Landlord Harmit Mann Buys Oakland Office Complex for $13M

Harmit Mann has bought a 198,200-square-foot office complex in south Oakland for $13 million, nearly 70 percent less than it traded for five years ago.

Landing LLC, an affiliate of the prominent Oakland landlord, bought the two-building property known as The Landing at 303 and 333 Hegenberger Road, east of Oakland International Airport, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The seller was Los Angeles-based Ares Commercial Real Estate, which listed the property for sale last month after it seized the building through foreclosure in June when Walnut Creek-based Vertical Ventures defaulted on a $37.5 million mortgage loan.

The deal works out to $65 per square foot, 67 percent less than its last traded price. The offices were 56 percent leased last month.

In 2019, Vertical bought the 56,000-square-foot and 142,800-square-foot buildings for $40.6 million, or $205 per square foot. The newly renovated offices, built in 1970 and 1974, were 82 percent leased at the time of purchase.

The Landing lies in the Hegenberger corridor near Interstate 880, among the most crime-plagued areas of the city, causing numerous businesses to close or flee, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In July, Park Hotels & Resorts announced it would close its 363-room Hilton Oakland Airport Hotel at 1 Hegenberger Road after crime drove out numerous local restaurants.

Harmit Mann, who has bought dozens of commercial and residential properties throughout Oakland, saw opportunity. He’s the son of prominent Oakland landlords Baljit Singh Mann and Surinder Mann, according to the Business Times.

Other office buildings across Oakland have traded hands at discount prices.

HP Investors sold a 31,500-square-foot office building at 1700 Broadway for 80 percent less than it paid in 2017, according to the newspaper.

An Uptown office tower at 180 Grand sold for 82 percent less than what it was purchased for seven years ago, after Lakeside Group bought first the debt on the property, then acquired it through a deed in lieu of foreclosure.

Price per square foot reached as low as $32 when Kaiser sold its office property at 1950 Franklin and as high as $350 for 1515 Webster, which was purchased by its occupant earlier this year, according to the Business Times.

— Dana Bartholomew