Minskoff Defaults on $250M Loan Backing 500K-SF Office on L.A.’s Westside
By Nick Trombola July 18, 2024 12:06 pm
reprints
Downtown Los Angeles isn’t the only area of the city struggling with nine-figure office distress.
New York-based Edward J. Minskoff Equities (EJME) has defaulted on a $250 million loan tied to a 500,000-square-foot office campus in Playa Vista, Calif. The firm now owes its lender Morgan Stanley (MS) some $271 million, according to The Real Deal, citing loan records.
EJME bought the two-building property at 12121 and 12181 Bluff Creek Drive, dubbed The Bluffs, from J.P. Morgan Chase for $416 million in 2016.
The principal on the loan became due in November 2023, per TRD. A foreclosure on the complex will not be set until at least Sept. 12.
Fox Interactive Media signed for almost all of the space at the building when EJME took it over, though the lease expired in 2021. Google signed for 52,000 square feet in 2022, though that did little to stanch the bleeding as more than half of the property is currently available for lease, per TRD.
A representative for EJME did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Playa Vista is a beach community not far from Santa Monica, Venice and Marina Del Rey. It played a large role in the “Silicon Beach” efforts that started in the early 2010s due to the Westside’s reputation as a tech hub, with major companies such as Snap, Twitter (now X) and Google claiming space there. Though many of those companies have since vacated their offices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the most prominent lately is Facebook, which earlier this year shed 130,000 square feet, or nearly 38 percent, of its space at Tishman Speyer’s Brickyard campus in Playa Vista.
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
