Downtown LA Tower Trades for $200M

Wilmington Trust sold the asset after foreclosing on a $350 million loan earlier this year.

Exterior shot of The Gas Company Tower, a Class A 1.3 million-square-foot office tower in downtown Los Angeles.
The Gas Company Tower rises 54 stories in downtown Los Angeles. Image courtesy of JLL

Los Angeles County has completed the acquisition of The Gas Company Tower, a Class A, 1.3 million-square-foot office building in downtown Los Angeles, for $200 million.

Wilmington Trust sold the asset after having foreclosed in September on a $350 million CMBS loan encumbering the property, according to CommercialEdge information. Brookfield Properties had defaulted on the loan last year.

The county’s board of supervisors approved the purchase in November. The buyer plans to relocate its employees, currently based at the dated Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, to the newly acquired tower, Los Angeles Times reported.


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JLL Senior Managing Directors Jeffrey Bramson, Sean Ryan and Tom Hall, together with Managing Director Andrew Harper and Director Will Poulsen, led the Investment Sales and Advisory team that arranged the deal on behalf of the seller.

Greater Los Angeles witnessed an office investment volume totaling more than $1.7 billion year-to-date through October, according to a recent CommercialEdge office report. Properties traded at $354 per square foot on average, double the national figure. The market was the second most expensive in California after San Francisco, where assets changed hands for $392 per square foot in October.

Towering over downtown L.A.

The Gas Company Tower is at 555 W. Fifth St., in the Bunker Hill neighborhood, one block from Pershing Square. Completed in 1991, the 54-story building features 27,000-square-foot floorplates, first-floor retail and a five-story underground parking garage. Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the office tower most recently underwent renovations in 2018.

At the time of the sale, the LEED Gold-certified asset was 53 percent leased. Major tenants include Southern California Gas Company, Deloitte, Knoll, ArentFox Schiff LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP, among others.

The 1.4-acre property has a transit score of 100, as Pershing Square Metro station and Bunker Hill Station are less than 1 mile away.