A local investor purchased the property at 729 Mission St. from a local family.
The property, which was built in 1925, includes a 13,244-square-foot office building leased to four tenants as well as two other buildings all connected by an open courtyard.
The property was designed by G.A. Howard for Arch and Hazel Baranger, who provided motion displays for jewelry stores. The displays were mechanical advertisements that usually took on either an Art Deco or cartoonish appearance. The sculptures on display usually performed repetitive motions while showing off goods offered in the store. The displays were rented to jewelers, and today, some are showcased in museums.
CBRE Group Inc.’s Kyle Barratt and Jackie Benavidez represented the seller in the transaction.
“This is a highly desirable, one-of-a-kind historic South Pasadena property, and we received multiple offers during the first week on the market,” Barratt said in a statement. “Demand for these types of historic buildings remains high, especially for buyers who seek to eventually occupy for their own use. As rental rates in the market climb, owner-user opportunities continue to increase in desirability among buyers.”
The property sold for $513 a square foot, higher than the average sale price per square foot in the submarket for office buildings totaling 10,000 to 20,000 square feet, according to CBRE.
Benavidez added that due to high asking rates in the Tri-Cities area, “tenants are finding that owning versus leasing is much more lucrative.”
During the third quarter, the vacancy rate in the Tri-Cities office market was 15%, far below the 19.2% county average, according to data from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
The brokerage also found that the asking rate for the Tri-Cities area was $3.67 a square foot, up 9 cents in a year and 3 cents in a quarter.
