Positive Investments Sells SoCal Office for $25M
By Nick Trombola October 10, 2023 3:13 pm
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A property sale in Monrovia, Calif., has broken two local records: It is both the largest office building ever sold in the city, as well as the highest price ever paid for an office asset there, per CoStar.
Positive Investments sold the office/flex building at 222 East Huntington Drive for $25 million, according to brokers Avison Young. Avison Young didn’t disclose the buyer, but records show an entity named IHL Capital Fund acquired the site. The buyer will occupy a portion of the 122,000-square-foot, multitenant building.
“Our client was elated with the successful transaction outcome as they understood that office assets are a challenge to market in most U.S. submarkets right now,” Avison Young principal Andrew Berk said in a statement. “In particular, the Los Angeles office market has struggled to recover to pre-pandemic levels as occupiers continue to re-evaluate office utilization, consolidate, or rightsize their footprints.
“Most owners/landlords here have had difficulties leasing up office space which has caused many to try and sell their asset in a tough capital markets and rising interest rate environment,” Berk added.
Leasing across the Los Angeles market is down 35 percent from before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the average price per square foot is just 57 percent of its $237 peak in 2019, according to Avison Young.
One Pacific Plaza, a nearly 400,000-square-foot office complex just south of Los Angeles in Huntington Beach, sold for $42 million last month, which is 66 percent less than what sellers Pendulum Property Partners acquired it for five years ago.
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
