Zygi and Mark Wilf, the billionaire owners of NFL team Minnesota Vikings, bought an office complex in Westlake Village, a rare sign of activity in a slumping Los Angeles office market.
The Wilf brothers, through a San Diego-based entity called Lindero Middle, paid $40 million for the Village Green Office Park, according to a deed filed with Los Angeles County. The property, located at 5655 Lindero Canyon Road, contains five buildings that total nearly 231,000 square feet, county records show. The property is leased to tenants such as law firm Walsh & Associates and general construction company GMZ Engineering.
The seller is a partnership that includes residential landlord Nasch Properties. Elizabeth Grossman, a vice president at Wells Fargo, was the signatory for the selling entity.
The sale comes as Los Angeles office availability reaches record highs, pushing investors to put large blocks of office properties on the market. In the third quarter, the Los Angeles office market posted its “highest availability ever” with 25.4 percent of office square footage still available for lease, according to a Savills report.
Over the past few months, large office complexes have gone up for sale in Los Angeles. Earlier this month, J.P. Morgan Asset Management put the Water Garden office campus, a 1.4 million-square-foot complex at 1620 26th Street in Santa Monica, on the market for an undisclosed asking price.
Software firm Oracle is likewise looking to part with an office property in Santa Monica. The firm is currently looking for a buyer for 2600 Colorado Avenue, a 320,000-square-foot complex that it bought for $254 million in 2016.
The Wilfs lead Garden Homes and Garden Commercial Properties, a pair of private development companies with assets across the northeast, California and Florida. According to its website, Garden Commercial, which is based in Short Hills, New Jersey, owns more than 25 million square feet of retail and office space.
The Wilfs bought the Minnesota Vikings in 2005. After taking control of the team, they funded a portion of the $1.1 billion development of the team’s current home, the US Bank Stadium.