Office sales may have slowed during the Covid-19 pandemic, but some big transactions are still taking place.

The latest involves the Colorado Campus in Santa Monica, which Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. has purchased for $166 million from New York-based Northwood Investors.

The four-building campus, located at 2041-2115 Colorado Ave., totals roughly 92,000 square feet.

Tenants at the property include record label Universal Music Group and film and animation studio Illumination. 

Both companies have leases extending into 2030, according to CoStar Group Inc.
Northwestern Mutual declined to comment on the purchase or plans for the site.

Eastdil Secured represented Northwood Investors in the transaction. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance was self-represented.

The sale is Santa Monica’s largest office deal this year by price, according to CoStar data. 

Santa Monica is one of L.A.’s hottest office markets. It has attracted a large number of tech and entertainment companies.

In the third quarter asking rent for office space in Santa Monica was $6.64 a square foot, the highest price of any submarket in L.A., according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

And despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the market’s office vacancy rate during the third quarter was 13.1%, compared to the 13.2% the previous year.

The campus deal may have been the biggest office sale in Santa Monica this year, but it wasn’t the largest office sale in the county.

That distinction goes to Brentwood-based Hudson Pacific Properties Inc.’s Hollywood Media Portfolio and the U.S. Bank Tower.

The largest was a recapitalization where Blackstone Group Inc. purchased a 49% interest in Hudson’s Hollywood Media Portfolio, which was valued at $1.7 billion.
The portfolio included the historic Sunset Bronson, Sunset Las Palmas and Sunset Gower Studios and office buildings. 

The Los Angeles City Planning Commission recently approved plans for Sunset Gower to nearly double in size. The site currently has more than 530,000 square feet of production and support space and 12 soundstages. Hudson and Blackstone will add roughly 480,000 square feet to the property, which dates back to 1918.

And in September, the sale of the U.S. Bank Tower sale was completed when New York-based Silverstein Properties purchased the iconic downtown skyscraper from OUE Ltd. for $430 million. 

That price was substantially lower than the $700 million price tag experts predicted it could fetch the previous year. 

Northwood Investors was involved in another large sale in Los Angeles County this year. The company purchased the Symantec Southern California Campus in Culver City from NortonLifeLock, formerly Symantec Corp., for $120 million. 

The property, located at 900 Corporate Pointe, was only 33% leased at the time of the sale, according to CoStar data. 

Also this year, Santa Monica-based BLT Enterprises purchased the $64 million Television Center in Hollywood from Henley Management Co., and Bixby Bridge Capital and Nome Ventures purchased an office building in Torrance from Blackstone for $55.5 million.

And before the pandemic arrived in early 2020, a Miracle Mile office building at 5900 Wilshire Blvd. sold for $312 million. 

Rockpoint Group purchased the 465,000-square-foot building from PGIM Inc., AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. and Ratkovich Co.