SoCalGas to exit Gas Company Tower in LA for new digs on Bunker Hill

Southern California Gas has inked the largest Downtown Los Angeles office lease this year, and will move from its troubled namesake tower to a smaller office on Bunker Hill.

SoCalGas has leased nearly 200,000 square feet on eight floors at the 52-story tower once known as Two California Plaza at 350 South Grand Avenue, the Los Angeles Times reported. The move is slated by spring 2026.

Terms of the long-term lease with Mid-Wilshire-based CIM Group, owner of the building renamed 2Cal, were not disclosed.

The gas company will vacate the Gas Company Tower at 555 West 5th Street, where it has been a primary tenant since the 750-foot-tall building was completed in 1992.

The new offices will be about two-thirds the size of SoCalGas’s current digs. Erica Berardi, a spokeswoman for the firm, didn’t say why the company is moving, but noted its current lease expires at the end of 2026.

The new corporate hub, to open after renovations are complete, will include an office on the ground floor for customers.

The lease at Two California Plaza is the largest in Downtown this year, according to an analysis from Raise Commercial Real Estate. The building is part of an office, hotel and retail complex from the 1980s, when the residential Bunker Hill was upended by “urban renewal” meant to transform blighted neighborhoods.

SoCalGas will join City National Bank at the 2Cal tower, where its shingle will replace the bank’s nameplate at the top.

In a separate deal, Los Angeles County has agreed to buy the Gas Company Tower at 5th Street and Grand Avenue for $215 million, or $154 per square foot, down from a pre-pandemic assessed value of $630 million, or $527 per square foot. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors must approve the purchase.

The offer came more than a year after New York-based Brookfield Properties defaulted on $450 million in loans tied to the 1.4 million-square-foot building, as higher interest rates jacked up payments while leasing ebbed.

— Dana Bartholomew