A creative office building in Santa Monica has sold to Santa Monica-based Redcar Properties for $17.9 million.
CBRE Group Inc.’s Jeff Pion, Michelle Esquivel-Hall and Drew Pion represented the seller, El Segundo-based real estate investment firm DPI Retail. The buyer was represented by Industry Partners.

Located at 1448 15th Street, the 24,062-square-foot, three-story building was originally constructed in 1981. The property features 78 parking spaces. It is less than a mile from the I-10 freeway and one and a half miles from Santa Monica State Beach.

“This moment is bittersweet for the entire DPI team,” said Fred Vitt, president of DPI Retail. “The Meridian Building has been our headquarters that we have owned and operated out of for over two decades. It will forever be a part of our history, and I truly feel that nothing is a better testament to our success than being able to outgrow our home. We look forward to carrying the momentum to our new corporate office in El Segundo, where we will have better opportunity to grow.”

During the second quarter, the Santa Monica office market had a vacancy rate of 21.6% compared with a county average of 21.1%, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. The market currently has roughly 97,000 square feet of office product under construction.

Asking rents for Class A properties in the city during the quarter was $6.25 a square foot, down 39 cents year over year. Still, the asking rate is much higher than the county average of $4.13 a square foot, according to JLL data.

Despite a lag in activity,Santa Monica,has seen some big office asset sales. In November 2020, for example Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. paid $166 million for the Colorado Campus, a four-building complex at 2041-2115 Colorado Ave.