Profitable Deal Bubbles Up for Coca-Cola Building

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That didn’t take long.

A partnership of Goldstein Plating Investments and Atlas Capital Group has flipped the Coca-Cola bottling plant at 963 E. Fourth St. in downtown L.A.’s Arts District in a $50 million deal with Hudson Pacific Properties Inc.

Goldstein and Atlas acquired the property a little more than a year ago for $19 million.

The deal, at roughly $410 a square foot, topped the average per-square-foot rate in the Arts District, which is roughly $311, according to data from CoStar Group Inc. But asking prices have been on the rise. A 16,500-square-foot industrial building at 300-12 S. Alameda St. is listed for $9 million, or $545 a square foot, after selling for only $6.5 million, or $394 a square foot, last year.

GPI and Atlas purchased the iconic three-story industrial property in April 2014 and announced plans to repurpose the building into roughly 150,000 square feet of creative office space with a restaurant on the ground floor. New York architecture firm HLW International designed the project, dubbed Fourth & Traction.

But the deal with Hudson Pacific came before construction commenced and the new owner will have to sort out a cramped parking situation.

“Parking will be critical to the success of the building,” said Jonathan Larsen, regional managing principal at Avison Young’s downtown office.

Hudson Pacific is one of Hollywood’s biggest landlords and its first venture downtown is seen as a sign of the Arts District’s legitimacy as an office destination.

“(Hudson Pacific) knows that as rents go up in Hollywood and the Westside, more tech companies will come downtown,” Larsen said.

Andrew Jennison, Jim Jacobson and Carle Pierose of Santa Monica’s Industry Partners will handle leasing for the property.

The off-market deal was completed without brokers representing the buyer or seller. Hudson Pacific declined to comment. GPI and Atlas did not respond to requests for comment.

The former Coca-Cola facility sits blocks away from a 300,000-square-foot, 103-year-old former Ford Motor Factory building at 2060 E. Seventh St., which is also seen as a potential spot for tech companies, especially after rumors that New York media company Buzzfeed toured the property. San Francisco firm Shorenstein Properties purchased it in April of last year for $37 million and is converting it into creative office space.

DoubleLine Expands Headquarters

DoubleLine Capital, an investment management firm headed by billionaire Jeffrey Gundlach, is expanding its headquarters in downtown L.A.’s Wells Fargo Center.

The firm signed an 11-year lease expansion deal with downtown’s biggest office landlord, Brookfield Property Partners, increasing the space it takes at Wells Fargo Tower North by 40 percent to 52,000 square feet. The lease is valued between $25 million and $30 million, according to industry sources.

David Toomey and Brian Davies of tenant brokerage firm Cresa Los Angeles represented DoubleLine in the deal, which closed last week, at the 1.4 million-square-foot Class A office building at 333 S. Grand Ave. Brookfield was represented in-house by Senior Vice President John Barganski and Vice President James Malone.

Toomey said the expansion was necessary because the firm has seen a dramatic inflow of capital in the last year or so, a boom stimulated by clients reinvesting money pulled from Pacific Investment Management Co. after “bond king” Bill Gross announced his departure. With more clients, of course, come more employees.

Barganski said the lease indicates good news for downtown.

“It’s another major financial firm making an expansion and long-term commitment not only to the property but to Bunker Hill, where traditional financial firms have headquartered in Los Angeles,” he said. “It’s a huge win because we expect that this expansion will be compounded by additional expansion by DoubleLine over the term of the lease.”

DoubleLine has been in the north tower of Wells Fargo Center, which consists of two buildings connected by a three-story glass atrium, since it was founded five years ago. The north tower is 83 percent occupied with a tenant roster that includes Wells Fargo & Co. Bank and the headquarters of Oaktree Capital Management, an early DoubleLine backer.

Moving Matters

Beach cities firm South Bay Brokers, which has offices in Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo, has merged with Vista Sotheby’s International Realty, a Palos Verdes outpost of Sotheby’s International Realty. Jim Van Zanten, chief executive of South Bay Brokers, and Rick Edler, chief executive of Vista Sotheby’s, will lead the merged company, which will be named Vista Sotheby’s. The business will have 180 agents and six offices in Palos Verdes and the three beach cities.

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

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