Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc. acquired two Class A office buildings in Glendale for $144 million, the real estate investment firm said last week.
The Beverly Hills company’s Real Estate Fund V bought a two-building campus at 400 and 450 N. Brand Blvd. that contains 437,000 square feet, including parking structures, for nearly $330 a square foot. The seller was MetLife Inc., which paid $117 million, or $268 a square foot, for the properties in 2004.
The campus is 88 percent leased, according to Kennedy-Wilson, and serves as the headquarters for DineEquity Inc., owner of restaurant brands IHOP and Applebee’s Bar & Grill, and Learner’s Digest International. Other tenants include Cigna Corp.
The campus is near the Americana at Brand and Glendale Galleria retail centers.
Nicholas Colonna, president of commercial investments and fund management for Kennedy-Wilson, said in a statement that the Glendale submarket is thriving.
“Brand (Boulevard) offers both a strong initial yield and attractive asset management opportunities within an area that continues to expand, driven by a large growth in urban housing and a strong presence of entertainment and other large corporations,” he said.
Kennedy-Wilson is a 12 percent investor in Fund V, which has a portfolio of 18 office, multifamily, retail, and residential investments with a combined asset value of $1 billion.
The firm said it also recently sold a 195,000-square-foot office building in North Hollywood for $69 million.
U.S. Bank Tower Lease
Cushman & Wakefield and OUE Ltd. announced that global insurance firm Marsh & McLennan Cos. had signed a 15-year lease at downtown’s U.S. Bank Tower. The tenant will occupy 72,000 square feet on floors 11 through 14 of the iconic skyscraper.
Marsh & McLennan was represented by Jeffrey Welch, Lynn Williams, and Michael Hartwick from CBRE. The landlord, Singapore’s OUE, was represented by John Eichler, Peter Collins, and Tyler Stark with Cushman & Wakefield.
The office tower, at 633 W. Fifth St., has more than 1.4 million square feet of Class A space in its 75 stories. The building’s lobby, observation deck, and event space on the 69th and 70th floors were recently renovated.
Rexford Buys Industrial Park
Sawtelle-based Rexford Industrial Realty Inc. has purchased a 16-building industrial park in Ontario for $141.2 million.
The real estate investment trust, which focuses on owning and operating Southern California industrial properties, acquired Safari Business Center, a 1.14 million-square-foot, 52.2-acre property, at $124 a square foot. The property is adjacent to the Ontario Airport within the Inland Empire West submarket and was 97 percent leased to 75 tenants, Rexford said.
The company said in a separate transaction last week that it sold a San Diego industrial property for $40.1 million.
Los Feliz Apartments Sale
Century City’s Universe Holdings acquired the 45-unit Villa Edgemont apartment community in Los Feliz for $12.6 million.
The seller, Chicago-based Laramar Group, had purchased the apartments as part of a nine-building, $45.1 million portfolio in July 2014, according to CoStar.
Universe said the deal increased its Hollywood-Los Feliz portfolio to 275 units in nine properties. This is the first of $160 million in new investments the company plans to close by the end of September in Los Angeles and elsewhere in Southern California.
Universe was established in 1994 by Henry Manoucheri, its chief executive, after he left a 15-year career as a multifamily investment brokerage specialist at Marcus & Millichap.
Staff reporters Carol Lawrence and Paul Eakins contributed to this report.
