Civicap Partners Pays $36M for Mixed-Use Conversion in L.A.

A Los Angeles adaptive reuse property has traded hands about one year after its redevelopment wrapped.

Houston-based investment firm Civicap Partners paid $35.8 million to acquire Redcar Properties’ 122,700-square-foot office and retail building at 843 North Spring Street in L.A.’s Chinatown. Civicap also secured a modification for $42.3 million in construction financing from Bank OZK, PropertyShark records show. Bank OZK originally provided a $43.7 million construction loan in 2020. Commercial Property Executive first reported the news. 

Civicap’s acquisition of 843 North Spring is part of a larger, L.A.-area portfolio deal with Redcar, though further details about other properties included in the deal were not immediately available. Representatives for both Civicap, Redcar and Bank OZK did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Redcar had purchased the property — a retail warehouse at the time — in 2018 for $15 million, records show. Redcar and designer Lever Architecture spent the subsequent years transforming it into a five-story office and retail building featuring cross-laminated timber, one of the largest properties in L.A. so far to use the sustainable alternative building material. 

Conversions to office use are rare in Southern California. Most adaptive reuse projects fall under the office-to-residential category, a domain currently led by Koreatown-based Jamison. Jamison’s largest project on that front is its 700-unit conversion of Downtown L.A.’s Arco Tower, a long-gestating redevelopment for which the firm is currently seeking entitlements, Jamison’s Jaime Lee recently told Commercial Observer. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.