Venice Office to Return to Retail Roots

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A small Class C office building, along with an adjacent parking lot, at the west end of Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice sold last month for $15.5 million.

The 9,500-square-foot former medical office building at 910 Abbot Kinney was sold by Hanimax Properties of Chatsworth to Santa Monica developer Fogel Real Estate Corp. in an off-market deal.

Sitting at what one might consider the gateway to Abbot Kinney, the stucco-clad building was one of only a few nonretail buildings remaining along what has become a popular shopping stretch between Main Street and Venice Boulevard.

Blake Fogel, founder and president of Fogel Real Estate, said he saw a rare opportunity in the property to gain a retail foothold on what GQ Magazine has dubbed “the coolest block in America.” The building’s former tenant, Hall Health and Longevity Center, moved out Dec. 31 and construction to convert the medical office space into prime retail storefronts is expected to begin this week.

“There’s a lot of upside in that area. It’s like being at Main and Main of cool tech companies, as well as cool retail,” Fogel said. “It’s a great place to be. We were just fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time with a seller.”

The one-story brick building with a bow-truss ceiling, built in 1948, was at some point covered over in white stucco. Fogel said the coating was going to be one of the first things to go during renovation.

“Right now the property is all but invisible; no one really sees it because it’s an ugly stucco building,” he said. “We’re going to blast that off and bring it back to being an interesting architectural building with new storefronts.”

The soon-to-be retail property was the first building Fogel Real Estate acquired in an effort to invest $100 million in equity in Los Angeles in a span of about two years.