The Los Angeles commercial real estate market hit record highs over the past 12 months, thanks to historically low interest rates and an uptick in demand for properties from foreign investors and local pension funds alike.
Read on for a closer looks at the 10 most expensive properties that traded.
Loews Santa Monica
1. Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel — $363 million
Private equity giant Blackstone scored the biggest deal of the past 12 months when it paid $363 million for the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel at 1700 Ocean Avenue in a deal that closed in December.
The deal was part of a much larger transaction for Blackstone, which paid a total $6 billion, or $14.25 a share, to buy real estate investment trust Strategic Hotels & Resorts, which owned and operated 17 luxury hotels, including the Loews.
The 342-key waterfront hotel opened in 1989.
The Reserve
2. The Reserve –$316 million
Dallas-based Invesco was the buyer of the second most expensive commercial property, nabbing a nearly 400,000-square-foot office campus near Marina Del Rey for $316 million, or $790 a square foot.
The property, at 13031 W. Jefferson Blvd. across from Playa Vista, counts Microsoft and Sony among its tenants. The seller, Shorenstein Properties, converted the property from a mail distribution center for the U.S. postal service in 2013 and dubbed it the Reserve.
Eastdil brokered the deal.
2700 Colorado
3. 2600-2800 Colorado– $284 million
Investment firm Invesco also shelled out $284 million, or $898.74 a foot, last April to buy a 316,000-square-foot office complex at 2600 and 2700 Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica from Centurion Real Estate Partners.
The low-rise office complex, which has been home to office tenants such as MTV Networks and Lions Gate Entertainment, was built in 1988. It’s just across from Colorado Center.
Eastdil Secured brokered the deal.
8th + Hope
4. 8th+Hope — $200 million
Essex Property Trust, a Chicago-based real estate investment trust, nabbed a 290-unit, 300,000-square-foot apartment complex for $200 million, or $671 a foot, last March in what constituted the fourth largest commercial deal of the past 12 months.
The property, at 901 S. Hope St., was one of the first high-rises to be constructed and sold since the financial crisis. The seller, Atlanta developer Wood Partners, had already leased 50 percent of the units by the time of the sale.
The PacMutual building
5. PacMutual — $200 million
The PacMutual center, a Beaux Arts-style office complex at 523 West 6th Street in Downtown Los Angeles, sold for $200 million, or roughly $430 a foot, last September to Canadian real estate giant Ivanhoe Cambridge and Callahan Capital Properties, a Chicago-based private equity firm.
The seller, Rising Realty Partners, paid just $60 million for the building in 2012 and then invested millions to transform it into a top-tier property geared towards creative firms, raising the rentable square footage by 9 percent to 464,000.
The SLS hotel in Beverly Hills
6. SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills — $195 million
Sunrider International, the marketing company based in Torrance, CA., paid $195 million for the 297-room SLS Beverly Hills hotel last April.
Hotel guru Sam Nazarian of SBE Enterprises opened the hotel, located at 465 South La Clenaga Boulevard just south of the Beverly Center, in 2008. It continued to be operated by Starwood Hotel & Resorts.
The Motif
7. The Motif — $163 million
TruAmerica Multifamily shelled out $163 million to buy a newly constructed 395-unit luxury apartment community in the Warner Center district of L.A. last month.
The complex, known as the Millennium in Woodland Hills, was purchased in partnership with Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation.
Former owner, the Dinerstein Companies, finished construction on the apartments early last year. The five-story multi-family property has a mix of one, two and three-bedroom homes as well as two swimming pools, a fitness center, a community garden, a dog park and a seven-story parking facility.
Midtown Crossing
8. Midtown Crossing — $156.92 million
Real estate investment firm NewTower Trust Company paid $156.92 million, or $591 a foot, to buy the retail center known as Midtown Crossing last February from CIM Group.
The 265,189-square-foot retail complex was constructed in 2011 and counts Lowe’s, Chipotle and Starbucks among its tenants.
Chanel
9. Chanel S.A. — $152 million
Luxe retailer Chanel paid a record $13,000 a foot for a retail space in Beverly Hills last month.
The 11,500-square-foot property, at 400 North Rodeo Drive,sold for $152 million, crushing the previous record set by the 2012 sale of another building on Rodeo Drive for about $10,400 a square foot.
The seller was David Family Trust.
6300 Wilshire Boulevard
10. 6300 Wilshire Boulevard — $148.5 million
Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation forked out $148.5 million, or $364 a foot, to buy this 407,915-square-foot Class A office complex, at 6300 Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles from Brookfield Office Properties.
The property is also known as the New York Life building for its exterior signage.