Bad.Century

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5757 Century Blvd.

Near LAX

It doesn’t necessarily look like a bad building at least from the outside. But the eight-story, glassy black building at 5757 Century Blvd. has a history of problems.

Built in 1981, cracks began to show early on. The ceilings were angled oddly. The floors sloped. The parking garage slanted off. There were too many support posts scattered throughout the complex.

According to local real estate brokers, the structure was thrown together in an ill-planned rush of commercial development along the LAX corridor in the early 1980s.

Soon after the building was completed in 1981, developer C-D Investment Co. fell on hard times and sold almost $1 billion of its property portfolio to Texas-based Sunbelt Savings and Loan. The thrift was later taken over by federal regulators.

The building is now owned by GE Credit Equities. Gunnar Branson, a spokesman for GE Capital Real Estate, acknowledged that the building has its faults but said that leasing prospects still look good.

“For the right user, it makes sense,” he said.

The Century Boulevard property is about 60 percent leased. Tenants include law firms, travel information bureaus for foreign countries, executive suites and other organizations that are “not fussy and are looking to avoid high-rise rents,” one broker said.

Others describe the rents as “remarkably attractive,” about half of that charged for office space in neighboring El Segundo.

Ann Donahue

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