Former Star-News Building Turning the Page

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The second item in this column, “Inglewood Development,” has been changed from the print version, to correct the acreage and purchaser of the property.

The historic beaux arts building that once housed the Pasadena Star-News was sold last week in a bankruptcy auction for more than $16.5 million.

The four-story building, at 525 E. Colorado Blvd., went to Beverly Hills real estate firm Greenbridge Inc. for about $259 a square foot.

Built in 1925 and renovated in 2000, the nearly 64,000-square-foot building is fully leased to tenants that include Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Eclat Medical and 24-Hour Fitness. A nearby three-story parking structure with 207 stalls was included in the deal.

Fareed Kanani, who co-founded Greenbridge with partner Sean Hashem nearly three years ago, said the company bought the building to grow its still-young portfolio.

“The idea was to purchase this for a long-term hold, as we do with most of our investments,” he said. “It’s a classic building, one of those gems you rarely see come to market.”

The partners own a couple of other properties in and around Pasadena, including a pair of mixed-use buildings at 1349 N. Hill Ave. and 1366-1400 E. Washington Blvd.

Bob Safai, a founding partner of West L.A. real estate brokerage Madison Partners, managed the transaction for a bankruptcy trustee. He said the property garnered eight or nine bids before ending with Greenbridge.

Inglewood Development

Along with plans for the redevelopment of Hollywood Park, the recent rehab of the Forum and news that St. Louis Rams owner E. Stanley Kroenke acquired land flanked by the two, Inglewood has another property that has drawn the attention of developers.

A project is in the pipeline for the former Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, just a half-mile north of the Forum.

A fund of Irvine’s Shopoff Group purchased the nearly 20-acre property, at 333 N. Prairie Ave., for an undisclosed price at the end of the year in a limited partnership with the First Church of God of Los Angeles California.

The hospital, which shares a site with six other small buildings, was built in 1953 and named for the founder of the city of Inglewood. Most of the buildings, other than a couple of the smallest that rent on a month-to-month basis, have sat vacant in the seven years since the hospital shut down.

Ashish Katana, executive vice president of acquisitions and development for Shopoff, said development plans for the expansive site, which is zoned for medical or residential use, include building as many as 363 for-sale townhomes.

“Our interest in the site is residential, because we don’t think the market is really there for a new hospital use,” he said.

Aaron Anderson, a vice president for CBRE Group Inc. in the firm’s El Segundo office, represented the church, which had been in escrow on the property since 2008. During the years the site was under contract, the church’s senior pastor, Bishop Gregory Dixon, unexpectedly passed away before he could carry out his vision for the former regional hospital.

“His vision was to try to create something that was going to really benefit the community,” Anderson said. “After his passing, it was still very important to the church, so it was time to finish the job that had been started.”

Anderson and church representatives declined to comment beyond that.

Carolyn Hull, vice president of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., worked with CBRE to assist the church in negotiating the joint-venture partnership with Shopoff.

“We looked for a developer that would ensure this underutilized parcel will be activated with housing and job-generating uses to provide far-reaching benefits to the city of Inglewood and Los Angeles County,” she said.

If entitlement efforts go as planned, groundbreaking for the project could begin next year.

Firms Founded

Los Angeles gained a pair of real estate investment firms last week, both founded by veteran real estate executives.

In West Hollywood, C. Frederick Wehba II, former co-founder, president and vice chairman of Century City firm BentleyForbes, joined Lilian Hanna, also formerly of BentleyForbes, to co-found Interest Co.

Wehba, chief executive of the new firm, and Hanna, managing principal, said they will focus primarily on investing in single-tenant commercial assets with long-term leases, multitenant properties with solid anchor tenants and properties with clear potential for appreciation through repositioning.

Wehba said the firm’s still-small team of experienced professionals should prove more agile than a larger team.

“(Our) size facilitates quickly seizing opportunities that have long-term horizons,” he said in a statement.

A second investment firm, Coretrust Capital Partners, announced last week that it would have dual headquarters in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. The firm was co-founded by Thomas Ricci, Randall Scott and John Sischo, all formerly senior executives at Thomas Properties Group Inc., which was acquired in December by Parkway Properties Inc. Coretrust will provide investment services and asset management to institutional clients.


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

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