Port of Long Beach to acquire Long Beach World Trade Center

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The Long Beach World Trade Center, a signature high-rise office building on the city’s skyline, is set to be acquired for $130 million by the Port of Long Beach.

The port’s Board of Harbor Commissioners has tentatively agreed to purchase the 27-story building on Ocean Boulevard. It is in the due-diligence phase of a deal expected to close Oct. 30.

The sale would be one of the largest in Los Angeles County this year, said real estate broker Bill Townsend of Inco Commercial, who is an advisor to the port.

“It’s a rare opportunity to purchase a Class A office building at a bottom-of-market price,” Townsend said.

The seller, Legacy Partners, paid nearly $150 million for the property in 2007, when commercial real estate values were last peaking.

It is “imperative” that the port relocate its headquarters, the board said in a statement. The current six-story headquarters was built in 1959 and is obsolete, overcrowded and seismically unsafe for the port’s 600 employees, it said.

The World Trade Center, completed in 1989, has nearly 575,000 square feet of space and is about 70% leased. The port would receive rental income from tenants such as law firms and the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

The center includes a two-story retail plaza that connects to the adjacent Hilton Hotel.

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-- Roger Vincent