With default looming, Hines looks to sell Warner Center complex

An affiliate of real estate giant Hines is looking to sell a corporate office park in Woodland Hills’ Warner Center amid speculation of an impending loan default, sources told The Real Deal. 

Hines interests bought the property, known as LNR Warner Center, for $311 million in 2006 as part of its joint venture with Japan’s Sumitomo Life Realty. It wasn’t clear if the company has officially put the property on the market, or what price it is seeking.

“With respect to the marketing of Warner Center, our policy is not to comment on potential future transactions,” a spokesperson for Hines said in a statement emailed to TRD.

The 808,274 square-foot office park comprises four five-story office buildings, one three-story building and two parking structures. Tenants include Health Net of California, which occupies more than 40 percent of the complex, as well as UMG Recordings and Viking River Cruises.

Occupancy levels at the property recently rebounded to 93 percent, after slipping to 74 percent in 2014.

A $174 million CMBS loan attached to the property was recently transferred to special servicing due to the possibility of a default, according to CMBS data analytics firm Trepp. According to the spokesperson for Hines, the loan was transferred “for purposes of discussing a potential extension.”

In August, Hines made an attempt to extend the loan until April 2017 in order to give it time to sell the property, according to Trepp. But the loan is still currently slated to mature next month.

The loan was originated by Bank of America in 2006, records show.

A sale would just be the latest is a long line for Hines, which has been disposing of many of its L.A.-based assets in recent months.

A fund managed by the Houston-based company is also selling a 19-story office tower at 12100 Wilshire Boulevard to Santa Monica-based REIT Douglas Emmett Inc. for $225 million, or close to $650 per square foot, TRD previously reported. That price is exactly what Hines paid for it in 2007, when it purchased the property from RREEF Property Trust.