Douglas Emmett in contract to buy SaMo building from Blackstone for $140M

Blackstone Group is selling a nine-story Santa Monica office building to Douglas Emmett for $139.5 million, or about $1,082 per square foot.

The Class A building at 233 Wilshire Boulevard, dubbed the Searise Office Tower, spans 128,935 square feet and is over 90 percent leased. Tenants include a bank called Luther Burbank Savings and film production company Tunnel Inc.

Tenants accounting for at least half of the property will be due for renewal by 2019, according to Commercial Real Estate Direct. This would allow Santa Monica-based REIT Douglas Emmett to raise rents to market levels.

Brokered by HFF, the sale comes seven months after Blackstone unloaded three Wilshire Boulevard office towers and one in Westwood for $1.3 billion to the same buyer, in partnership with Qatar Investment Authority.

Built in 1975, the Searise was renovated under Blackstone in 2008. The New York-based investment firm acquired it as part of its 2007 buyout of Equity Office Properties Trust.

Blackstone decided to sell the property because of the timing was in line with its buy-hold-sell investment strategy, according to sources familiar with the deal. Blackstone held the asset for about 10 years.

Neither HFF, Blackstone nor Douglas Emmett could be reached. [CRED] — Cathaleen Chen