Five new leases have been signed at downtown’s iconic U.S. Bank Tower amidst the property’s $60 million repositioning. The leases total 72,000 square feet.
Property owner Silverstein Properties, based in New York, is updating the property by repositioning the lobby and elevators and creating a tenant lounge on the 54th floor of the building.
The largest lease of the five was taken by investment bank Lincoln International, which signed a 10-year lease expansion for more than 27,000 square feet on the 66th and 67th floors. The company had already leased space on the 66th floor. Rothschild & Co., another investment bank and financial services company, signed a 8,544-square-foot lease on the 50th floor. It is relocating from the 67th floor.
Civil engineering firm Walter P. Moore, meanwhile, signed a 10-year, 9,364-square-foot lease on the 72nd floor. The company is moving from its current office space at 707 Wilshire Blvd. in the summer. The space, according to Silverstein, is the highest leased office floor in the state. A global management consulting firm signed a 12-year lease for 19,208 square feet on the 69th and 70th floor. It is moving from Century City to the U.S. Bank Tower. And personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan is opening its first L.A. office on the property’s 22nd floor.
“We are succeeding in attracting the leading companies in Los Angeles to US Bank Tower,” Harlan Strader III, vice president of leasing at Silverstein Properties, said in a statement. “These companies have chosen this building not just because it is an icon, but because it houses a community of creative, innovative and successful people in the most beautiful spaces in the city. We just opened The Vista, a hotel-quality lounge and flexible workspace located on the 54th floor, which is available to all our tenants and their guests, and we plan to finish a transformative renovation to the building’s lobby early next year.”
Silverstein purchased the property in 2020 for $430 million from OUE Ltd., a Singapore-based real estate company.
Downtown has faced some difficulties during the pandemic. During the third quarter, the office market saw a vacancy rate of 22.1%, far above third-quarter 2019 vacancy levels of 15.8%, according to data from JLL.
For some, the recently announced leases are a sign of good things to come for downtown.
“Silverstein’s ownership of the U.S. Bank Tower over the last two years has been a case study in innovation and creativity in the face of challenging circumstances, and these new leases are Exhibit A,” Suzanne Holley, chief executive of the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, said in a statement.
