GPI Cos. Secures Another Loan in LA’s Red-Hot El Segundo
Global Atlantic Financial Group provided the $55.3 million acquisition loan
By Greg Cornfield December 2, 2019 10:35 am
reprints
GPI Companies and El Segundo are both on their own respective hot streaks that have intersected at a 200,000-square-foot office building in the small coastal city on Los Angeles’ Westside.
GPI announced that it closed a $55.3 million acquisition loan with Global Atlantic Financial Group for renovations at 2031 East Mariposa Avenue near LAX. The warehouse is currently leased to toy manufacturing company Mattel for the research and design.
The L.A.-based commercial investment and development firm acquired the property for $84 million from Angelo Gordon & Co. in September.
Before the loan announcement, GPI’s co-founder Drew Planting highlighted the investment in an interview with Commercial Observer.
“We see it as a great long-term covered land play,” he said. “If Matell stays, terrific. If they don’t, it will allow us to create a creative campus at some point in the future.”
CBRE (CBRE) arranged for the financing, and Allen Matkins represented GPI in the transaction.
El Segundo is in the South Bay’s former aerospace research and manufacturing hub, and the property on Mariposa Avenue originally opened in the 1940s as an aircraft fabrication facility. But today, El Segundo has become a media and technology hub.
“This permanent financing facility underscores our belief in the long-term potential of this property and in the opportunity to create value for our investors for years to come,” said Lee Wagman, a managing partner of GPI Companies, in a press release.
Occupancy costs in El Segundo are at least 30 percent less than markets like Playa Vista and Culver City, according to Newmark Knight Frank research. That has helped attract several big office deals in the past few years.
Earlier this month, Nuveen Real Estate and Graymark Capital purchased a 201,000-square-foot creative office building called 101 PCH for $97.15 million from AEW Capital Management and North Sea Capital Advisors. Also this month, Lennar Corp.’s Rialto Mortgage Finance provided $55 million for 206,000 square feet of El Segundo office space owned by Continental Development Corporation.
In July, Vella Group acquired an El Segundo office that’s occupied by Boeing for $50.8 million, and the firm plans to reposition the property for more media, tech and entertainment tenants. In May, TA Realty agreed to pay $138.5 million for the 340,000-square-foot office property at 101 Continental Boulevard.
GPI was founded in 2008 by Planting and Cliff Goldstein. The firm focuses on repositioning and redevelopment, and has over $1 billion in existing assets under management.
The announcement of funding for its El Segundo office follows the closing of $120 million in construction financing from ACORE Capital earlier this month for the West End development. That project will transform the former Westside Pavilion Macy’s department store into 230,000 square feet of mixed-use office space. It’s located next to the 584,000-square-foot conversion by Hudson Pacific Properties and Macerich, which is set to be occupied by Google in 2022.
