Carolwood Buying Brookfield’s EY Plaza for $130 Million

Adam Rubin and Andrew Shanfeld’s Carolwood is in escrow to buy the 41-story EY Plaza for $130 million, or about $141 per square foot, The Real Deal has learned.

The 11-year-old firm, which invests in real estate, hot sauce and a YouTube influencer, is set to close with landlord Brookfield Properties’ lenders to purchase the troubled downtown office tower at 725 South Figueroa Street in June, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the deal and servicer commentary provided by Morningstar.

The deal leaves Toronto-based Brookfield underwater on $305 million worth of debt tied to EY Plaza. The bulk of it comes from a $275 million commercial mortgage-backed securities refinance package Brookfield took out in September 2020 from Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. That loan package has been in special servicing for two years and is set to mature in October after Brookfield received two extensions, according to Morningstar data.

A $30 million mezzanine loan comprises the rest of the debt, as TRD previously reported.

The 920,000-square-foot office tower was placed in a receivership shortly after Brookfield fell behind on its debt payments in May 2023, with a judge appointing Trident Pacific’s Gregg Williams as the receiver and Colliers as the property manager.

Brookfield’s lenders won the court’s approval to put the property up for sale last November, according to court documents and servicer commentary.

The building was developed in 1985 and has served as an outpost to accounting giant Ernst & Young, now called EY, since 1999, when it became its anchor tenant and gave the tower its current name, EY Plaza. EY occupies 127,613 square feet, according to Morningstar data. Other tenants at the property include law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw and the U.S. General Services Administration, the federal agency that manages the government’s real estate portfolio.

Rubin and Shanfeld declined to comment and a spokesperson for Brookfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Eastdil Secured is brokering the deal for the lenders, according to one of the sources with knowledge of the deal. A spokesperson for the brokerage did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Keith Larsen contributed reporting.