AEG buys the Desmond in DTLA for $48.5M

The Desmond DTLA
A rendering of the Desmond by Skidmore Owings & Merrill

The sports and entertainment company AEG bought the Desmond, the Downtown building it had been leasing from Lincoln Property Co., for $48.5 million, The Real Deal has learned.

It paid $573 a square foot for the 82,000-square-foot office building in Downtown’s South Park neighborhood, exercising an option to buy that was was part of its lease agreement, according to CoStar Group. AEG had been renting the entirety of the brick building, which is blocks away from its headquarters at L.A. Live.

Lincoln sold the building to its tenant after giving the site a creative office makeover, refurbishing its exterior and adding a glass pavilion to its roof.

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AEG wanted to own the building from the jump. It originally outbid Lincoln to buy the Desmond from Evoq Properties, before Evoq sold to a group of investors led by Atlas Capital Group. However, that deal fell through, and Lincoln’s bid won out. Lincoln worked with architects from Skidmore Ownings & Merill to customize the property to fit AEG’s needs, giving the company even more reason to want to own it.

AEG and Lincoln could not be reached for comment on the sale.