Ocean West sells Hollywood office building at 60% loss

Ocean West Capital Partners rushed to sell an office building in Hollywood just five days before the City of L.A.’s new transfer taxes went into effect. 

The trade off? A 60 percent loss on the building. 

The Santa Monica-based investment firm sold the 12-story Taft Building at 6280 West Hollywood Boulevard for $28 million, or $222 a square foot, according to the buyer, Aviel Golbari of Elat Properties.

Ocean West bought the 126,000-square-foot property for $70 million in 2018 from DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, or about $555 a square foot, records show. 

The sell-off came together in five days, closing on Friday, the day before L.A.’s Measure ULA went into effect. The measure adds a 4 percent tax on residential and commercial sales over $5 million and a 5.5 percent tax on sales over $10 million, with revenues going to tenant resources and affordable housing development. 

Elat Properties plans to renovate the property, but will keep it as an office space, according to Golbari, who added the firm obtained the property cheaper than it would have been to demolish and replace it. 

Closing on a property in five days is untraditional, given the process usually takes up to three months, depending on financing. 

But the sellers were anxious to get the property off its books before the tax came into effect — saving themselves $1.54 million. 

Elat Properties, linked to Ray Golbari, also purchased 801 South Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. a day before the tax went into effect — a building it will use as a 20,000-square-foot headquarters. CIM Group sold the property for $41.9 million, according to Golbari, or about $195 per square foot.