.
Fitness guru Jack Lalanne and movie star Douglas Fairbanks both lived there at one time. Lalanne helped put Santa Monica’s neighboring Muscle Beach which has rings and bars but is not as famous as its Venice counterpart on the map.
“It was a hangout for Muscle Beach guys and bohemian people,” Delson said.
The one- and two-bedroom apartments, most of which have unobstructed ocean views, are fully occupied today, mostly with movie-industry people, he said.
Valley building acquisition
Douglas Emmett & Co. is expected to close escrow next month on the McNeil Plaza office tower at the southeast corner of Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards in Sherman Oaks, according to sources.
If the deal goes through as expected, Douglas Emmett would own three of the four properties at that major intersection. The company last year acquired the Sherman Oaks Galleria, and last summer it added the 171,000-square-foot Glendale Federal Bank building and adjoining properties.
Douglas Emmett officials declined to comment, but others close to the deal said the company has agreed to pay close to $200 a square foot for the 375,000-square-foot McNeil Plaza tower.
Douglas Emmett is expected to spruce up the intersection, adding landscaping and other details that would give the thoroughfare a unified look, similar to what it created on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood after acquiring several properties there.
McNeil Plaza was part of a portfolio of properties owned by John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., which in July put a package of 25 Western region properties on the block. But it recently began breaking apart that portfolio in light of the turmoil in the financial markets.
Consulting marriage
Two high-profile L.A. consultants are joining forces Greg Broughton, founder and president of Santa Monica-based Planning Consultant Research, and Allan Kotin, founder of KMG Consulting. Planning Consultant Research plans to acquire KMG, rounding out the environmental planning firm with an economic and fiscal impact division. Kotin’s operation will continue to be run as an autonomous division.
Founded in 1974, Planning Consultant Research provides environmental planning, scientific, engineering and strategic services to public- and private-sector clients worldwide. KMG Consulting, founded in 1980, is a full-service real estate economics consulting firm that provides services in financial feasibility, asset management and economic development, among other areas.
Investment in El Segundo
Legacy Partners, formerly known as Lincoln Property Co., purchased two vacant office buildings at 888 and 898 Sepulveda Blvd. in El Segundo for just under $9.5 million.
The 90,000-square-foot building at 898 Sepulveda will be substantially renovated in the next six to nine months to compete with other class-A office buildings in El Segundo. The new owner hopes to get a monthly rental rate of $1.95 full service gross with a tenant improvement allowance.
The 888 Sepulveda building will either be renovated, converted to a hotel or demolished and replaced with a new class-A building, said Steve Solomon, vice president at the Seeley Co. He and Scott Word with Seeley represented Legacy. Concord Realty represented the seller, Rayton Industries.
Westlake Village project
L.A.-based Investment Development Services Inc. has acquired 18 acres in Westlake Village where it plans to develop a $50 million, 326,400-square-foot business campus, said Hayden C. Eaves III and David Mgrublian, IDS managing directors.
The company paid about $16 million for the site adjacent to the Ventura (101) Freeway at Lindero Canyon Road. Eaves said there is a shortage of quality office space in the Conejo Valley, where the vacancy rate is just 6 percent.
IDS plans to build three two-story office buildings in a master-planned project called Westlake North Business Park. IDS anticipates starting construction next March, with occupancy scheduled for next December. Jim Lindvall and Tom Festa of Grubb & Ellis Co. will co-market the project with IDS.
Huge lease deal
Deloitte & Touche LLP’s 343,000-square-foot downtown lease deal has been completed. The Big Five accounting firm signed a 15-year lease with Equity Office Properties Trust for 14 floors of office space and top-of-the-building signage rights at Two California Plaza the largest lease deal in L.A. this year. The firm’s 1,500 employees will move in the spring of 2000.
Steve Bay, Gary Weiss, John Ghiselli and Onno Zwaneveld, all with the brokerage firm Julien J. Studley Inc., negotiated the deal on behalf of Deloitte.
News & notes
Meditrust Cos. announced a major restructuring last week that includes the sale of $1 billion of assets, including its Santa Anita Park racetrack and interest in the neighboring mall in Arcadia. The Needham, Mass.-based real estate investment trust’s move follows an expansion that sent the company’s stock plunging by 56 percent this year. Ontario, Canada-based businessman and horse owner Frank Stronach has said he has signed a letter of intent to buy the track. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Marine Truck Service signed a $1.95 million lease for 123,000 square feet of industrial space at 15700 S. Avalon Blvd. in Compton. The space will be used for warehousing and distribution, said Gary Blau of the Goodglick Co., which represented the lessor, Avalon Properties. Representing the lessee was Los Angeles Real Estate Management. VIP Tours and Charters purchased a 25,000-square-foot building at 9830 Bellanco Ave. in Westchester for $1.27 million. The building will be used for the company’s headquarters and operation center. Jim Decarli of Goodglick represented the buyer and seller, Bellanca Avenue Properties.
Staff Reporter Shelly Garcia contributed to this report. Elizabeth Hayes can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 229.
