Patrick Soon-Shiong’s firm buys warehouse next to new LA Times building

UPDATED, July 24, 1:40 p.m.: Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, the new owner of the Los Angeles Times, acquired a warehouse adjacent to the publication’s new headquarters in El Segundo, The Real Deal has learned.

The $50 million purchase was through Soon-Shiong’s company, NantWorks.

The property could serve as an expansion of the Times building, according to one source. The newspaper recently shifted headquarters to El Segundo, and into a eight-story, 145,000-square-foot office building at 2300 Imperial Highway. 

Imperial Hornet Developers LLC, an investment firm founded by Thomas Shapiro and Maury Rice, sold the warehouse, located at 2310 E. Imperial Highway, on July 6. It last traded in 1997 for an undisclosed price, records show.

In an e-mailed statement, NantWorks spokesman Henry Jackson said Soon-Shiong “plans to build a 10-acre campus in the city of El Segundo that showcases The Times and serves as a hub and event center of the future.”

The property was purchased through an LLC named 2310 Imperial. Corporation registration documents show the LLC is controlled by two individuals, Charles Kenworthy and Steven Hassan. Kenworthy is executive vice president of corporate strategy at NantWorks, the biotechnology company that physician Soon-Shiong founded.

The duo were also similarly registered as purchasing property earlier this year, also in El Segundo. A similar structure was used to acquire an industrial warehouse at 202 N. Nash Street for $43 million, TRD reported in January.

The latest purchase comes as the Times staff recently relocated from its Art Deco office in Downtown L.A.

Soon-Shiong previously said the new main building would be renovated to accommodate the 137-year-old newspaper, and would include a new cafeteria, retail shop, museum, studios and event spaces. He purchased it from Live Oak Properties in February for $52 million. It is one of at least six the biomedical billionaire and doctor owns in the city.