Blackstone Lends $197M on L.A. Office Campus Deal

The nation’s biggest real estate firm has bankrolled Lincoln Property Company’s nine-figure deal for a distressed office campus in Los Angeles’ Silicon Beach.

Blackstone (BX) Group provided a $197 million loan for Strategic Value Partners and Lincoln Property Company’s acquisition of The Bluffs at Playa Vista, a 500,000-square-foot office campus in Playa Vista that previously had Google as one of its tenants, a source familiar with the financing confirmed to  Commercial Observer. 

The buyers agreed to put down $187.5 million after previous owner Edward J. Minskoff Equities defaulted on a $250.8 million loan from Morgan Stanley that backed the office campus. EJM Equities had acquired the campus at 12121 and 12181 Bluff Creek Drive for $413 million in October 2016.

Newmark’s Jonathan Firestone and Jordan Roeschlaub arranged the financing, The Real Deal reported. A representative from Lincoln Property Company declined to comment on the loan. Representatives for Blackstone and Strategic Value Partners did not return requests for comment or provide additional details on the financing.

The sale last month, at nearly 40 percent less than when the property traded eight years ago, is another example demonstrating how the pandemic and larger tech and media pullback have weakened the once-thriving Silicon Beach office market. Indeed, Google put 98,000 square feet of space at The Bluffs on the sublease market last year as the tech giant significantly reduced its office space requirements throughout Greater L.A.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.