This Week's LA Deal Sheet
Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital agreed to pay more than $1.8B for the historic CBS Studio Center in Studio City.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the price tag was $500M more than industry experts had anticipated it would sell for when it came onto the market three months ago. The deal isn't final yet, but both sides are expected to ink a contract shortly, the WSJ said.
Studio real estate has been in high demand as consumers' demand for streaming content has also grown.
PEOPLE
JLL announced it will appoint Senior Managing Directors Jeffrey Bramson and Jeff Sause as co-heads of the Los Angeles capital markets group. The two will work alongside current co-head and Senior Managing Director Bill Fishel. Bramson and Sause’s new roles are effective Jan. 1. Bramson is senior managing director and co-head of the Chicago office of JLL Capital Markets. Sause is a managing director in the Los Angeles capital markets group.
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Cushman & Wakefield has added Christie Kong as a director on its asset services team. Kong will help support the firm’s growing client roster and manage office, retail and industrial property in the region. Before coming to C&W, Kong was an asset manager for Gemini Rosemont’s West Coast office portfolio.
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Cushman & Wakefield’s national healthcare advisory group has added Nehal Wadhwa as a senior associate in the firm’s San Diego office. Wadhwa will work alongside Joe Zurek, who leads the firm’s local healthcare team in San Diego and represent clients with leasing and selling healthcare real estate.
SALES
Doheny Eye Institute sold its roughly 75K SF life sciences building to the University of Southern California for $57M. The property is in the USC Health Sciences Campus next to USC Norris Hospital in Boyle Heights. Newmark co-Head of U.S. Capital Markets Kevin Shannon, Executive Managing Directors Rob Hannan and Ken White, and Senior Managing Director Laura Stumm, along with Fred Cordova, Al Grazioli and JoAnn Horeni of Corion Enterprises, represented the seller, Doheny Eye Institute. The buyer, USC, was represented by CBRE.
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Stepp Commercial has completed the $41.85M sale of an apartment portfolio in Long Beach. The deal encompassed 17 properties totaling 155 units for a per-unit price of $270K. The portfolio included assets in Class-B locations across Long Beach. Just over half of the units are Section 8 housing. Stepp Commercial principal Robert Stepp, Senior Vice President Michael Toveg and senior investment associate Travis Traweek, along with Larry Bustamante of Coldwell Banker Coast Alliance, represented the seller, a Southern California-based private investor. The buyer was an institutional investment firm.
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Montana Avenue Capital Partners purchased a Burbank media property for $24M, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. The six-building campus at 2435-2449 North Naomi St. measures roughly 60K SF and includes production/event space, creative suites, editing bays, recording studios and office space.
LEASES
DNA Motoring, a supplier of automotive exhaust and lighting products, has leased 350K SF at 20301 East Walnut Drive N in City of Industry. Newmark Executive Managing Directors Ron Washle and Mark Kegans and Newmark Managing Director Jim Center represented the landlord, lighting retailer Lamps Plus. Newmark Executive Managing Director Rick Sheckter and Director Johnson Chien represented DNA Motoring.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
The Hyatt Place/Hyatt House LAX/Century Blvd., a new dual-branded hotel with 401 rooms, has opened near Los Angeles International Airport. Built in 1967 and designed by architect Welton Becket, the renovated hotel now features a rooftop terrace and two new restaurants.
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C.W. Driver Cos. has broken ground on a 58K SF multifamily and mixed-use project in Temple City. The four-story project for Begonia Real Estate Development has a $36.8M price tag and includes 74 market-rate apartments, 11K SF of commercial space and an underground parking garage.
FINANCING
Universe Holdings received $36.5M in cash-out financing from Fannie Mae, according to Connect CRE. The financing was secured by 11 of Universe’s smaller Southern California multifamily communities. The financing allowed Universe to both pay off existing mortgages on the value-add properties and return capital to its investors.
