Shored-Up Office Property Sells for $53 Million

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Lincoln Property Co. and Linwood Investments have sold a 103,800-square-foot, Class A creative office campus in Pacific Palisades to New York real estate equity firm Brickman for $53 million, or roughly $500 a square foot.

David Binswanger, executive vice president of Lincoln, said the company spent $3.5 million repositioning the property, dubbed Sunset & PCH, after acquiring the three-building campus at 17383 Sunset Blvd. in July 2013 for $37 million, or roughly $350 a square foot.

After the renovations, Binswanger said, the partners raised rents by almost 50 percent, to a range of $4 to $4.50 a square foot a month.

“Given the work we had done, we decided it was the right time to sell,” he said.

Brickman wanted to buy the property because of its iconic Sunset and Pacific Coast Highway location, said Steve Klein, its chief investment officer. The firm will continue making improvements to the campus, starting with the elevators and air conditioning systems.

The campus is 85 percent occupied by tenants that include One West Bank, surf and skate apparel maker Maui & Sons and Adamson Associates Architects.

Bob Safai, Matt Case and Brad Schlaak of Madison Partners represented Lincoln and Linwood in the transaction. Brickman was not represented.

Foursquare Sale

Developer Fred Afari has snatched up International Church of the Foursquare Gospel’s 15-property portfolio in Echo Park, paying nearly $18 million for the package.

The church, founded by evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in 1923, put the properties on the market earlier this year and Afari, whose downtown L.A. firm Broadway & Eighth Investments converted the Chapman office building at 756 S. Broadway in downtown into luxury lofts, beat out 28 other bidders.

The portfolio includes nine multifamily properties totaling 65 units, two single-family homes, three land parcels and one warehouse building, all in close proximity to Echo Park Lake.

The three vacant lots are on Glendale Boulevard, Elsinore Street and Park Avenue, and sources familiar with the deal said Afari would develop high-end multifamily properties on the sites. He also plans to upgrade existing multifamily buildings, which are 96 percent occupied, as units become available. Rents are expected to increase once buildings are renovated.

Neither Afari nor Foursquare representatives could be reached for comment.

The church still owns property in Echo Park including an eight-story Citibank office building at 1900 Sunset, which serves as its headquarters and is the tallest building in the neighborhood, and the Angelus Temple at 1100 Glendale.

DTZ’s Lee Black represented the buyer and seller in the transaction, along with Yvonne Ayala, Doug Scott, Jeffrey Morgan and Patrick Morgan.

Parking Lot Hotel

A surface parking lot of less than one-fifth of an acre in downtown L.A.’s South Park neighborhood might soon house a slim hotel.

Jayesh and Ketan Kumar of Hollywood hotel development and investment firm PNK Group Investments have submitted a proposal for a 43-room, six-story hotel with two residential units and 18 parking spaces at the lot, according to documents filed with the Department of City Planning. It’s unclear whether the applicants will develop the hotel as part of the PNK portfolio, which includes the BLVD Hotel and Spa in Studio City.

The lot, at 1320 S. Flower St., is owned by Elliot Tishbi, chief executive of downtown L.A. wholesaler Aplus Fabrics Inc., who declined to comment on the proposal. The applicants could not be reached for comment.

The hotel will be designed by Irvine architecture firm Nklosures. Nikhil Kamat, principal at the firm, said the proposed hotel building would be roughly 22,500 square feet.

Sources said the applicants are also working on a 55-room, seven-story hotel project at 1525 N. Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood, dubbed Hotel Nue, which recently went through the approvals process and is also being designed by Nklosures.

The South Park hotel is not the only one proposed for a small downtown parking lot site. New York and Beijing-based Lizard Capital has proposed a 176-room hotel, dubbed Lizard in Los Angeles, on a small lot in downtown’s Historic Core at 633 S. Spring St.

Staff reporter Hannah Miet can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.

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