Rose Equities pays $31M for Torrance offices slated for demo

Rose Equities has purchased an office building in Torrance with approved plans to replace it with a 272-unit apartment complex for $30.6 million.

The Beverly Hills-based developer led by Leonard Glickman bought the 60,800-square-foot office property at 2325 Crenshaw Boulevard, Bisnow reported. The seller was Optimus Properties, based in Century City.

Anthony Muhlstein and a capital markets team at Newmark represented Optimus Properties.

The off-market deal for the 5.5-acre site, in the works for months, comes out to $503 per square foot, or $5.6 million an acre.

Optimus bought the single-story office building in 2019 for $15.8 million, or $260 per square foot. It’s now occupied by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Glickman, principal of Rose Equities, told Bisnow his firm intends to keep the property for 60 to 70 years. 

In February, Rose Equities and San Diego-based Garden Communities filed plans to replace the offices with apartments. The plans were approved in June, according to Urbanize Los Angeles.

The development, dubbed Torrance Del Amo, would include four buildings of four or five stories with studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. The homes would be built atop a two-level garage for 467 cars.

The developers would employ density bonus incentives in exchange for 28 affordable apartments for very low-income households.

The project, designed by Santa Monica-based Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, would have four lines of apartments separated by courtyards. The brown and beige project includes a swimming pool, according to renderings.

Construction is expected to take 30 months. A timeline for completion was not disclosed.

“The sale reflects an on-going trend of redeveloping antiquated office properties in target multifamily markets as demand shifts in the office sector,” Muhlstein said in a statement.

Rose Equities, founded in 1949, manages more than 5,000 apartments in Orange and Los Angeles counties, according to the project website. It also owns a 260-unit luxury complex in Trumbull, Connecticut, with plans to build a 736-unit luxury complex in Westchester County, New York.

Rose Equities was approved last month to build a 1,057-unit apartment complex on nearly 16 acres in Costa Mesa, the first big multifamily project there in years.

— Dana Bartholomew

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