Real Estate Column — Penthouse With Bulletproof Doors Going on the Market

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There’s no shortage of office space available in downtown Los Angeles, where the vacancy rate edged up to 22.5 percent in the second quarter, according to just-released stats from Grubb & Ellis Co.

But about 60,000 square feet that is about to hit the market stands out from much of the pack. It encompasses the top four floors of Figueroa Tower, purchased by Mani Brothers Real Estate Investment LLC in late 1998.

The penthouse in particular has several unique features created for executives of H.F. Ahmanson & Co., parent of Home Savings of America (which was acquired in 1999 by Washington Mutual Inc.). Ahmanson built the 24-story tower in 1988 as the bank’s headquarters downtown.

The penthouse features bulletproof glass doors that can be closed at the touch of a button from any of the desks in the office. The carpets, mahogany paneling and furniture were all custom-made. And the suite includes a conference room that seats 30 people and offices with private bathrooms hidden behind the paneling.

“The penthouse definitely has a corporate feel,” said Mani Brothers Vice President Joseph Mani (whose father and uncle are the “brothers” in the company’s name). “You won’t find too much space like this in the city.”

The three floors below the penthouse, each of which is about 15,000 square feet, had been leased by the New York law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft;, which has downscaled its L.A. operation and is subleasing portions to other firms until its lease comes up in October. The penthouse, meanwhile, has been occupied by a Chinese telecommunications firm.

The space also includes an opportunity to name the building, which was formerly called Home Savings Tower, at 660 S. Figueroa St.

Mani said the asking rate will be around $2.50 per square foot per month, a little higher than the average class-A asking rate downtown, but much less than comparable space on the Westside.

One downtown broker said, even though the penthouse space is beautiful, it has an ’80s corporate feel and opulence that could be a hard sell in today’s market.

“Most tenants don’t want that image,” said Whitley Collins with CB Richard Ellis. “At the end of the day, someone could rebuild it from scratch and it could be very nice.”

Gregory Camacho, director of leasing for Mani, said he has received inquiries from professional service firms interested in possibly leasing the more-exclusive top-floor space for partners, as well as from communications and dot-com companies that want the prestige.

Dennis Smith, a broker with Travers Realty/Oncor International, said most brokers run into at least a couple of tenants a year who want that kind of space.

“The question is, does it have a layout and look that appeal to any tenant in the market now?” he said. “I’ve seen a couple of investment banking firms that would only consider downtown if there’s something special.”

Mani Brothers, whose roots are in the baked goods business, has acquired several office buildings in recent years in Culver City, Sherman Oaks, Santa Monica and West Hollywood and is headquartered at Figueroa Tower.

Dr. Lee Invests Again

Dr. David Lee, the San Fernando Valley-based internist who has been cornering the Mid-Wilshire office market, has bought another building in that area.

Lee’s latest purchase is Wilshire Square 1 at 3345 Wilshire Blvd., which he bought last week for $8.6 million from the Hertz Investment Group.

Wolfgang Kupka, president of Vista Realty Advisors, represented both sides in the deal. Hertz bought the 1969-vintage, 12-story building more than a year ago for $7 million.

101 Corridor Deal

Holualoa Cos., which has been buying up Southern California property since 1997, has added the Heritage Financial Center in Agoura Hills to its portfolio.

Holualoa purchased the office building at 30851 W. Agoura Road for $7.75 million from GE Capital, which occupies about half the building. It is about 80 percent leased, counting GE Capital, said Aroon Chinai, vice president at Holualoa.

Chinai said the plan is to add parking between the three-story building and the freeway and “try to lease it up.” The glass-and-brick building was constructed in 1983 for Heritage Life, which was subsequently acquired by GE.

Holualoa is a private investment company that was started guess where? in Hawaii in the late 1980s by I. Michael Kasser. The company then began investing in Arizona, followed by California in 1996.

Chinai said that when he first arrived in L.A., he started looking at deals on the Westside and making offers, but no one would take the company with the unusual name seriously, especially with Arden Realty and Douglas Emmett hotly vying for deals.

“I said, ‘I guess I have to go where no one wants to go downtown,'” Chinai said. The company’s first purchase was the Coast Savings Building at Ninth and Hill streets, for $4.55 million from a partnership run by Sam Zell that had invested about $15 million in the property. Since then, Holualoa has taken the building from 69 percent occupied to 91 percent, with a pending lease with the state of California.

Holualoa now owns 12 buildings in L.A. and Orange counties, including several in the San Fernando Valley and along the 101 Corridor, and it has two deals in progress in San Diego. It generally goes after B-quality buildings in A and B locations.

“We’re looking for properties in markets with strong job growth in communities that are desirable to live in,” Chinai said.

Mark Leonard of Cushman & Wakefield represented both sides in the Agoura Hills deal, and Timothy Arick of Dwyer-Curlett & Co. arranged the financing.

Carson Lease

New Age Electronics has signed a five-year, $7 million lease with Watson Land Co. for a second building at Watson Corporate Center in Carson.

New Age, one of the fastest growing distributors of computer equipment and consumer electronics, has occupied a 110,000-square-foot “Legacy Building” (flexible, class-A warehouse space with fiber-optics) at the center for the past two years.

About 20,000 square feet within its new 186,000-square-foot Legacy Building will be converted to office space.

Elizabeth Hayes can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 229, or at [email protected].

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