Development opportunity? This investment firm snagged an aging office campus in hot El Segundo

An investment firm that just purchased a soon-to-be vacant El Segundo office campus could be looking at the move as a development opportunity in a fast-rising city.

New York-based Vella Group paid $51 million for the 200,000-square-foot office campus, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Boeing’s lease expires at the end of next year on the two-building campus, according to the report. The properties are located on six acres at 650 and 700 Pacific Coast Highway.

The owners, a family trust tied to an individual named John Winters, put the properties on the market in February. The buildings date from the 1950s. The trust’s agents at NFK and CBRE marketed the campus as a development opportunity.

Vella Group, an affiliate of VE Equities, also owns office properties in nearby Hawthorne. Last year it inked leases for space with a New York-based T-shirt maker and high-tech doorbell maker Ring.

The El Segundo properties are near Los Angeles International Airport, as well as the Los Angeles Times’ new office campus on Imperial Highway.

It’s also close to the 120-acre Smoky Hollow area that El Segundo city officials rezoned last year to attract creative and tech companies. The rezoning allows for nearly 3 million square feet of office, industrial, and public building space in the historically industrial area.

The aging El Segundo offices aren’t the only L.A. properties Boeing is vacating. The aerospace giant sold a 93-acre aircraft assembly campus to Goodman Group earlier this month for more than $200 million. Goodman plans to convert the property over to retail and industrial space. [LABJ] – Dennis Lynch