LA-Area Office Asset Sells for $51M

650 Pacific Coast Highway. Image courtesy of Newmark Knight Frank

New York-based Vella Group has purchased a two-building office property in Los Angeles with plans to convert it into a creative campus. The company paid $50.8 million for the 200,000-square-foot asset.

Located at 650 and 700 Pacific Coast Highway in the El Segundo neighborhood, both properties sit on a shared 6-acre property. While 650 Pacific Coast Highway is an eight-story 120,000-square-foot building, 700 Pacific Coast Highway is a two-story 78,000-square-foot property with 422 surface parking spots. Boeing is currently leasing the space, but their lease expires at the end of 2020.

Newmark Knight Frank’s team of Kevin Shannon, co-head of U.S. Capital Markets, Ken White, executive managing director, Michael Moore, senior managing director, and CBRE’s Bill Bloodgood represented the seller, who was a private family, while Vella Group represented themselves. NKF’s Shannon and White also represented another Los Angeles office building sale where the buyer is planning to renovate it into space for creative tenants.

Bloodgood said that Vella Group is planning to completely redevelop the property into an office campus geared towards media, tech and entertainment tenants once Boeing’s lease is up.

Growing appetite

According to a second-quarter NKF report about the Los Angeles office market, tech, media and coworking sectors lead overall leasing activity.

Netflix signed off on more than 163,000 square feet of space through three office leases and HBO signed a 241,000-square-foot pre-lease at 8830-8840 National Blvd., according to the report. Coworking companies also were hungry for space, accounting for 250,000 square feet of leases this quarter.