Engineering Giant Plans Return to Downtown

0

Century City engineering and construction giant Aecom is close to signing a lease for more than 110,000 square feet at One California Plaza, a deal that would bring its global headquarters back to downtown Los Angeles.

Downtown real estate sources said the deal would have Aecom move its corporate headquarters from SunAmerica Center, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, where it has been housed since late 2014. Also moving to the 1 million-square-foot Cal Plaza office building at 300 S. Grand Ave. would be employees still housed downtown in Aecom’s former headquarters, the north tower of City National Plaza, 515 S. Flower St., where the company takes about 108,000 square feet.

Representatives of Boston real estate investment firm Beacon Capital Partners, Cal Plaza’s owner, and Aecom declined to comment on negotiations. Jason Wrobel and Tim Miller of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., representing Beacon, also declined to comment.

Though the terms of the deal could not be determined, the average monthly asking rent at Cal Plaza is $2.14 a square foot, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group Inc., potentially valuing the deal at more than $2.8 million a year. First-quarter average monthly asking rents downtown were $3.32 a foot.

Other tenants in the 42-story tower, now 88 percent leased, include professional services firm Towers Watson & Co., and law firms Nixon Peabody and Morgan Lewis & Bockius.

Aecom acquired San Francisco’s URS Corp. in October 2014 in a $6 billion deal that made it one of the largest construction and engineering firms in the world. It also purchased smaller Indianapolis firm Hunt Construction Group last summer. The firm has nearly 100,000 employees worldwide, with more than 1,000 in Los Angeles.

Miracle Acquisition

A joint venture of San Francisco’s Swig Co. and Boston’s Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. has purchased 6300 Wilshire Blvd. on the Miracle Mile for $150 million, or roughly $371 a square foot. The deal was in line with the $370-a-square foot average for sales in the submarket, according to CoStar.

The purchase of the 404,000-square-foot office building is the second by the partners, which late last year acquired Bristol 61, a creative office campus in Culver City.

Swig and Intercontinental purchased 6300 Wilshire from Foster City’s SteelWave, formerly Legacy Partners Commercial.

Stephen Somer of Eastdil Secured represented the seller. Tony Ratner of law firm Farella Braun + Martel represented the buyers along with Kendall Brook and Mark Warcup of law firm Bradley & Associates.

Tomas Schoenberg, executive vice president of investments for Swig, said the property’s location and large floor plates made it ideal for entertainment, media, advertising and other creative companies.

He said the buyers plan to improve occupancy of the building, now 80 percent leased, both through outreach and through physical improvements to the lobby and common areas.

Tenants include New York media investment firm M Group, stock photo company Getty Images Inc. and a division of New York publishing company Condé Nast.

The buyers plan to hold on to the building for the long term, Schoenberg said.

CBRE Group Inc.’s Joel Frank and Alex Bergeson will be retained to handle leasing on behalf of the new owners.

Representatives of the seller could not be reached for comment.

Moving Matters

New York real estate services firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank made some new additions to its L.A. and South Bay offices. Chris Strickfaden and Eric Adams have joined the firm’s South Bay office as senior managing directors. They both joined from JLL’s El Segundo office. … Jen Fairfield has become managing director at NGKF’s downtown L.A. office, joining from Century City firm LA Realty Partners, where she focused on tenant representation. … Kim Westerbeck has joined JLL’s capital markets team at its downtown L.A. office as senior vice president. She joins from the Newport Beach headquarters of KBS Realty Advisors. … Kimberly Roberts Stepp and two team members have joined the Long Beach multifamily brokerage firm Stepp Commercial, where they will focus on expanding the firm’s presence to the Santa Monica-Westside market. Stepp joins her husband, Robert, principal of the firm. She was most recently senior managing director at Charles Dunn Co.’s West L.A. office.

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

No posts to display