Developer lands bridge loan for Herald Examiner Building’s office conversion

Georgetown Company has snagged a bridge loan for its major redevelopment of the landmarked Herald Examiner Building in South Park, which will be transformed into a creative office complex.

JPMorgan provided the $56.4 million financing, and HFF arranged on the deal, according to its release. HFF’s Todd Sugimoto, Jeff Sause, and Spencer Richley were on the deal.

The 100,000-square-foot Herald Examiner building was completed in 1914 and hasn’t had a tenant since 1988. New York-based Georgetown purchased the building in 2015 and is turning it into a creative office space with ground-floor retail and a restaurant. It has already leased part of the building.

Restaurateurs Walter and Margarita Manzke, who owns Republique in La Brea, signed a deal in 2017 to open a restaurant in the building. In August, Arizona State University agreed to rent most of the office space.

(Credit: The Georgetown Company)

The Herald Examiner Building was commissioned by famed publisher William Randolph Hearst and designed by Julia Morgan, California’s first licensed female architect. He later commissioned her to design his famous estate in San Simeon, now owned by the state and operated as Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument. The elegant 345,000-gallon pool there recently underwent a restoration.

The Herald Examiner Building is in the Mission Revival style and has an elaborate, two-story lobby and large arched windows. The city declared it a Historic-Cultural Monument in 1977. The restoration includes opening up those now-covered windows and restoring historic features of the interior.