19191 South Vermont Avenue (Credit: CBRE)
UPDATED, Oct. 13, 2020, 9:31 a.m.: Blackstone Group has sold a South Bay office tower for $55.5 million, the latest in what has been a particularly busy few months of deals in Los Angeles for the investment giant.
Milpitas-based real estate investment firm Nome Ventures acquired the 237,000-square-foot Pacific Gateway at 19191 South Vermont Avenue in Torrance last week, according to CBRE. The deal for the property — which was built in 1981 but renovated last year — pencils out to $234 per square foot.
Wells Fargo provided Nome with a $39.3 million acquisition loan to finance the deal on the 10-story building. CBRE’s Greg Grant brokered the financing. The brokerage announced the loan together with the purchase.
In July, Nome paid $44 million for a Blackstone-owned office building in Cerritos. CBRE also advised on that deal. A message left with Nome Ventures was not returned.
Even as tenants rethink their office leases, Grant said the deal shows the continued interest in “strategically located, Class-A products in fundamentally sound markets.” Pacifc Gateway is 84 percent leased to tenants that include DaVita HealthCare Partners, Farmers Insurance and the law firm Ogletree Deakins.
Blackstone declined to comment. The firm has significantly changed its L.A. profile, with the biggest move having been over the summer, when it agreed to purchase a 49 percent stake in Hudson Pacific Properties’ $1.65 billion Hollywood real estate portfolio.
Blackstone also recently provided a $110 million loan on Northwood Investors’ $120 million purchase of an office campus in Culver City.
And in August, the firm paid $62 million for a warehouse in Pico Rivera, continuing its push for industrial space.
Correction: A previous version of this story provided the incorrect property sale amount because of a mistake from CBRE.