Harbor and Stockbridge Capital buy former LA Rams headquarters

Harbor Associates and Stockbridge Capital Group have acquired 10281 W. Pico Blvd, a building in Century City, California that was the former headquarters for the Los Angeles Rams. The seller was a local entertainment company. No financial terms were disclosed. Harbor is planning to renovate the building in a project that will be renamed “Bespoke Century City.”

PRESS RELEASE

Long Beach, CA (June 16, 2017) Ð Harbor Associates, LLC (Harbor) in joint venture with Stockbridge Capital Group has acquired 10281 W. Pico Blvd., a 33,000-square-foot-headquarters building in Century City through a distressed liquidation sale that closed in 25 days. The seller, a local entertainment company will lease back the building for the next six months.

Harbor is planning to reposition the asset Ð which was built in 1981 as the headquarters for the Los Angeles Rams — through a comprehensive renovation program that will include a redesign of the building exterior and entry, upgraded lobbies and restrooms, and new indoor and outdoor amenity spaces. As part of the repositioning, the project will be renamed “Bespoke Century City.”

“This Bespoke building will be customizable and offer a high level of finishes with indoor and outdoor amenities in a submarket occupied by some of the world’s most innovative and premier companies,” said Harbor Principal Joon Choi. “We will also provide tenant-specific amenities and signage rights for a user wanting to lease the entire building. This will provide a tremendous branding opportunity for a user who wants to take advantage of the building’s central location along heavily travelled Pico Blvd, close to 20th Century Fox movie & television studios and the premium Century City amenity base.”

Approximately 30-40% of the tenant base in the area work in entertainment, media, and content production industries and prefer differentiated low-rise creative office buildings, according to attorney Andrew Kirsh, head of the real estate practice at Sklar Kirsh who represented the buyer in the transaction.

“Since the Century City submarket is dominated by traditional high-rise office product, our client was able to acquire a building that is well positioned to take advantage of the tremendous supply and demand imbalance for low-rise creative office space,” said Kirsh. “This office building also benefits from its location in the heart of West Los Angeles, less than a 9-iron away from Fox Studios and Rancho Park Golf Course.”

The distressed off-market transaction allowed Harbor to acquire the asset at one of the lowest prices per square foot in West LA over the last 24 months for buildings under 50,000 square feet Ð a period in which 38 different buildings transacted within the submarket.

“While we were able to acquire this property at a very attractive cost basis, our ability to respond to the seller’s needs and close quickly was paramount to the deal,” said Harbor Principal Paul Miszkowicz. “Relying on our deep network of brokerage relationships and ability to move quickly on compelling opportunities, we have a robust pipeline of activity behind this transaction.”

‘Bespoke Century City represents our seventh value-add office acquisition in the last two years in Southern California and expands our Los Angeles area portfolio to nearly 200,000 square feet,” added Harbor Principal Justin Loiacono. “We intend on building on our recent momentum by sourcing new opportunities and pursuing similar strategies in high demand Southern California submarkets to meet our acquisition goal of $250M by year end 2017.”

Kevin Shannon and Rob Hannan with NGKF represented the buyer and seller in the transaction.

About Harbor: Harbor Associates, LLC (www.harborassociates.com) is a value-add operating platform focused on acquiring and repositioning under-performing commercial real estate assets throughout Southern California. The three Principals of Harbor have over 30 years of experience in Southern California and have closed over $1.7B in acquisitions and asset managed over $2.5B in assets totaling over 3M SF of office. The company is a joint venture with The Bascom Group, LLC.

Harbor Associates – Value-Add Office Investors
www.harborassociates.com
Harbor acquires commercial properties in Southwestern US markets and adds value by transforming dated projects into a customizable, modern workplace.

About Stockbridge: Stockbridge Capital Group (www.stockbridge.com) is real estate investment management firm headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The firm’s portfolio is comprised of assets across the risk spectrum, spanning all major property types throughout the United States. As of March 31, 2017, the firm’s total Assets Under Management was $11.0 billion.