Billionaire business mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong has expanded his El Segundo empire, purchasing a 33,000-square-foot office building in the neighborhood for $19 million.
A limited liability company that lists the address of Soon-Shiong’s umbrella corporation NantWorks and features the signature of his longtime associate Charles Kenworthy, bought the property at 2200 E. Grand Ave. from BLT Enterprises, a Santa Monica-based real estate investment company. The deal hit county records on Dec. 2.
BLT Enterprises bought the two-story office building, which has a bold, black inscription that reads on “Aerospace” on its front door, for $11.4 million in 2012, according to PropertyShark.
A message left with a Soon-Shiong spokesperson was not immediately returned.
The deal represents Soon-Shiong’s latest effort to refashion El Segundo from aerospace hub to site for the entrepreneur’s many biotechnology, media, and entertainment properties.
The neighborhood, which is adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport, is transitioning from the reduction in L.A. work available at military and aviation companies including Boeing, Raytheon, and formerly L.A. headquartered Northrop Grumman Corp.
The 2200 East Grand Avenue property sits one mile away from the Los Angeles Times headquarters, a publication Soon-Shiong acquired from Tribune Publishing Co. last year. Soon-Shiong moved the Times from its century-old headquarters in downtown L.A. to 2300 Imperial Highway, a 157,000-square-foot property Soon-Shiong bought in 2017 for $52 million.
Soon-Shiong subsequently bought a $50 million warehouse adjacent to the new Times’ headquarters, and he purchased other properties in El Segundo last year.
Each of the deals were registered under LLCs controlled by Kenworthy, an executive vice president for corporate strategy at NantWorks. Kenworthy followed Soon-Shiong from Abraxis, a bioscience company Soon-Shiong sold for $2.9 billion in 2010 one year before he started NantWorks.
Privately held NantWorks is headquartered in Culver City, but the company has expanded into El Segundo under the moniker of numerous subsidiaries including NantKwest, NantHealth, NantMobile, NantBio, NantCloud, NantOmics, NantCell, and NantStudio.