Ratkovich And J.P. Morgan Score $41M For Culver City-Area Creative Campus
The Ratkovich Co. and J.P. Morgan secured a $41M loan package for their Culver City-adjacent Bowcroft project, a redevelopment that would create an office campus aimed at the tech, media and entertainment tenants that have been a boon to Culver City’s office market.
The nonrecourse financing was provided by Torrey Pines Bank, Commercial Observer reported.
J.P. Morgan and Ratkovich bought the property at 5950-5978 Bowcroft St. near the intersection of Jefferson and Obama boulevards in October for $49.6M, according to a fourth-quarter report from Savills and public records.
The seller was The Altemus Co., which owned the property since the 1950s, when it was developed, Variety said.
The Ratkovich Co. was planning to have the property ready for prospective tenants to see by the middle of this year, according to Variety.
“This is not going to be your parents’ office, which sits in a traditional high-rise commodity office building,” Ratkovich CEO Brian Saenger told Variety in October. “It’s going to be a unique campus that can compete with the other properties in this submarket. The goal is to attract those types of tenants who are willing to come back to the office, have their employees back in the office and provide a unique environment for their employees.”
Saenger told Variety that as far as entertainment and tech companies are concerned, “there is tremendous value in low-rise campuses and not high-rise towers.”
Savills’ fourth-quarter office report forecast continued uncertainty about the economy and a hiring slowdown and layoffs in tech, combined with a continued rise in sublease space and lease terminations will contribute to lower-than-pre-pandemic office demand through 2023. Culver City’s availability rate was 31.5% at the end of 2023, according to Savills.
