Tinder co-founder and family make office-retail play in Beverly Hills

The co-founder of Tinder and his brother have made a block-size retail and office play in Beverly Hills for up to $211 million.

Justin Mateen, the Los Angeles-based co-founder of the dating app, and his brother Tyler have purchased the Wilshire Rodeo Plaza at 9536 and 9560 Wilshire Boulevard and 131 Rodeo Drive, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported they paid $208 million. 

A press release said the brothers and their brother-in-law, Pouya Abdi of Downtown L.A.-based Parallel Acquisitions and Holdings, had ponied up $211 million, or $804 per square foot. Quantum Capital Partners advised the buyers to obtain an undisclosed loan from JP Morgan.

The seller of the five-story office and retail building on Wilshire Boulevard and the three-story office building on Rodeo Drive was Nuveen, based in Chicago.

Nuveen, later acquired by TIAA Financial Services, bought the 262,600-square-foot Wilshire Rodeo Plaza in 2006 for $193.6 million, or $737 per square foot, according to The Real Deal. 

In 2019, the asset management division for TIAA listed the property in the city’s Golden Triangle for $350 million. It had one taker, but the deal fell through at the onset of the pandemic.

The sale this week of the property sandwiched between the Beverly Wilshire hotel and Saks Fifth Avenue marks the city’s highest-priced deal since the Montage Beverly Hills hotel traded in 2019 for $415 million.

The buyers benefited from a push by institutional investors to cut their office exposure, which lowered both competition and the overall price, Justin Mateen, who began investing in commercial real estate with his brother about a decade ago, told the Journal.

The Mateens said they plan to nearly double the buildings’ retail footprint to close to 75,000 square feet. They also aim to spend “in the low tens of millions” fixing up the Depression-era buildings. 

The building’s retail section has one tenant, designer Vera Wang. The Mateens said Nuveen signed only short-term leases while trying to sell the property. They expect to sign more long-term retail tenants.

“This is where retailers want to be,” Tyler Mateen, CEO of Cannon TTM, told the Journal of his new property at the south end of the Rodeo Drive shopping corridor. “There will always be demand.”

The offices floating above the stores at Wilshire Rodeo Plaza along Wilshire Boulevard are almost fully leased. Tenants include Merrill Wealth Management and William Morris Endeavor.

The building along South Rodeo Drive has more empty offices, though its vacancy was not disclosed. The Mateens said they may convert its offices to a hotel or members-only social club. 

In June, more than a fifth of offices in Beverly Hills were vacant, up from 11.2 percent at the same time in 2019, according to the Journal. Vacancy in the overall Los Angeles office market was 24.4 percent.

At the same time, retail has rebounded from the pandemic, with luxury retailers spending big to rent or purchase prime locations, according to the newspaper. Stores in Beverly Hills are nearly 94 percent occupied, according to CoStar Group, slightly up from 2019.

In Beverly Hills, Chanel reopened its Rodeo Drive flagship last year after doubling its footprint. In February, Saks Fifth Avenue opened a women’s store in a former Barneys department store.

In March last year, Tyler Mateen led Cannon TTM’s $80 million acquisition of the 248,800-square-foot HHLA shopping mall at 6081 Center Drive in West L.A., according to the Commercial Observer. The company now plans a $150 facelift for the property, TRD reported.

— Dana Bartholomew

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