See LA’s Biggest Office Building Sales of 2024

Distress and discount prices defined the L.A. office market in 2024.

Buyers came out the clear winners in this context as those with ready capital nabbed deals. Meanwhile, Downtown L.A. office continued to limp along, fashion firms saw the necessity to plant flags in Beverly Hills and companies with the means to do so made strategic moves to buy up the buildings they occupy.

Those trends are reflected in this year’s list of the top 10 office sales in Los Angeles County, based on The Real Deal’s analysis of publicly available data through mid-December. While the year still has a few days left for potential record-breakers, these are the transactions that made headlines as of press time.

1. Gas Company Tower | Los Angeles County | $200 million

It’s fitting downtown Los Angeles’ Gas Company Tower sits at the top of the list of the County’s largest office sales this year.

After much back and forth, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors came out the winning bidder after JLL Capital Markets began marketing the 1.3 million-square-foot property. The Bunker Hill skyscraper at 555 West Fifth Street went into receivership in April after Brookfield Asset Management defaulted on the debt tied to the building.

Earlier this year, the building had been appraised at $214.5 million, according to data from Trepp. That reflects a more than 60 percent drop from what the building was appraised at in 2021.

It said good-bye to its namesake tenant in the Southern California Gas Company, which said in September it planned to move less than a block away to CIM Group’s City National 2Cal. The relocation was Downtown’s largest office lease this year.

2. Arboretum Gateway | Drawbridge Realty | $182.5 million

Drawbridge Realty saw an opportunity to plant a flag on Los Angeles’ Westside and inked the deal in October.

That’s when the San Francisco-based commercial investor and developer paid Clarion Partners $182.5 million for the Arboretum Gateway in Santa Monica. The deal penciled out to $888 per square foot for the 205,608-square-foot office building.

The six-story property at 2220 Colorado Avenue is fully occupied by Universal Music Group, which has the space leased up until July 2036.

Drawbridge represented itself in the deal. Newmark’s Kevin Shannon, Ken White, Rob Hannan, Laura Stumm, Michael Moll and Alex Foshay brokered the deal on behalf of Clarion.

3. 777 Tower | Fair Ranch Xia | $120 million

No list of Los Angeles’ top office sales would be complete without some Downtown distress in the mix.

Fair Ranch Xia’s all-cash purchase of the more than 1 million-square-foot 777 Tower was 2024’s largest distress sale. The Chinese investor took control of the building after Brookfield Properties defaulted on a $319 million loan and a $50 million mezzanine loan tied to the Financial District building. A group of lenders led by Wells Fargo was still owed about $290 million on the $319 million loan when Brookfield defaulted on it in 2023.

TRD previously reported at least 15 offers on the 777 Tower prior to the sale, citing anonymous sources. In March, South Korea-based Consus Asset Management offered $145 million for the 52-story tower earlier this year, but a report from Commercial Observer indicated that deal fell apart.

Newmark’s Kevin Shannon, Ken White, Rob Hannan, Laura Stumm, Michael Moll and Michael Moore brokered the deal on behalf of the buyer. Eastdil Secured represented the seller.

4. 407 North Maple Drive | Fashion Nova | $118.3 million

Fashion Nova CEO Richard Saghian’s growing fashion firm needed to bring its headquarters closer to employees and brand partners. So the company paid $118 million for 407 North Maple Drive, located just outside of Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle. That equates to about $675 per square foot.

The four-story building will be revamped to house not only corporate employees, but an invite-only Fashion Nova Social Club and the incubator and accelerator Nova Founders Lab. There will also be space for Saghian’s family office, which he said planned to ramp its real estate investments.

Fashion Nova tapped Cushman & Wakefield’s Mike Condon to broker the off-market deal on its behalf, while seller Tishman Speyer represented itself.

5. Union Bank Plaza | Southwest Carpenters Pension Trust | $80 million

When Joel Schreiber’s Waterbridge Capital sold the 40-story Union Bank Plaza to the Southwest Carpenters Pension Trust for $114 per square foot, Downtown Los Angeles office prices hit a new low.

The $80 million price was also a drop from the $110 million Waterbridge paid when it bought the building at 445 South Figueroa Street in March 2023. That 2023 trade was itself a hefty discount from the $208 million former owner KBS paid in 2010.

Newmark’s Kevin Shannon, Ken White, Rob Hannan, Laura Stumm, Michael Moll, Christopher Benton, Anthony Muhlstein, Bill Bloodgood and Aly Polo brokered the deal on behalf of Waterbridge. Meanwhile, Washington Capital Management represented the buyer.

6. 331 Maple | Oscar Properties | $61 million

Fashion seems to love a good Beverly Hills office.

Swedish developer Oscar Engelbert went in with Jens Grede on the $61 million purchase of 331 North Maple Drive in Beverly Hills. Grede and his wife Emma Grede founded the shapewear brand Skims with reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

Now, Jens Grede and Engelbert are 50-50 owners in the Beverly Hills property that was once the home of David Geffen’s DreamWorks Records.

Contemporary denim brand Frame, which Jens Grede founded with Erik Torstensson, is now a tenant in the building after inking a nearly 90,000-square-foot lease.

Seller Divco West Services was represented by JLL’s Jaclyn Ward and Peter Hajimihalis. Newmark’s Kevin Shannon, Ken White, Rob Hannan, Laura Stumm, Michael Moll, Michael Moore, Alex Bergeson, Bill Bloodgood and Aly Polo represented the buyers.

7. 801 South Figueroa Street | Meiloon Investment & Development | $60 million

Chinese investor Meiloon Investment & Development nabbed a nice deal at 801 South Figueroa Street.

The South Park tower sold for $129 per square foot from North Carolina-based Barings, which was represented by Eastdil Secured. Asia Pacific Capital represented the buyer.

A decade ago, Barings paid $178.2 million, or $383 per square foot, for the 465,200-square-foot building.

A $100 million loan from New York Life Insurance was tied to the building, with the lender allowing a sale through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.

8. Grand + Nash | Mattel Realty | $59.2 million

Grand + Nash marked the year’s largest South Bay sale, when toy company Mattel’s real estate operation bought a nearly 168,000-square-foot building next to its global headquarters in El Segundoo. The new site is now a design center for the owner of Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher Price.

Newmark’s Kevin Shannon, Ken White, Rob Hannan, Laura Stumm, Michael Moll, Eric Lastition, Geoff Ludwig, Alex Bergeson, Bill Bloodgood, Eric Adams and Aly Polo represented New York Life Real Estate Investors in the sale.

Earlier this year, New York Life received the keys back from an affiliate of SteelWave and Barings as a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The affiliate paid $63.5 million in 2019 for the three-story office and then took out a $69.6 million loan from New York Life for renovations.

Those updates, completed in 2022, include a café, gym and indoor-outdoor space for meetings.

9. 5210 Pacific Concourse | Regents of the University of California | $55 million

The two-story building, once known as 52Ten, is another addition to UCLA’s growing real estate portfolio.

The Regents of the University of California paid $327 per square foot to Karney Properties for the 168,400-square-foot building at 5210 Pacific Concourse. The Santa Monica-based seller tapped Newmark to represent it in the deal.

UCLA is reportedly set to spend $90 million to redevelop the property into the UCLA Health Sports Medicine Institute. It took over the building in October, when Siemens’ lease there ended. The tech conglomerate previously occupied about 43 percent of the building.

The Pacific Concourse deal followed the University of California’s $39 million September purchase of a 62-unit apartment complex at 3301 South Canfield Avenue in Cheviot Hills. In March, UCLA Health paid an undisclosed sum for the 260-bed West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley. The facility was renamed UCLA West Valley Medical Center. Then there was the $700 million January purchase of the Westside Pavilion at 10800 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, which the school plans on turning into the UCLA Research Park.

10. The Annex | Westside Neighborhood School | $50.3 million

Private academy Westside Neighborhood School struck this year’s only Playa Vista deal to make the top 10 when it paid $381 per square foot for The Annex.

The roughly 132,000-square-foot building at 5340 Alla Road was sold by JLL subsidiary LaSalle Investment Management.

Sam Devorris and David Kimball brokered the deal on behalf of Westside Neighborhood School. On the other side, Newmark’s Kevin Shannon, Ken White, Rob Hannan, Laura Stumm, Michael Moll, Michael Moore and Alex Beaton represented the seller.

LaSalle Investment bought The Annex, along with 12901 West Jefferson Boulevard, in 2017 for $140 million combined. The Jefferson Boulevard property was sold for $24 million to Pacshore Partners and A2 Capital Management in a deal penciling out to $496 per square foot.