Publishing giant Larry Flynt has put the landmark Flynt Publications building in Beverly Hills up for sale, for an asking price of $60 million.
Known to many as the Great Western Bank building because the thrift formerly housed its headquarters there, the 225,000-square-foot building is now the world headquarters of Flynt Publications, the company’s Internet site, and other subsidiaries of Flynt’s publishing empire. Flynt bought the building in 1994 under an entity called L. Flynt Ltd.-8484 Inc.
Despite the sale plans, Flynt has no intention of moving out or taking down the white-lit sign atop the Beverly Hills building, said Thomas Candy, chief financial officer for LFP Inc., parent company for the Flynt-owned businesses.
It’s a seller’s market and the timing is right for a sale, Candy said. But Flynt plans to lease back his office space from the buyer, maintaining the same amount of space his companies currently occupy, under a long-term deal.
Flynt’s operations take up 95,500 square feet, just under half of the building, which is 94 percent leased. Other tenants include Washington Mutual Bank and an international collection of tenants: the consulates of Brazil and Ecuador, the German National Tourist Board and the Singapore Tourism Board. The building was built in 1972 and designed by William Pierrera.
Brace Frasco of Charles Dunn Co.’s Woodland Hills office is co-listing the property with Art Pferrerman of Coldwell Banker Commercial Properties’ San Fernando Valley office.
Old JPL Campuses Sold
Three low-rise office campuses formerly occupied by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been sold by a long-established Pasadena family for $24 million to an investor group, Pasadena Business Park LLC.
The properties contain 280,000 square feet of building space and will be repositioned as the East Pasadena Business Park.
The campuses consist of buildings used from the ’50s to the ’80s by JPL, until it reduced its operations in the ’90s and consolidated to its main campus at the edge of Pasadena near La Canada Flintridge.
The transaction involves four buildings totaling 83,000 square feet at 2555 Colorado Blvd., three buildings totaling 127,000 square feet at 133-171 N. Altadena Drive, and three buildings totaling 70,000 square feet at 2500-2570 Foothill Blvd.
Since JPL pulled out, the buildings have undergone $5 million worth of improvements and the occupancy rate has risen to 84 percent from 50 percent. Leases signed in the past four months include 13,000 square feet by Verizon Select Services Inc. and 10,000 square feet by SBC Communications Inc.
“We have great activity on it right now,” said R. Scott Martin of Charles Dunn Co., who represented the seller in the deal. “Vacancy in Pasadena right now is 7 percent. For a while, (east Pasadena) wasn’t a desirable area, but Pasadena’s been so tight.”
Mark Brunner of Matlow-Kennedy represented the buyer.
Turnaround Story
Hines Interests’ renovation of 10100 Santa Monica Blvd. in Century City is nearly complete.
Two years after starting a $4 million redo to strengthen the building’s design and identity, it is now 97 percent full. Leases totaling 150,000 square feet have been signed since January, said Todd Later, director of marketing for Hines. The building was constructed in the 1970s by the Aluminum Co. of America (Alcoa).
The latest major leases include law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, which has taken 24,000 square feet on the seventh floor, a deal worth more than $10 million. Stan Gerlach and Deron White of CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant. The firm is expected to move in within two months.
After 10 years in the building, law firm Pachulski, Stang, Ziehl, Young & Jones, which leases the 11th floor, has expanded into another 13,000 square feet on the fourth floor, bringing its total to 36,000 square feet. The lease consideration is more than $18 million for another 10 years. The broker representing the law firm was Gary Weiss at DLJ Realty. David Jordan represented Hines in both transactions.
“Rather than wait a couple years when the market could be tight, they renewed their lease for another 10 years on their existing space, plus another 50 percent,” Later said.
Smaller leases have been signed in the building over the past year by such firms as Career Group Inc., Davis & Heubeck, and Assante Corp.
The building seemed to be in trouble last year after Princess Cruises moved to Valencia, vacating three full floors. Law firm Loeb & Loeb expanded to fill up much of that space, however. The two floors still to be vacated by Princess Cruises the 17th and 26th will be available next summer in “cornshell” condition, meaning they will be completely stripped.
L.A. Mall Deal
A Carlsbad company has agreed to buy three grocery-anchored shopping centers in L.A. County from Burnham Pacific Properties Inc., part of a liquidation plan approved by San Diego-based Burnham Pacific’s board last month.
GMS Realty LLC has signed an agreement to buy 19 properties from Burnham Pacific for $305 million in cash. The sale involves almost 2.5 million square feet of retail space in the Sacramento area, the Bay Area and Southern California. The deal is contingent on stockholder approval of the REIT’s liquidation on Oct. 18, which is expected.
The L.A. properties are the 90,000-square-foot Buena Vista Marketplace on Huntington Drive in Duarte, the 71,000-square-foot Centerwood Plaza on Lakewood Boulevard in Bellflower, and the 66,700-square-foot Ralphs Center on Hawthorne Boulevard in Redondo Beach.
GMS Realty has been looking to expand in California, Colorado and Washington since it got a new burst of capital from Principal Financial Group’s investment fund Principal Enterprise Capital in February, when partner Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund sold its interest in the company. L.A. County properties already owned by GMS include The Quad at Whittier, Atlantic Square and Somerset Plaza.
Staff reporter Milo Peinemann can be reached at [email protected].
