Green Dot to move headquarters to Pasadena

Green Dot, a provider of prepaid financial services, has agreed to move from Monrovia to east Pasadena in a deal brokers say is the biggest office lease of the year in the Tri-Cities market.

Green Dot leased all 141,540 square feet at 3465 Foothill Blvd. from landlord Wells REIT II, a private real estate investment trust, brokerage CBRE Group Inc. said.

The value of the 10-year lease was not disclosed, but real estate experts familiar with prices in the Pasadena-Glendale-Burbank market valued it at about $45 million.

“This single lease transaction will lower the vacancy rate in Pasadena by a full percentage point, so it’s very significant for the Tri-Cities market,” said Todd Doney of CBRE, who represented the tenant.

Green Dot will consolidate multiple offices in Monrovia into its new headquarters on Foothill between Sierra Madre Villa Avenue and Rosemead Boulevard.

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Ramsey-Shilling property brokerage bought by Avison Young

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 -- Roger Vincent

Photo: Green Dot leased all 141,540 square feet at 3465 Foothill Blvd. Credit: CBRE Group Inc.

CIM Group buys Beverly Hills offices

Los Angeles developer and landlord CIM Group spent $47.8 million for two Beverly Hills office buildings that were once part of the former William Morris Agency headquarters.

CIM Group, which is the largest commercial property owner in Hollywood, bought 150 and 151 S. El Camino Drive.

The three-story buildings with a combined total of more than 116,000 square feet of office space lie on two blocks just south of Wilshire Boulevard and the so-called Golden Triangle heart of downtown Beverly Hills, said broker Bob Safai of Madison Partners.

He represented seller Brickman, a New York real estate investor that had loaned money to the previous owners of the former William Morris campus and ended up taking control of it.

Talent agency William Morris Endeavor, a successor to William Morris, is a tenant at 150 S. El Camino but scheduled to move next year, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group. It is not clear where the world’s largest talent agency will land next.

The building at 151 El Camino was completed in 1951 and is vacant. CIM Group is asking for rent of nearly $4 a square foot per month, real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield said.

CIM Group paid $412 per square foot for the two buildings, a high price by Los Angeles County standards but far below the $783 a foot paid by previous owners Cape Horn Group of Chile and Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas in 2008 for the entire former William Morris campus. The seller was William Morris, which merged with Endeavor in 2009.

The William Morris campus then included 150 S. Rodeo Drive, and Brickman ended up owning all three buildings. Santa Monica real estate investment trust Douglas Emmett Inc. paid Brickman $42 million, or $570 a square foot, for 150 S. Rodeo Drive in April.

CIM Group owns office, retail and residential properties. Among its holdings is the Hollywood & Highland shopping and entertainment complex in Hollywood.

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Stalled Hollywood condo project reborn as luxury rentals

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo: Beverly Hills offices acquired by CIM Group. Credit: Madison Partners 

Stalled Hollywood condo project reborn as luxury rentals

A failed Hollywood condominium development that once symbolized the housing market collapse has been reborn as a $120-million upscale apartment and retail complex.

Construction on the former Madrone came to a halt around the end of 2009 even though the shell of the project was mostly complete. Developer John Laing Homes filed for bankruptcy and the scaffolding-swathed husk of the Madrone was left to weather the elements behind locked gates.

One of the original investors in the project, Resmark Cos., took over and restarted work in July 2010 on what is now known as the Avenue. The just-completed complex on La Brea Avenue south of Hollywood Boulevard has 180 units in three buildings connected around a raised courtyard.

Several housing developments intended to be condominiums before the housing bust have been converted to apartments, but Resmark took the unusual step of making the Avenue’s rental units more luxurious than the Madrone condos were intended to be, Chief Executive Robert N. Goodman said.

Among the improvements are more expensive built-in appliances, interior finishes such as floor tiles and a grander lobby. Rents will be in the range of many mortgages: One-bedroom units start at $2,750 a month, reach $4,900 for three bedrooms and hit $9,000 for a penthouse.

“We expect to rent to younger, affluent professionals who are making a lifestyle choice and prefer to be a renter and not a buyer,” Goodman said.

Tenants for the ground-floor retail spaces have not been signed yet, he said, but Resmark hopes to land businesses such as a restaurant and a coffee bar that would appeal to residents.

John Laing Homes took a substantial loss on the project, Goodman said. Resmark took over the construction loan “at a fairly significant discount,” he said, and will end up spending $80 million on the project that took a total of $120 million to complete. The California Public Employees' Retirement System is also an investor.

The Avenue has a fitness center, pool, fire pit, concierge and a residents-only dog run.

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo:  The Avenue apartment complex in Hollywood.  Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

Molina Healthcare buys Long Beach offices for $81 million

One of Long Beach’s premier office complexes has been sold for $81 million to Molina Healthcare Inc., the property’s largest tenant.

Molina Healthcare bought two connected 14-story buildings at 200 and 300 Oceangate in the city’s central business district. It was largest office sale in Long Beach since the real estate peak of 2007, said real estate broker Kevin Shannon of CBRE Group Inc.

The brokerage represented the seller, the Swig Co. San Francisco-based Swig had owned the property, formerly known as Arco Center, since 1986.

Molina Healthcare's headquarters occupies about one-third of the 461,263-square-feet complex that lies between Ocean Boulevard and Shoreline Drive, across the street from the Long Beach World Trade Center, Shannon said.

It is more than 90% occupied by such tenants as the California State Lands Commission and California Marine And Intermodal Transportation System Advisory Council, according to real estate data provider CoStar.

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— Roger Vincent

Photo: Office buildings at 200 and 300 Oceangate in Long Beach.  Credit: Charlie Lenoir

Ramsey-Shilling property brokerage bought by Avison Young

Prominent Los Angeles property brokerage Ramsey-Shilling Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. has been bought by Avison Young, Canada’s largest independent commercial real estate services company.

Avison Young plans to acquire more Southern California brokerages and other real estate companies in the U.S. in the months ahead, Managing Director Neil Resnick said. Resnick, a broker formerly with Grubb & Ellis, opened Avison Young’s first Los Angeles office in August.

The acquisition of Ramsey-Shilling for an undisclosed amount added 23 employees, including 18 brokers. Over the past three years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 26 offices including 11 in the United States, Resnick said. It has more than 900 employees.

“This is the beginning of what will be many” more branches, he said. “We are actively looking at other brokerages and individuals to join us.”

Ramsey-Shilling has had a high profile in Hollywood, where its brokers negotiated such deals in recent years as the sale and lease of the landmark Capitol Record building and the sales of the former ABC Studios, El Capitan office building, Palladium night club and the former Frederick’s of Hollywood building.

Other sales brokered by Ramsey-Shilling include the Rox-San office building in Beverly Hills and the Omni Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

“The vision for Avison Young is to have Southern California be one of its biggest and most important markets, if not its single most important market,” said Christopher Bonbright, who was chief executive of Ramsey-Shilling and is now an Avison Young principal. “We want to be absolutely competitive” representing landlords and tenants.

Being part of a larger organization should help land clients, Bonbright said, because Ramsey-Shilling sometimes lost jobs to large international firms such as CBRE Group Inc. and Jones Lang LaSalle.

Other former Ramsey-Shilling brokers joining Avison Young as principals are Mark Evanoff, John Tronson and Michael Dettling.

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Hollywood office tower sold to Hudson Pacific for $92.5 million

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo: Christopher Bonbright, left, and Neil Resnick of Avison Young. Credit: Richard Friedman

 

Mosaic Apartments to open in L.A.'s Pico Union district

Mosaic Apartments, a $21-million affordable housing project in the historic Pico Union area of Los Angeles, is set to open Thursday.

The 56-unit complex west of Staples Center near the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue was developed by Amcal Multihousing Inc. of Agoura Hills to house low- to moderate-income renters.

The rapidly changing neighborhood is experiencing new interest from developers due to substantial commercial and residential growth in the adjacent South Park district and attractions such as L.A. Live, said Percival Vaz, chief executive of Amcal.

The design of Mosaic’s two three-story buildings is intended to complement the neighborhood’s historic housing created in the late 19th century and early 20th century — Craftsman, Queen Anne and American Foursquare homes — said architect Wade Killefer of Killefer Flammang Architects.

The project is divided by a long linear court. There are three smaller courtyards, one including playground equipment for youngsters who live at the development. Each building has a community room.

There is underground parking and ground-floor spaces for stores along Pico Boulevard.

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Apartment occupancy stable, rents on rise

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo: Mosaic Apartments.  Credit: Killefer Flammang Architects

 

Phoenix Realty buys Long Beach apartment complex

New York investment firm Phoenix Realty Group bought a Long Beach apartment complex last month for $34.5 million, the latest in a string of acquisitions targeting Southern California residential properties.

Since December 2010, Phoenix Realty has spent $228 million to acquire and improve 11 apartment complexes in the region. Most of them were in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where company executives expect to see growing demand from renters even though the Inland Empire was hit hard in the economic downturn.

“We try to find the areas that get under-looked,” Managing Director Edward Ratinoff said. “When Southern California comes back, the Inland Empire will get its fair share of growth.”

Phoenix Realty focuses on buying what it calls workforce housing, or apartments serving workers with blue-collar or lower-paying white-collar jobs, he said. The buildings are generally full, but have the potential to generate higher rents after improvements such as updated kitchens are made.

The company’s new Long Beach property is called the Crossings at the Bay, which Phoenix Realty acquired from BPG Properties of Philadelphia. Los Angeles asset manager New Standard Equities, which helped put the deal together, will oversee improvements to the Crossings at the Bay and operate the 237-unit complex that was built in 1963.

Apartments are on the upswing, Ratinoff said. Landlords are reducing concessions such as free parking intended to attract tenants and raising rents in some neighborhoods. “We believe the market has turned,” he said.

Tenants are remaining renters for longer than they previously did, said real estate broker Dean Zander of Hendricks & Partners.

“More renters are entering the market every day,” Zander said, as so-called echo boomers enter the job market and people who doubled up with family and friends during the recession strike out on their own. Many young people lack the ability or desire to buy a home and rents are still often cheaper than mortgage payments, he said.

Phoenix Realty also recently completed the $36.4-million acquisition of Canyon Creek, a 288-unit apartment complex in Riverside.

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo: The Crossings at the Bay apartments in Long Beach.  Credit: BPG Properties

Hollywood office tower sold to Hudson Pacific for $92.5 million

A prominent Hollywood office building has been sold to a local real estate investment company for $92.5 million.

Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., which owns several entertainment-related properties, bought the 12-story TV Guide Hollywood Center at 6922 Hollywood Blvd. from CIM Group Inc.

The building across the boulevard from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre is CIM Group’s headquarters and houses businesses including movie trailer and entertainment marketing company Trailer Park Inc. and J2 Global Communications, owner of the eFax and KeepItSafe brands.

The building was completed in 1967 and renovated by CIM Group in the mid-2000s. It is Hudson Pacific’s fourth property in Hollywood and seventh acquisition in the last 12 months, Chief Executive Victor Coleman said.

Hudson Pacific also owns Sunset Bronson Studios, Sunset Gower Studios and the Technicolor Building in Hollywood.

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Photo: TV Guide Hollywood Center in Hollywood.  Credit: CIM Group Inc.

Nara and Center merge to form BBCN, largest Korean American bank

Center Financial Corp.'s merger into onetime Koreatown rival Nara Bancorp Inc. will create the largest U.S. bank focused on the ethnic Korean market, an institution with nearly $5.3 billion in assets that will be named BBCN Bank.

The parent companies of Center Bank and Nara Bank were scheduled to announce completion of their merger on Wednesday afternoon. BBCN will be the seventh-largest bank based in Los Angeles County, with $4.4 billion in deposits and 40 branches in California, New York, New Jersey, Seattle and Chicago.

The banks, like many other Asian American institutions, have specialized in loans to smaller businesses. About half of their assets are in commercial mortgages, a banking sector whose losses during the recession have increased pressures on the ethnic banks to consolidate.

They announced plans to merge last December, with Center shareholders receiving about $270 million in Nara stock. Alvin Kang, Nara's chief executive, will become chief executive of the merged bank.

The new name derives from Business Bank of Center and Nara, a name that was under consideration but lost out to the shorter BBCN.

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Photo: Nara Bank is merging with Center Bank to create BBCN Bank. Credit: Los Angeles Times  

Historic Lake Avenue property sold in Pasadena

One of Pasadena’s most recognizable commercial properties, a retail and office complex in the South Lake Avenue commercial district known as the Commons, has been sold for $21 million.

The 87,000-square-foot property is anchored by the Williams-Sonoma building, which was completed in 1912. It is also home to restaurants, including Green Street Cafe, the Counter, Lemonade and Cafe 140.

Other retail tenants include the Pasadena Cheese Store, Carmody & Co. and the Wine Detective.

The Commons covers two acres and includes buildings at 140 to 142 South Lake Avenue and a garage at 155 South Mentor Avenue.

Arenda Capital Management, a Los Angeles private real estate investment firm, and AEW, a Boston pension fund advisor, bought the Commons from SRO Properties of Los Angeles, brokers said.

The off-market deal required Arenda to assume an existing loan funded by commercial mortgage-backed securities, said Carlos J. Lopez, president of Hanley Investment Urban Retail Advisors, who represented the buyers.

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U.S. home sales increase in October

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo:  The Commons retail and office complex in Pasadena.  Credit: Hanley Investment Urban Retail Advisors

 

 

Hollywood hotel project back on track with new operator

Long-standing plans to build a $45-million hotel in Hollywood have been revived, the developers said, with new financing and a new operator.

The nine-story hotel at Selma Avenue and Cahuenga Boulevard formerly to be known as the Selma was approved by city officials in 2008, but funding for real estate development grew hard to come by as lenders tightened their purse strings in the economic downturn.

“We fought hard to find conventional financing,” developer Richard Heyman said. “But conventional doesn’t exist anymore, so we turned to finding alternative sources of capital.”

The solution, he said, was the federal EB-5 program, which provides green cards to immigrant investors who put up a minimum investment of $500,000 for development in targeted areas. The project, expected to create more than 900 jobs, received federal approval last month to participate in EB-5 financing.

Construction on the 148-room hotel will begin in the spring and it will open in fall 2013, according to Heyman and his partner Grant King. It will be operated by Hampshire Hotels & Resorts under the New York company’s hip Dream Hotel brand.

The design by Los Angeles firm Killefer Flammang Architects includes a swimming pool, restaurant and lounge to be built atop an existing parking garage.

Heyman’s company, Five Chairs, developed Milk Studios in Hollywood and transformed the former Frederick’s of Hollywood building on Hollywood Boulevard into the Kress nightclub.

Other Dream hotels are in New York, Miami Beach, Bangkok and Cochin, India. They are intended to be full-service but relaxed luxury hotels, Heyman said.

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-- Roger Vincent

Image: Architect's rendering of the planned Dream Hotel in Hollywood. Credit: Killefer Flammang Architects