Bixby Land sells El Segundo office for double what it paid

Office property values in El Segundo are steeply rising as industrial and traditional office buildings get tech makeovers.

Case in point: Developer Bixby Land Co. just sold a 113,600-square-foot creative office building in El Segundo at 2101 El Segundo Boulevard for $49 million, almost twice the $25 million it paid less than three years ago to both acquire and renovate it.

The buyer, Bolour Associates of Beverly Hills, paid $431 a square foot for the property, which Bixby and design firm Shubin + Donaldson Architects transformed from a traditional office building to a modern campus with an indoor/outdoor lobby, a dog park and beach cruisers for workers. And it wouldn’t be a tech office without a fire pit, so of course there’s that, too. 

The per-square-foot price Bolour paid for the fully-leased property was $160 a square foot higher than El Segundo averages, according to data from CoStar. Bolour plans to hold onto the building as a long term investment. 

Rising rents for so-called “creative office” space have pushed companies from Santa Monica and Venice to Playa Vista, and in recent years to the South Bay. El Segundo, which is close to both the airport and the other Beach Cities, used to be known for aerospace, but over the past five years, it has seen an influx of tech and creative companies.

“It’s not the old El Segundo,” Bixby CEO Bill Halford told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s part of Silicon Beach.” [LAT] – Hannah Miet

Got a tip? Reach out to lanews@therealdeal.com