Still on the market, Warner Center tower will get $50M creative office conversion

The planned reposition of a 14-story Warner Center office tower will look to take advantage of the growing creative office trend, likely making the on-the-market building more attractive to potential buyers.

Lincoln Property Company, working with the building owner Abraham Lerner, will embark on a $50 million reposition, hoping to attract media and tech tenants, according to the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. Anthem Blue Cross, which has occupied the 450,000-square-foot building, is leaving after more than 40 years.

The remodel of the building at 2155 Oxnard Street was announced last September and then the property was listed a month later. It remains on the market.

The remodel could be wrapped by the middle of next year. CBRE is handling leasing.

Creative office conversions are popular across the Los Angeles area, where there’s a large stock of aging buildings and strong demand for nontraditional spaces.

Conversions have tended to work out well for investors. The downtown firm RYDA bought a building downtown for $7 million in 2015, repositioned it, and sold it for $22 million in January.

Swift Real Estate is pouring $40 million into a reposition of an El Segundo office complex next to the Los Angeles Times new headquarters.

There have been dozens of conversions in Silicon Beach.

Anthem Blue Cross has occupied the tower since 1977 and will vacate by the end of the year. Anthem signed a lease for a 169,000-square-foot space at Lincoln’s nearby Campus @ Warner Center complex last summer.