CIM Group Acquires 7-Asset Portfolio from CW Capital

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

2 California Plaza

CIM Group, of Los Angeles, has acquired a seven-asset portfolio headlined by Two California Plaza, a 52-story, Class A office building in downtown L.A., CIM announced Wednesday. The seller was special servicer CWCapital Asset Management L.L.C., of Bethesda, Md. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The portfolio’s other assets are:

• Montclair Plaza, a two-story enclosed regional shopping mall in Montclair, Calif.;
• Stadium Towers Plaza, a 12-story, Class A office tower in Orange County, Calif.;
• Montvale Center, an approximately 125,000-square-foot office building in Gaithersburg, Md.;
• Comfort Suites-San Diego/Mission Valley, a 126-room hotel in San Diego;
• DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel-Bakersfield, a 262-room hotel in Bakersfield, Calif.; and
• A non-performing loan secured by 270 Technology Park, an approximately 440,000-square-foot office campus in Frederick, Md.

Through a spokesperson, CIM Group declined to comment further on the transactions or the properties, but it’s evident that this portfolio was selected by CIM from the 66 assets offered for sale by CWCapital back on Oct. 10. CBRE and Auction.com oversaw the marketing of that $2.57 billion portfolio, described at the time as consisting of “predominantly cash-flowing real estate and commercial mortgage loan assets spread across the U.S.”

At about 1.28 million net rentable square feet of office space and 44,000 square feet of retail, Two California Plaza reportedly was the largest property in that portfolio. The building, in the Bunker Hill submarket of downtown L.A., recently received LEED Platinum certification.

Montclair Plaza, on about 72 acres, is an established retail center anchored by Macy’s, Nordstrom, Sears, J.C. Penney and Target. CIM acquired 868,000 square feet of the 1.3 million-square-foot mall.

The seven-asset portfolio is mainly in communities in which CIM has been active for several years, according to the announcement, and the purchaser plans to reposition one or more of the properties.

On Jan. 29, Starwood Capital Group announced its $191 million purchase, through a controlled affiliate, of a pool of assets from CWCapital that comprised seven office assets totaling 1.3 million square feet and four retail assets totaling 295,000 square feet. Though Starwood was mum, that portfolio, too, appears to have been part of the mega-offering put on the market by CWCapital in October.