The non-performing note on ex-boxer Oscar De La Hoya’s Downtown Los Angeles office tower sold. The buyer is Farzad Essapour, according to an assignment of deed of trust dated early May.
The price and Essapour’s plan for the real estate at 626 Wilshire Boulevard are unknown, but either a deed in lieu of foreclosure or foreclosure are likely. Essapour declined to comment.
In April, after the world champion boxer defaulted on the $27 million loan, the special servicer shopped the debt via an online marketplace. The starting bid was $5.5 million, which is much less than the $22 million De La Hoya owed against the roughly 150,000-square-foot, 12-story tower in the Financial District.
De La Hoya’s company, Golden Boy, which occupies some of the space and did not immediately respond to a request for comment, purchased a controlling interest in the office building for $16 million two decades ago from Barker Pacific Group — which kept a minority share, the Los Angeles Times reported. Barker Pacific Group still appeared to hold ownership as of recently, The Real Deal previously reported.
Related to the latest deal, a knowledgeable source said Barker Pacific made an offer of around $12 million to $15 million. Barker Pacific did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Essapour’s winning offer is probably around that. A $15 million price tag would come out to around $100 per square foot, while $12 million would amount to about $80 per square foot.
The latest $19 million appraisal shakes out to almost $130 per square foot, which is what a lot of downtown offices are priced around post-pandemic, where the market’s vacancy rate has reached 35 percent.
Manulife wants to sell a downtown skyscraper to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for $92.5 million, or about $129 per square foot; 601W is in talks to purchase the mortgage loan on Wells Fargo Center’s North Tower, for $180 million, about $130 per square foot; and Capital Group entered an agreement to buy Bank of America Plaza for $210 million, or $150 per square foot. Closer to the $100 per square foot mark was Leo Pustilnikov and his jeweler partners’ PacMutual buy.
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