Onni is buying H.D. Buttercup site in Arts District for $34M: sources

Onni Group’s Downtown buying bender is going strong.

The Vancouver-based firm is in contract to acquire a six-building campus in the Arts District for $34 million, The Real Deal has learned.

The seller, Boulevard Partners, will take in almost $525 a square foot for the 64,774-square-foot property at 2118-2140 E 7th Place, which also includes a parking lot at 2117 Violet street. It abuts a development site Onni purchased in December 2016 at 2143 Violet Street, where it plans to build more than 500 live/work units.

If the deal with Boulevard closes, Onni will own the full square block bounded by Violet and Seventh Place. Onni’s plans for the assemblage are not known, and a representative of the firm could not be reached for comment.

Mike Smith and Armen Kazaryan were the listing agents, but did not respond to requests. Boulevard declined to comment.

The buildings are fully occupied. Furniture store H.D. Buttercup leases four of them. The fifth contains live/work units, and the sixth is a small building leased as one unit. Rental rates at the properties are not known, but the campus was pitched as having under-market rents that could be increased as short-term leases expire, listing materials show.

The per-square-foot price — like most in the Arts District these days — does not top Tishman Speyer’s $660 per square foot purchase of the Hyperloop campus last year. Tishman recently filed plans with the city to develop an office tower on the site.

Onni has been on an L.A. shopping spree in recent years. The company acquired the L.A. Times building, at 202 W 1st Street, last fall, and recently unveiled plans to build a 1,127-unit complex on the site. The developer is also planning a 48-story tower at 1000 S Hill Street in South Park. Earlier this year, the company ventured into West L.A., purchasing the Atria West office campus for $40.7 million.