This Week's LA Deal Sheet
Marymount California University is selling its Rancho Palos Verdes campus and The Villas in San Pedro, a student housing property, to UCLA for $80M.
UCLA hopes the purchase will help it achieve its goal of expanding its enrollment, the Los Angeles Times reported. UCLA received almost 140,000 first-year applications in the fall of 2021. It had roughly 6,600 open spots.
Berkadia Senior Managing Director Adrienne Barr and Senior Director Steffan Braunlich are representing Marymount. A Cushman & Wakefield team led by Mike Condon Jr. and Kimberly Brown with McKenna Gaskill, Erica Finck, Jacob Kovner and Connor Martin is representing UCLA.
PEOPLE
Pathfinder Partners promoted two of its executives. Matt Quinn was promoted to managing director. Quinn joined Pathfinder in 2009 and led the company’s asset management department for the past decade. Jeff Wurtz, most recently vice president of finance, was promoted to chief financial officer. As CFO, Wurtz will assume primary responsibility for all of Pathfinder’s accounting, finance and tax operations. Wurtz joined Pathfinder in 2012.
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CBRE hired Brice W. Head as a senior vice president at the firm’s South Bay office in El Segundo. Head will support CBRE’s greater Los Angeles multifamily business. Prior to CBRE, Head was a senior vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap, where he was one of the firm’s top sales people. He has over 20 years of experience in commercial real estate.
SALES
The Hyatt Place Los Angeles/LAX/El Segundo in El Segundo has sold to Welcome Group for $49M. The 143-room hotel at 750 North Nash St. did not have a management contract. It was renovated in 2020 and features a gym, bar and restaurant, a pool and an EV charging station. A JLL Hotels and Hospitality team led by Senior Managing Director John Strauss, Managing Director James Stockdale and Executive Vice President Melvin Chu represented the seller and procured the buyer.
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Stos Partners sold a 182K SF industrial building at 159 North San Antonio Ave. in Pomona for $45.9M. The project sits on 8.48 acres and is 100% occupied by a credit-backed manufacturing and distribution company. Stos represented itself. Cushman & Wakefield’s Jeffrey Cole, Jeffrey Chiate, Bryce Aberg, Brad Brandenburg, Mike Adey and Zachary Harman represented the undisclosed buyer in the transaction.
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An eight-unit property in Long Beach’s Bixby Knolls neighborhood sold for $3.05M, or over $370K per unit. The seller was a private investor based in Indiana. The buyer was a local investor based in Santa Monica. The property at 4321-4327 Elm Ave. closed at a cap rate of 3% and a gross rent multiplier of 18.5, according to Stepp Commercial. Stepp principal Robert Stepp and Senior Vice President Mark Witsken represented the seller.
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Liberty National Corp. purchased a 15K SF site in downtown San Diego to develop a 37-story tower called SkyLine West. The development at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ash Street will hold apartments and retail. Liberty National purchased the property from Nellis Corp. Liberty National expects to submit plans to the city of San Diego by the summer of 2023, with construction planned to begin in the summer of 2024.
LEASES
The esports team TSM FTX is going to relocate its offices into a 25K SF office on the top floor of Playa District in November, CoStar reported. The company’s headcount has more than doubled from 49 before the pandemic to 110 now, and it needed additional space to accommodate its growing team. The building at 6080 Center Drive is owned by Blackstone. Cushman & Wakefield's Ray Howden and Greg Lovett represented TSM FTX in the deal. JLL's Josh Wrobel represented the landlord.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
PATH opened its PATH Metro Villas development in East Hollywood. The new campus at 340 North Madison Ave. brings both permanent and interim housing as well as services for low-income households and veterans and individuals experiencing homelessness. The complex holds 187 affordable units and 98 interim housing beds. Administrative and program offices, community rooms, resource centers, a housing placement center, and mental and community healthcare centers are also part of the development.
