Swig finds new bottom with DTLA office sale at $94 a sf

The Swig Company has created a new benchmark for Downtown L.A. office sales — $94 a square foot, The Real Deal has learned. 

The firm sold 617 West 7th Street, formerly the headquarters for Union Oil, for $20.5 million, or roughly 47 percent less than what it bought it for more than a decade ago, according to property records filed with L.A. County. 

Izek Shomof, known for redeveloping part of Downtown L.A.’s historic core neighborhood, bought the property. Shomof could not be reached for comment. Swig did not respond to a request for comment. 

The deal marks the lowest price for an office tower in Downtown L.A. on a per square foot basis over the last four years. The last tower to trade was the AON Center, which sold to Carolwood for about $134 a square foot. 

Swig also had to pay $1.2 million to the City of Los Angeles, under the city’s 5.5 percent transfer tax on sales over $10 million, according to the deed.

San Francisco-based Swig bought the 216,000-square-foot property for $38.8 million, or roughly $175 a square foot in 2011, records show. 

The building, which sits in the Financial District at 7th and Hope Street, was built in 1923 as Union Oil’s headquarters, and redeveloped in 2000. 

JLL was marketing the building for sale in November, according to online listings for the property, which was under contract at the beginning of the month. The site was pitched as a redevelopment play, with the potential to turn the property into residential or a hotel. 

Shomof has experience with both, though it’s unclear what his plans are for the building. In Panorama City, Shomof plans to build 200 apartments next to his 194-unit Panorama Tower, which he converted from an office complex. He also owns a hotel in Inglewood, which he bought while Stan Kroenke’s SoFi Stadium was under construction.