Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks buys another El Segundo building

NantWorks, the biotech holding company run by Los Angeles-based billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, has bought another El Segundo office building, boosting its portfolio of office, land and data centers in the South Bay city, The Real Deal has learned. 

The firm paid $25 million for 1940 East Mariposa Avenue, a roughly 84,000-square-foot building, according to property records filed with L.A. County. The deal came out to about $294 per square foot. 

Montana Avenue Capital Partners sold the property at a 5 percent discount compared to the $26.4 million it bought the building for in 2020, records show. Montana Avenue did not respond to a request for comment. 

Montana Avenue also held a $28.75 million loan from New York-based Amherst Capital Management on the property, records show, which was used to substantially renovate the building last year.

When the building was put up for sale last year, it was 50 percent leased, according to marketing materials from Colliers, which held the listing. 

NantWorks has bought at least five office buildings and data centers in El Segundo and Redondo Beach over the last six years, spending at least $244 million. On most deals, NantWorks did not obtain financing, records show. 

But office prices have shifted since NantWorks’ first forays into the asset class. 

In 2021, the firm bought a 52,000-square-foot office building at 601 North Nash Street in El Segundo for $52 million, or roughly $1,000 a square foot.

The typical office buyer in Los Angeles has shifted from institutional to private wealth, those who are likely to pay in all cash or use private money lenders, according to commercial agents. And with the prevalence of remote work and a dearth of capital to finance office acquisitions, prices for offices have begun to plummet. 

Transactions have dipped, too. Investors spent $2.5 billion buying offices across L.A. last year, down 51 percent from 2022 and 63 percent from 2019, according to Newmark.