CBRE Global Investors to buy Pasadena Towers for $257M

CBRE Global Investors is in contract to buy the Pasadena Towers for $257 million, The Real Deal has exclusively learned.

The investment arm of CBRE will pay the seller, Beacon Capital Partners, roughly $555 a square foot for the 463,000-square-foot Class A office buildings in Pasadena, according to JLL. 

Michael Zietsman  and Patrick Inglis of JLL represented Beacon in the sale. Leasing brokers Shaun Stiles, Katie Cowan and Joshua Wrobel of JLL also advised Beacon in the sale. 

It will be among the more expensive deals to go down in Pasadena in recent years. Last quarter, Panda Restaurant Group bought the office at 3452 East Foothill Boulevard for $566 a square foot. In 2012, the Irvine Company bought Western Asset Plaza at 385 East Colorado Boulevard for $534 a square foot.

Beacon acquired the two towers at 800 East Colorado Boulevard and 55 South Lake Avenue in 2012 as part of a $1.6 billion portfolio that also included an office property in Boston and one in Indianapolis. At the time, the towers were only about 55 percent leased. Beacon renovated the complex, adding a gym and a courtyard. The project is now 94 percent leased by tenants that include Bank of America, the financial firm First Quadrant and Hybrid Kinetic Motors Corporation, according to CoStar Group.

Asking rent at the property is $3.90 a square foot a month, ($46.80 per year). It is much higher than the average for the area, which was roughly $2.90 a square foot a month in the fourth quarter, according to data from Colliers International.

The Pasadena Towers are not the only asset Beacon is disposing. The firm recently began shopping One California Plaza, a 42-story tower in Downtown L.A.’s Bunker Hill neighborhood, sources said.

Beacon and CBREI declined to comment.

This story has been updated to reflect the exact purchase price.