JPMorgan Pays $745 a Foot for Activision Blizzard HQ In Santa Monica
By Greg Cornfield September 6, 2023 2:45 pm
reprints
Office investors, rejoice! Demand isn’t dead.
JPMorgan Asset Management is set to acquire a Class A office property in Santa Monica, Calif., that’s fully leased to tenants that include video game publisher Activision Blizzard and health care company GoodRx, Commercial Observer has learned.
One source told CO that JPMorgan agreed to pay the owner — the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) — approximately $165.5 million, or roughly $745 per square foot, for the 222,000-square-foot Pen Factory property. Another source familiar with the deal confirmed the sale but did not disclose the sales price.
Representatives for JPMorgan declined to comment. CalSTRS had been asking $180 million for the property at 2701 Olympic Boulevard.
An institutional player like JPMorgan putting down nine figures for office space is an encouraging sign for a market watching its property values plummet and overall sales volume recede. The deal for Pen Factory comes in more than three times above the average sales price of $231 per square foot in Greater Los Angeles so far this year, according to data from CommercialEdge.
Activision Publishing moved its headquarters to the Pen Factory via a sublease deal with Kite Pharma for nearly 90,000 square feet. GoodRx, known for its app for tracking pharmaceutical deals, has its 130,000-square-foot headquarters at the Pen Factory, which previously housed the Papermate pen manufacturing facility. It’s adjacent to the Oracle Santa Monica Hub and near offices for companies such as Yahoo, CBS, Hulu and Universal Music Group.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
