Watt Companies sells Santa Monica development site

The local firm sold the development site, one year after filing for office and retail project

Watt Companies CEO J. Scott Watt and a rendering of Watt Companies' previously proposed project
Watt Companies CEO J. Scott Watt and a rendering of Watt Companies' previously proposed project

UPDATED, Thursday, October 18, 2018, 10:19 a.m.: Watt Companies has sold off a development site in Santa Monica.

The local developer sold two properties — a parking lot at 1550 Euclid Street and an industrial building at 1205 Colorado Avenue — one year after filing for the office and retail complex that would span both properties. The sale was made through its subsidiary, Watt Investment Partners.

The sale closed late last month for $51.3 million. The buyer was Houston-based Friedkin Group, a consortium of automotive, hospitality, entertainment and other companies. Watt Companies had acquired the properties in early 2016 for 19.5 million.

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Watt filed plans for a three-story building on one parcel last September, according to Urbanize. In October the firm received entitlements for 30,200 square feet of office space and 4,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The Friedkin Group confirmed that it would carry through with those plans and that the new office would be for the company itself. Watt also received entitlements to convert a 20,000 industrial building at the Colorado address to creative office.

The Santa Monica developer planned to break ground at the beginning of the year before Friedkin approached them with an offer for the project, according to a representative for Watt Companies. The project would have been its first mixed-use project in L.A.

Correction: an earlier version of this story did not include information about the sale of 1205 Colorado Avenue, which alters the total purchase price Watt Companies paid for the properties and the sales price to Friedkin Group. It has also been corrected to show the sale was made through Watt Investment Partners.