Downtown real estate investment firm Coretrust Capital Partners has purchased Pasadena’s largest office campus, the six-acre Corporate Center Pasadena, according to the company.
Coretrust bought the four-building property at 201, 225, 251 and 283 S. Lake Ave., which spans a full city block and includes more than 640,000 square feet of commercial space, through its Coretrust Value Fund I investment fund, the firm said. The purchase price was about $250 million, according to a source close to the deal.
Coretrust said it’s planning a $90 million renovation of the property into a collaborative environment with public spaces such as plazas, gardens and terraces. It will also update building lobbies, modernize elevators and add businesses that provide services for tenants. The campus consists of 600,000 square feet of office space, more than 40,000 square feet of retail space, a 60,000-square-foot plaza and more than 2,000 parking spaces.
The seller, who was not disclosed, was an ownership group that owned the property for more than 30 years, Coretrust said.
Coretrust Managing Principal John Sischo said in a statement that the site is within the South Lake Avenue retail district, within walking distance of the Metro Gold Line and new housing and is near major area freeways.
“This is a rare opportunity to own a major and well-located campus and bring to it all of the amenities most sought by today’s tenants,” Sischo added. “We intend to transform Corporate Center Pasadena into one of the most desirable office environments in the city, appealing to professional firms, technology companies and corporate headquarters.”
The firm also said that acquiring Corporate Center Pasadena fits within its investment strategies of acquiring and then renovating older, high-quality, well-located office properties. The company acquired the 891,000-square-foot Citigroup Center in downtown Los Angeles for $336 million and is renovating and repositioning the property.
Sischo and Managing Principals Thomas Ricci and Randall Scott are from L.A. landlord Thomas Properties Group, which was purchased in 2013 by Parkway Properties Inc.
