Hyundai Pays $70M for Creative LA Office Building

2221 Park Place. Image courtesy of Newmark. Photo credit: Oscar A. Zagal

Hyundai Motor America has paid $70 million for 2221 Park Place, a 90,000-square-foot creative office building in El Segundo, Calif., according to CommercialEdge data. A partnership between Kyle Ransford of Cardinal Investments and Platform Ventures sold the vacant asset in an off-market transaction. Newmark assisted the seller in the deal.

The building initially came online in 1966 as a single-story, 55,000-square foot warehouse and was later converted to office use. CommercialEdge shows the asset previously traded in 2019, when Cardinal Investments acquired it for $31 million from Sandstone Properties, having WeWork as the sole tenant. Following the purchase, 35,000 square feet were added to the existing structure, in order to accommodate the coworking firm’s needs. The tenant vacated the property in 2020.

The office building occupies a 2.6-acre lot within the 3 million-square-foot Continental Park, along the Rosecrans Corridor. Features include 28-foot-high exposed ceilings, a retractable rooftop, integrated landscaping and three-walled workspaces with open air access, as well as outdoor and upper-level patios, among others.

The property is roughly 3 miles southeast of downtown El Segundo and 18 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the Douglas light rail station providing public transportation across the metro. The asset is also less than 2 miles south of 888 N. Douglas St., the 390,000-square-foot El Segundo office campus where Beyond Meat signed a 281,110-square-foot lease in January.

Newmark Co-Head of Capital Markets Kevin Shannon, together with Executive Managing Directors Geoff Ludwig, Eric Lastition and Ken White, negotiated the deal on behalf of the seller. The same brokerage team was instrumental in Orange County’s largest office sale of the year so far.

A handful of office transactions

The building at 2221 Park Place is the largest office asset to change hands in El Segundo since the beginning of the year, according to CommercialEdge information. The sale is one of only four transactions involving office assets larger than 25,000 square feet.

The metro L.A. office market continues to fare better than the U.S. average in terms of vacancy, with creative office space driving leasing activity. CommercialEdge data also shows metro L.A. office sales amounted to roughly $1 billion year-to-date as of June, at an average of $388 per square foot.