In the biggest Westside deal in recent months, Blackstone Group is selling its 50 percent stake in the Colorado Center office complex in Santa Monica for more than $500 million, or just over $900 a square foot.
The New York investment firm is selling to Boston Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust, according to sources familiar with the transaction.
The Colorado Center spans six office buildings across 15 acres. Blackstone bought its 50 percent stake in 2007 from Equity Office Properties Trust, part of a $39 billion buyout of the company. EOP paid more than $443 million for the complex in 2004.
Tenants include cable TV giant Home Box Office Inc., video streaming service Hulu, ad firm RPA, and cybersecurity firm Symantec Corp.
The sale is part of an ongoing divestiture by Blackstone of pieces of the former EOP portfolio. Among the local properties it has traded are four Westwood office towers that it sold to Douglas Emmett Inc. for $1.34 billion in March.
A Blackstone spokeswoman declined to comment on the transaction.
Boston Properties did not respond to a request for comment.
The deal is the highest valued among a spate of recent Westside transactions. The neighboring 2600 Colorado Ave. sold in April of last year for $284 million, or just under $900 a square foot. Runway Playa Vista sold for $475 million, or about $674 a square foot, in February. In addition, an El Segundo office park sold this month for $328 million, or roughly $600 a square foot.
Snapped Up
Snapchat Inc. could soon filter into Santa Monica from Venice.
The company behind the image messaging application is in the process of signing an 80,000-square-foot deal at the Santa Monica Airport, said a city of Santa Monica spokeswoman.
The site includes two office buildings, where Snapchat would spend at least $1.4 million on upgrades, and eight hangars. The lease is set to be signed for a five-year period at about $3 a square foot.
Snapchat declined to comment, as did brokers working on the deal.
Craig Zund of Corporate Realty Group in Santa Monica is representing the city, and James W. Abbott Jr. of Realty Advisory Group Inc. in downtown Los Angeles is representing Snapchat.
Snapchat reportedly signed a 10-year lease for 47,000 square feet at the corner of Abbot Kinney and Venice Boulevard in May of last year. It also rents space in other pockets of Venice, a market that has become thinly stretched for office space as Silicon Beach fills with technology and media companies. Expanding into Santa Monica could give Snapchat, valued at $16 billion, the chance to lock in a lease at current rates to allow for growth.
Home Headquarters
Herbalife Ltd. is betting on home base. The health supplements maker last month shelled out $30 million for the Torrance office where it has leased space for a decade.
The deal translates to nearly $160 a square foot for the 186,000-square-foot space. It last traded for $23.5 million just over 10 years ago.
But Herbalife is not going into the real estate business; this deal was an opportunistic transaction, Chief Financial Officer John DeSimone said during a recent earnings call.
When Herbalife learned that the building’s owner, SteelWave Inc., planned to sell, the company decided to take advantage of its right of first refusal and placed its bid. Herbalife is the building’s only tenant, and could opt to quickly sell at a profit before taking back space for a long-term lease.
Jones Lang LaSalle brokers who handled the deal declined to comment.
Bigger Body
Santa Monica’s Beachbody is making moves to bulk up.
The creator of the “Insanity” fitness video is set to expand into 69,000 square feet at the Lantana Center on Exposition Boulevard, next to its current headquarters. The new lease will bring its total footprint to 200,000 square feet.
The outpost will house the growing technology team for Beachbody, which currently employs 600 people in Santa Monica. After the expansion, Beachbody will rank among Santa Monica’s top five biggest employers by square footage.
“This is going to be a really fun space that sparks creativity … while helping Beachbody continue its evolution into a tech powerhouse,” said the firm’s co-founder Jon Congdon in a statement.
Beachbody’s new spot was last occupied by movie megascreen company Imax Corp., which recently located to a 66,000-square-foot space in Playa Vista.
Jones Lang LaSalle represented Beachbody, while CBRE represented the landlord, Atlanta-based Jamestown. The brokers declined to discuss terms of the lease.
Jamestown bought the 485,000-square-foot Lantana Center for $47.3 million in 2013.
Staff reporter Daina Beth Solomon can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 237.
