Manhattan Beach Brokerage a Luxury Purchase

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South Bay residential real estate brokerage Shorewood Realtors Inc. has been acquired by Denver real estate holding company Herman Group for an undisclosed price.

The Manhattan Beach agency, with nine offices and more than 350 agents, announced the acquisition last week at a companywide meeting.

Herman, which owns real estate companies in Colorado, Florida and Nevada, now counts upwards of 1,000 agents among its ranks.

Roger Herman, founder and chief executive of Herman, said he was drawn to the 45-year-old Shorewood by its work in the luxury market.

“It’s got an incredible history and culture, and it’s got the top agents in the market,” he said.

Herman said he is house hunting in the area and plans to move to the region with his wife and children in order to be hands on at Shorewood, which will retain its brand identity.

“I will be operating this company personally,” he said.

Shorewood founder Arnold Goldstein, who celebrated his 81st birthday last week, will continue with the company as chairman emeritus.

“The timing was perfect and I thought Roger was the right person to perpetuate the Shorewood name,” he said. “I thought he could take it to another level.”

Ken Adam, an agent who has worked for Shorewood since 2001, said he is optimistic about what the acquisition means for the agency.

“(Herman) has great plans to expand the company and the brand, and he seems very agent driven, so I think it’s going to be an exciting time for Shorewood over the next few years,” he said.

Culver Commodity

Creative office space in Culver City continues to be a hot commodity.

Westside Business Park, a 72,000-square-foot creative office campus on 3.8 acres, sold last week for nearly $26.5 million, or about $369 a square foot.

Lionstone Group, one of the largest creative office landlords on the Westside, bought the property from a limited liability company named for the business park at 10301-10395 Jefferson Blvd. The seller originally purchased the property in 2008 for almost $21.4 million, or $328 a square foot.

Bob Safai, a founding partner of West L.A. real estate brokerage Madison Partners, represented the seller in the deal. He said the seller was ready to market the property after renovating the former warehouse extensively and upping tenancy. At the time of the deal, which closed Feb. 25, the office complex was about 93 percent leased to creative and technology tenants such as Tumblr, Brightest Sound, Woven Digital, eSalon and Ziff Davis Inc.

Madison also arranged financing for Lionstone in the amount of almost $18.3 million.

The Houston company owns Santa Monica’s Penn Station Studios at 1630 Stewart St., among other properties, and believes Jefferson corridor has a lot of potential, Safai said.

“They own other creative offices on the Westside but they wanted to expand their footprint,” he said. “As Santa Monica gets very pricey, you’re seeing a lot of tech and creative companies migrate to Playa Vista and Culver City as an alternative, and this property is smack in the middle of that area.”

Matt Case of Madison also represented the seller in the deal.


Westwood Expansion

Ralphs Grocery Co. will nearly double its size in Westwood Village before the end of the year, making its store there among the largest outposts for the Southern California chain.

The Compton retailer, which has occupied about 55,000 square feet at the former Bullocks department store building fronting Le Conte Avenue since 2001, has signed a lease to expand by nearly 34,000 square feet into space that was previously occupied by Best Buy Co.

In addition to expanding its lease, Ralphs extended it for up to 20 more years.

Marty Shelton, a broker for NAI Capital who worked to sublease the space for Best Buy, which closed there two years ago but still had time remaining on its lease, said the electronics retailer ultimately terminated the lease with landlord Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund. Ralphs then negotiated directly with its pension-fund landlord.

“I don’t know the terms of their deal, but in general, grocery stores like that typically get lease rates in the $18 (a foot a year) range,” he said. “That’s changed somewhat, though, as groceries go to smaller urban footprints.”

At that rate, a 20-year lease for 34,000 square feet would be valued at more than $12.2 million.

Kendra Doyle, a spokeswoman for Ralphs, said the retailer plans to integrate the neighboring space to create a shopping experience that could include more counter service space to sell items such as cheese, wine, sushi, pizza and other prepared fare.

“This will be a very exciting store,” she said.

Construction, expected to commence soon, should be completed before the end of the year.

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

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