Dallas Buyer Dials Up Burbank Media Tower

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Legacy Media Tower, a 10-story Class A office building in the heart of Burbank’s Media Center District, sold last week for $49 million, or about $335 a square foot, according to real estate sources.

Dallas real estate investment company Granite Properties purchased the 146,000-square-foot property at 2600 W. Olive Ave. from Legacy Partners Commercial Inc. of Foster City. The building was about 88 percent leased to major media and entertainment tenants such as Walt Disney Co., Emmis Communications and Ion Media Networks at the time of the sale, which closed July 30.

The building, constructed in 1986 and renovated in 2006, is the second major purchase Granite has made in the Tri-Cities area in the last year. Last summer, the company paid $95 million for the 22-story tower at 500 N. Brand Blvd.

Tom Miller, a managing director in Granite’s Manhattan Beach office, said the company liked the building’s stellar rent roll and location.

The company plans to make modest upgrades to public areas of the property and lease remaining vacant space. Patrick Church and Anneke Greco of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. will continue to handle leasing; seller Legacy Partners will continue to manage the property.

Kevin Shannon, Tom Bollinger and Michael Longo of CBRE Group Inc. represented the seller in the deal. Granite’s Miller and Paul Bennett handled the transaction internally.

Historic Hotel

The historic Hotel Glendale, a red-brick building built in 1924 that was long ago converted to apartments, sold last month for $10.9 million.

Downtown L.A. developer ICO Group purchased the six-story building at 701 E. Broadway from Burbank multifamily management company Integrity Property Management. The 76-unit property, across the street from Glendale’s Civic Center, sold for more than asking after two months on the market; the Class B building was listed for $9.9 million and more than 20 investors made offers on the property.

Joseph Soleiman, director of acquisitions for ICO, said the Glendale apartments were not the company’s first purchase of a historic building. About a decade ago, for example, it bought and renovated the nine-story Pacific Electric Lofts building in downtown Los Angeles. After putting more than $60 million into the 314-unit building, ICO sold it in 2012.

“We’re really drawn to properties with history and a story to tell,” he said. “We thought this property had wonderful bones and its aesthetic really speaks to us.”

The company plans to renovate and modernize the building, which has had minimal upgrades in the last 90 years, then raise rents. Rents for the studio and one-bedroom apartments in the building range from $600 to $1,100 a month, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group Inc.

Derrick Vartanian, Jonathan Prakash and Andre Melikian, brokers in the Santa Monica office of Keller Williams Commercial, represented ICO in its purchase.

Santa Monica Move

Online auto sales platform TrueCar Inc. will move its headquarters office to 1401 Ocean Ave. from 120 Broadway, expanding its Santa Monica presence.

The company, which raised $70 million in an initial public offering in May, signed a lease last month for 33,700 square feet at Portofino Plaza, a 48,000-square-foot Class A office building. TrueCar will occupy the entire two-story office component of the three-story building. It will also maintain its 17,000-square-foot presence at its former headquarters.

Terms of the lease were not disclosed, but sources familiar with Ocean Avenue office rents estimate the deal was valued at between $25 million and $30 million.

Arlene Sommer, Mark Robinson and John Doyle in the West L.A. office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. represented the tenant in lease negotiations. Gregory Camacho, director of leasing for landlord Mani Bros. Real Estate Group, represented the seller.

Staff reporter Bethany Firnhaber can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.

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