Santa Monica Developer Cashes In on South Bay Creative Office Flip

Just about a year after picking it up, Montana Avenue Capital Partners has sold The Station, its nearly 54k SF creative office in El Segundo for just north of $31M, or $580/SF. And Montana made quite the profit, having paid $11.3M for the property last year, repositioning it with several outdoor workspaces, in addition to having a Metro station at the building. JLL managing director Steve Solomon tells Bisnow the property was picked up by San Antonio-based AGI Properties, which was attracted to the building for its stable tenant: L'Oréal, which recently signed an 11-year lease for the entire building with move-in expected in Q4. Here's Steve with his dad Chuck and oldest son Brett at his graduation from SMU in May. Brett is now working for the Texas Rangers.

Steve tells us the deal came about once the lease was getting close, and he was working with the buyer on selling a former Costco in Torrance for $45M and the company was looking for an exchange. The property sold at a cap rate of about 5%. Steve also repped Montana in its recent acquisition of another property in El Segundo, a 50k SF building (601 Hawaii), which they'll begin renovating. The company also is in preliminary negotiations on another 100k SF property in El Segundo.

The sale comes just about a month after Montana picked up a 50k SF industrial property in Redondo Beach with plans to reposition the asset. "Timing is always key in all real estate deals," Steve tells us. "Certain parts of El Segundo are actually as in much demand as Manhattan Beach." Montana paid $9.6M for the 2400 Marine Ave building, and plans to invest about $2M in the repositioning, which will rebrand the building as LINQ on Marine.