Construction company Kiewit Pacific Co. recently signed a big sublease at the Howard Hughes Center after getting a piece of a $950 million government contract.
The company, a subsidiary of Omaha, Neb., construction and engineering giant Kiewit Corp., has taken 49,570 square feet at the 6060 Center Drive in the Westchester office complex.
The offices are being used for its design and construction group working on a planned San Diego (405) Freeway expansion between the Santa Monica (10) and Ventura (101) freeways, said David Kimball of brokerage UGL Equis.
Terms of the sublease with video game developer Activision Blizzard Inc. of Santa Monica were not disclosed. The deal, which runs through February 2011, closed in May and Kiewet moved in last month.
The sublease not only reflects the boom in government contracting but the state of the video game industry, which is consolidating.
Matthew Miller of brokerage CresaPartners LLC said that Activision Blizzard vacated the space earlier this year after it had become “redundant” after the late 2007 merger of Activision Inc. and Vivendi Games. “They have several locations around Southern California,” said Miller of the the video game company, which he represented in the deal with Kiewit.
Activision Blizzard did not return e-mails seeking comment; Kiewit did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Kimball, who represented Kiewit, said that his client had several other options but chose the Howard Hughes Center because of its amenities and location next to the 405.
“The deal makes sense for Kiewit because it allowed them to move into pretty much a plug-and-play situation,” he said.
Josef Farrar and Caroline Joseph of UGL Equis also represented Kiewit.
Equity Office, a unit of New York-based private equity company Blackstone Group LP, owns 6060 Center Drive.
Price reduction
The Lofts at Hollywood and Vine, a condo project in the former Equitable Building, has sold only 27 of 65 units since opening in late 2007.
Now developer Paladin Realty Partners LLC has cut prices by 30 percent to 40 percent. The Westwood company rolled out the steep discounts in late May, dropping the least expensive condos at the 6253 Hollywood Blvd. building from the mid-$400,000s to the mid-$300,000s.
While Paladin had been selectively negotiating prices with prospective buyers, the reduction is the first across-the-board price cute, said Managing Director Jay Hartman.
“I think like everybody, we were surprised at the magnitude of the fall. But the market is sending very clear signals,” Hartman said. “This is the big dramatic cut that further underscores the opportunity to buy into Hollywood now at a really low price.”
One unit has been sold since the price reductions and another sale is expected to close soon, Hartman said.
The project is the second high-profile adaptive reuse condo project to make or announce big price cuts in recent weeks. The Business Journal reported last week that the new owners of the 23-story Mercury condo building in Koreatown planned to dramatically reduce prices on the remaining 149 units with lower-end units priced in the low $200,000s.
Units at the Hollywood project range from 850 square feet to 2,000 square feet, with the most expensive unit a large penthouse newly priced at $1.4 million. Hartman said that on average, the units are priced at about $500 per square foot.
Industrial Deal
A $3.7 million sale to an owner-user has been completed in Santa Fe Springs.
AeroChip Inc. of Gardena, an aerospace parts manufacturer, purchased a 51,659 square-foot industrial building at 13565 Freeway Drive for its headquarters.
The company will move into the building by the end of the year, but first needs to upgrade the property, including the construction of 6,000 square feet of office space, said Chuck Wilson of Colliers International, who represented the seller, an unnamed Orange County-based limited partnership.
Wilson said the deal, completed in May, is the first industrial sale of more than 50,000 square feet in the Santa Fe Springs area this year. He called it a market-rate deal that showed the manufacuting sector is still alive.
Clyde Stauff of Colliers also represented the seller. Rudy Lara of Daum Commercial Real Estate Services represented the buyer.
Staff reporter Daniel Miller can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 263.
