Tishman Speyer grabs prime real estate in downtown Santa Monica
From Dolores Quintana
Scott Walter’s real estate development company WSC brought 23 properties to market in Santa Monica earlier this year, and WSC has signed a contract with Tishman Speyer, a New York City developer, for eight major properties in downtown Santa Monica.
Tishman Speyer is about to finalize the deal that required a large down payment on the price of $ 150 million. All properties have passed the Santa Monica City Review process and are fully eligible, which means that the development of each property has been pre-approved by the City Planning Commission and City Council.
Walker & Dunlop launched the property portfolio in January of this year and Blake Rogers, the agent in charge of the sales team, was quoted by The Real Deal as saying that the properties are a “generational development opportunity” and the seller continues with the words : “There has never been an opportunity to acquire a development portfolio this size in Southern California, let alone Santa Monica.”
This sale includes properties at 1323 and 1338 5th Street, 1313 6th Street, 501 Broadway, 711 Colorado Avenue, and 1318, 1430 and 1650 Lincoln Boulevard. The land was purchased from developer Neil Shekhter for WSC, the company owned by Shekhter and his sons and led by Scott Walter as the company’s CEO. It took Shekhter a decade to buy them all. For now, WSC plans to retain ownership of the remaining 15 properties that are not part of this transaction.
A source confirming the upcoming sale to The Santa Monica Lookout said the deal was “unprecedented”. The source added, “Santa Monica is an incredible market and you have eight fully-fledged buildings from one developer. That is very unique. “
Tishman Speyer owns the famous Rockefeller Center in New York City, previously owned the Chrysler Building, and currently owns the Arboretum office complex in Santa Monica along with an additional 2 million square feet in the LA area, according to The Real Deal.
“This is Tishman Speyer’s first major housing development in the Los Angeles area,” according to The Real Deal, noting that “the LA multi-family market has grown over the past year and has recovered from the early days of the pandemic.” Tishman Speyer seems keen to expand its holdings in the Los Angeles area.
Comments are closed.