LaSalle Investment looks to cash out of Playa Vista office

LaSalle has listed two office properties in Playa Vista for sale, according to LoopNet listings and property records. 

The buildings — 5340 Alla Road and 12901 West Jefferson Boulevard — together total about 180,000 square feet and can be sold together or separately. A team led by Newmark’s Kevin Shannon is marketing the properties for sale. The listings did not include prices.

LaSalle, an investment management firm based in Chicago, bought both properties from Canyon Partners in 2017, spending $95 million for the Alla Road property and $45 million for the West Jefferson building, according to property records. Together, the deals came out to about $777 per square foot.

A representative for LaSalle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Playa Vista is located within the city of Los Angeles, meaning LaSalle will have to cough up a 5.5 percent transfer tax on both properties if they sell for more than $10 million each, under the city’s Measure ULA. 

According to marketing materials, 5340 Alla Road is pitched as a redevelopment play — the chance to add a 160,000-square-foot office building or rezone the site for residential. 

The property, built in 1972 and renovated in 2015, is about 45 percent leased. Winc, once a publicly traded, online wine seller, previously leased 19,000 square feet of office space, but subleased it out in 2021, according to SEC filings. The lease expired this year. 

Current tenants at the property include ad firms IPG and Kastner and entertainment company Cosm, according to the marketing materials. 

If the site’s zoning is changed, a new owner could build up to 371 residential units, the brochure shows. 

The West Jefferson site is fully leased to IPG through April 2028, according to Newmark. 

Few office properties have traded in either Playa Vista or the general Westside over the last year, as rising interest rates and Measure ULA have deterred sales. Most office landlords are in asset management mode at this point in the market cycle. 
Blackstone is one landlord that has “completely” written off its stake in a Playa Vista office campus — the 1.4 million-square-foot Playa District — given “challenges” facing the property.