Century City real estate investment and development firm Laurus Corp. has purchased a 163,000-square-foot, eight-story building in Pasadena for $52.5 million.
The property, at 199 S. Los Robles Ave., was sold by Heitman, a Chicago investment and management firm that bought the building in 2005 for nearly $43 million.
At $322 a square foot, the price paid for the 91 percent-leased building was another example of rising prices in a rebounding market.
“That is a higher price than what we’ve seen other buildings recently trade at,” said Scott Unger, a senior associate at Charles Dunn Co. Inc. Unger, who wasn’t involved in the deal, specializes in office leasing and sales in the San Gabriel Valley and Burbank-Pasadena-Glendale submarkets.
He noted that 234 E. Colorado Blvd., an older building with a better location between El Paseo and Old Pasadena, sold in October for about $296 a square foot. Down the street, 177 E. Colorado sold in March for about $278 a square foot. But an abundance of investment money in the market might have pushed up the price for 199 S. Los Robles, even though it’s not as close to Colorado.
“There’s just so much money available in the capital markets,” Unger said. “And Pasadena, through the cachet of a burgeoning tech scene, the Rose Parade, Rose Bowl, all those factors have this capital chasing product in the Pasadena market.”
Industrious Acquisition
Newport Beach investor Alere Property Group bought the 17.5-acre Cerritos West Industrial Park late last month, banking on its ability to take advantage of a tight industrial market by raising rents.
CBRE Global Investors sold the seven-building complex for $43.9 million, or $111 a square foot. The buildings at the property, bounded by 166th Street, Carmenita Road and Manning Way, range in size from 13,000 square feet to 34,000 square feet.
Barbara Emmons, the vice chairwoman at CBRE Group Inc. who represented both parties in the deal, said access to six major freeways, a submarket vacancy rate of 2.5 percent and the park’s 100 percent occupancy all fed the deal – as well as Alere’s confidence that there is plenty of upside.
“More of their strategy (on this deal) is to push the rental rates on the buildings,” she said. “When the vacancy is so low, you can push rental rates.”
CBRE analysts have predicted rental rates in the Mid-Cities submarket will grow 6.2 percent in 2015, Emmons said, because small businesses, which usually occupy business parks, have been rebounding as the economy improves and investors see them as able to withstand rent increases.
The Cerritos West buildings were built between 1977 and 1978 and renovated within the past five years. Each features parking, and dock-high and grade-level doors. The area’s major airports are between 16 and 40 miles away and the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are 20 miles away.
“It’s more of a seller’s market right now and very competitive for buyers,” Emmons said.
Deal Roundup
Palo Alto’s Broadreach Capital Partners has sold the Ocean Park Plaza in Santa Monica for $47 million in an all-cash deal. The two-building, 100,000-square-foot property was purchased by New York investor Westbrook Partners. Broadreach was represented by Andrew Harper of real estate services firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler’s L.A. office. … Paragon Commercial Group and Canyon Catalyst Fund, a unit of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, have announced the purchase of Hawthorne Plaza, a 98,000-square-foot grocery-anchored retail center at Hawthorne and El Segundo boulevards in Hawthorne. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but information at real estate data provider CoStar Group Inc. indicated that the sale price was $26.4 million. The seller, a limited liability partnership, was represented by Geoff Tranchina of Wilson Retail Group and Deborah Collins of the Collins Co. … Postproduction firm Lit Post has leased 15,700 square feet for a new regional headquarters in Hollywood at 900 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Terms of the deal at the 44,300-square-foot building were not disclosed, but the asking rent for the building was $2.95 a foot a month, valuing the annual rent at a little more than $555,000. The deal was the second in as many months at the building, owned by Birch Tree Properties and Metric Holdings Inc. In the earlier deal, Vince, a contemporary fashion brand, leased 28,541 square feet for a regional headquarters. The building was represented by Jones Lang LaSalle’s Nicole Mihalka and Mike Fowler. There was no tenant rep in the Lit Post deal. Vince was represented by Suzanne Lee, Katie Bernhisel and Nicky Heryet of DTZ Cassidy Turley.
Agency Shift
New York residential brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate, which tapped former John Aaroe Group Executive Vice President Tom Dunlap and former Partner’s Trust Partner Cory Weiss to open its L.A. office, has lured a number of agents from the Agency. Joining the new outpost, which will be based in Beverly Hills, are Jeeb O’Reilly, Julia Brodsky, Tori Barnao and Gersh Gershunoff. Seven members of the 35-person staff were recruited from Agency.
Staff reporters Marni Usheroff and Carol Lawrence contributed to this report.
