DivcoWest closes on Glendale Plaza for just $179M

Real estate investment firm DivcoWest has closed on its acquisition of Glendale Plaza for $179 million or $391 per square foot, far less than the $215 million the building sold for a decade ago, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

The seller, Prudential Financial Inc., bought the building in 2006, before a global economic crisis sent prices plummeting.

The Real Deal first reported that Divco was in advanced discussions to acquire the 25-story office tower, at 655 N. Central Avenue, last month.

The deal is a vote of confidence in the Glendale office market, which took a hit when Nestlé, long headquartered in the city, said it would leave its 378,452-square-foot office at 800 North Brand Boulevard by the end of the year.

Michael Provost, Divco’s managing director, said the San Francisco-based company plans to spruce up the 547,300-square-foot plaza building by improving the common areas and hopes to eventually raise rents.

“Developers like Rick Caruso have created a powerful sense of place in Glendale with visionary retail and residential developments like Americana at Brand,” he told the Journal in a statement. “We like what we see in terms of the creation of a live-work-play environment.”

CBRE’s Sean Sullivan, Todd Tydlaska, and Michael Longo represented Prudential. Divco did its brokering in-house.

The building is 95.5 percent leased, with Dreamworks Entertainment as its anchor tenant. The insurance company Unum Group and the law firm Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie also have significant chunks of space.

Divco also recently finalized its purchase of the Telephone Building at 1314 Seventh Street in Santa Monica for roughly $52 million, or $867 a square foot. [LABJ] –– Katherine Clarke