Burrito chain leases at historic newspaper building in Pasadena

Wake and Late takes 12K sf in the Star-News Building built in 1925

From left: Greenbridge Investment Partners' Sean Hashem and Fareed Kanani with 525 E. Colorado Blvd
From left: Greenbridge Investment Partners' Sean Hashem and Fareed Kanani with 525 E. Colorado Blvd (Getty, Loopnet, Greenbridge)

A historic newspaper building in Pasadena has gone from rolling papers off its presses to rolling breakfast burritos.

Greenbridge Investment Partners, based in Beverly Hills, has leased the bottom floor of the former Pasadena Star-News building at 525 East Colorado Boulevard to a breakfast burrito chain, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Wake and Late, based in Downtown Los Angeles, rented 12,000 square feet once occupied by the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.

The expanding downtown burrito chain plans to use the new storefront for food and coffee sales and as a bakery to supply bread and pastries for all three Wake and Late locations.

The five-story Beaux-Arts landmark, designed by architect Joseph Blick in 1925, has been largely preserved inside and out, while retaining the large open spaces, 16-foot ceilings and etched stonework of the original design.

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The Pasadena Star-News vacated the building in 1990.

The 84,135-square-foot building is in the city’s Financial District on the edge of Old Pasadena near the Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena Civic Center, Paseo Colorado and numerous shops and restaurants.

Part of the building is leased to a 24-Hour Fitness gym. Lease rates for its second, third and penthouse floors are $33 a square foot, according to Loopnet.

Dana Bartholomew

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