In its latest deal in Silicon Beach, Clarion Partners has sold an office campus to Barings for nearly $151 million.
Barings bought i|o at Playa Vista, a creative campus at 12150 Millennium Drive, for $150.7 million, Bisnow and L.A. Business First reported. The 307,000-square-foot mixed-use complex opened in 2010 and has brought in 78,000 square feet of new leasing over the past two years.
Clarion bought i|o in 2014 for about $133 million. The property boasts indoor and outdoor work spaces, exterior staircases, decks with amenities and a landscaped courtyard. Gensler redesigned the campus in 2016, and since then, it’s maintained an average occupancy level of more than 90 percent, according to Newmark, which facilitated the sale.
The purchase is a sign of faith in the future of high-end offices in Silicon Beach, Newmark said. Though i|o faces “significant near-term expirations,” Newmark vice chairperson Laura Stumm said in a statement, “the willingness of institutional investors to take on leasing uncertainty is a clear vote of confidence in both the Playa Vista submarket and the broader office recovery.”
Kevin Shannon, Newmark’s co-head of U.S. capital markets, similarly praised the “exceptionally strong” reception from prospective buyers, calling it “a clear sign that institutional capital is reengaging in the office sector.”
The transaction marks one of the highest commercial real estate sale prices in Los Angeles so far this year.
The Figueroa at Wilshire tower in downtown L.A. just sold for $210 million, the biggest commercial real estate deal in L.A. County since January of last year.
In April, Kingsbarn Realty Capital bought a 116,000-square-foot office building in Hollywood, once home to Kim Kardashian’s Skims Body brand, for $105 million.
Clarion’s i|o sale is the latest instance of the New York-based firm offloading property in Playa Vista and the Westside.
Last May, the company sold the 214-unit Reveal Playa Vista apartment complex to DivcoWest for $122 million. And in October, Clarion sold a Santa Monica office building fully leased to Universal Music Group to Drawbridge Realty for $185 million.
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