Swift Sells More Pasadena Offices in Almost Half-Off Sale

Another Pasadena office building has traded hands for significantly less than its previous sale price.

State Compensation Insurance Fund purchased 35 North Lake Avenue in Pasadena for approximately $33 million, L.A. Business First reported, citing a source close to the deal.

Swift Real Estate Partners, which sold the building, acquired the 159,000-square-foot property in 2019 for roughly $58 million. At the time, Swift bought the building as part of a larger portfolio in Pasadena including 155 North Lake Avenue and 790 East Colorado Boulevard, which the San Francisco-based firm acquired for a total of $193 million.

Swift will continue to manage the property under State Compensation Insurance Fund’s ownership. The insurance outfit will occupy a portion of the nine-story office building as a regional hub for its operations in Southern California, complementing another office in Pasadena and another in Glendale. The company plans to renovate the building and add a gym and meeting lounge to the property.

This sale is the latest Pasadena office building to trade hands at a discount. Swift sold 790 East Colorado Boulevard last year, part of the portfolio that included 35 North Lake Avenue, for $31.5 million. Swift picked up the 146,000-square-foot Colorado Boulevard building, known as The Terrace, from PGIM Real Estate for $59 million, The Real Deal previously reported.

Earlier this week, TRD reported that lender Heitman began shopping a Pasadena office campus at 251 South Lake Avenue for sale after a failed public auction. Coretrust Capital Partners lost control of the four-building, 650,000-square-foot complex in 2023 after failing to refinance the property. The initial offer in December 2023 was $114 million, TRD reported at the time, representing a value of nearly half of what Coretrust Capital paid for the building in 2018. Coretrust additionally spent $50 million on renovations on top of the roughly $270 million tied to the building that it owed.

— Chris Malone Méndez