Blackstone provides $110M loan on Culver City office buy

Northwood Investors paid $120M for the complex in August

Brian Kingston and Merrick Park
Northwood Investors’ John Krukal, Blackstone’s Jonathan Grey, and 900 Corporate Pointe

Blackstone Group has provided a $110 million, high-leverage loan on a recently purchased office campus in Culver City.

The borrower, Northwood Investors, bought the complex at 900 Corporate Pointe from NortonLifeLock in August for $120 million. Cushman & Wakefield’s Rob Rubano, who advised on the deal, called it a transitional loan for a “partial sale-leaseback,” according to the Los Angeles Business Journal, which reported on the loan deal.

As part of the August acquisition, NortonLifeLock will lease 30 percent of the 288,000-square-foot building for the next seven years, the Journal reported.

Symantec Corporation built the complex in 2007 for its Southern California headquarters. The company changed its name to NortonLifeLock last year, after Broadcom bought part of Symantec’s software business.

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Last month, Blackstone closed the largest real estate credit fund ever raised — worth $8 billion — for new loans and purchasing debt securities. The firm has nearly tripled the value of its debt assets under management over the last five years, from $10 billion to $26 billion.

The investment giant made a big play in L.A. in August when it acquired a 49 percent stake in Hudson Pacific Properties’ $1.65 billion Hollywood portfolio.

Later that month, Blackstone also bought a data center in Pico Rivera for $62 million.

The L.A. office market has been scuffling amid the pandemic. A third quarter report from Savills showed the total amount of new office leasing was down 61 percent year-over-year and 18 percent below Q2 numbers. Around 20 percent of L.A. total office space is now available, the highest percentage in eight years. [LABJ]Dennis Lynch