Jade Enterprises buys West Los Angeles office portfolio for $159M

Downtown L.A. development firm Jade Enterprises is expanding its holdings on the Westside. It paid Blackstone a reported $158.8 million, or $454 a square foot, for a portfolio of five traditional office buildings totaling 350,000 square feet, all but one of which are west of the 405.

The properties in the portfolio are 350 South Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, 2730 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, 1950 Sawtelle Boulevard in L.A.’s Sawtelle Japantown neighborhood, 11075 Santa Monica Boulevard in West L.A. and 6167 Bristol Parkway in Culver City. They are 91 percent leased, and have an average lease term of four years.

It’s not hard to see why Jade, which has historically been more prolific as a Downtown landlord, would look west. Asking rents for office space on the Westside averaged $4 a square foot a month in the fourth quarter, according to a report from Colliers International, towering over the $3.17 average for the greater Downtown area.

Jade’s office holdings Downtown include the 25-story Figueroa Tower, a 331,000-square-foot office building at 660 South Figueroa Street in the Financial District, which it purchased for roughly $75 million in May 2014.

More recently, Jade has ventured into residential development Downtown. Onyx, its two-building mixed-used development with 410 apartments above 42,000 square feet of retail space, is under construction in South Park. Topaz, its 159-unit mixed-use complex above 23,000 square feet of retail, is under construction in the Historic Core. It also filed plans this month with the city for a proposed 154-unit project at 1340 South Olive Street in South Park. That’s in addition to a handful of buildings it acquired last year near USC, which may also be residential projects.

Ryan Gallagher of HFF represented the seller in the Westside portfolio transaction, along with Todd Tydlaska and director Andrew Harper.

Gallagher told Globe St. that with so many creative office conversions on the Westside, there is demand for old-school office space from traditional tenants, indicating that Jade doesn’t plan on giving the portfolio a Silicon Beach makeover.

However, it should be noted that Jade planned a partial creative conversion for Figueroa Tower. [Globe St.] – Hannah Miet