New York Life Real Estate Investors sold an 11-story office tower it owned in Irvine for $37 million, $160.17 per square foot, representing a 55% cut from what the company paid for the building in 2015.
Irvine-based Greenlaw Partners bought the 231,000-square-foot building from New York Life, per CoStar data.
In 2015, New York Life bought Von Karman Towers, located at 18201 Von Karman Ave. in Irvine, for $82.5 million, or $356.97 per square foot.
JLL Capital Markets team represented New York Life in the transaction, with Senior Managing Director Michael Leggett, Senior Director Will Poulsen and associates John Rankin and Tim Donald spearheading the deal.
“18201 Von Karman generated quite a bit of investor interest, ranging from institutional investors to private buyers along the West Coast, who saw the value-add potential of the highly amenitized asset,” Poulsen said in a statement. “Ultimately, the buyer was the winning bidder given their quick ability to close and their inherent knowledge of the property, as they are the property manager and owner of the three adjacent properties.”
The high-rise was renovated in 2016.
Tenants include real estate developer Related California, finance and insurance company Gallagher, VCC Construction and accounting firm Davis Farr LLP.
Greenlaw now owns, either by itself or with other partners, all four of the buildings at the Von Karman Towers office complex, which is at the intersection of Von Karman and Michelson Drive and is about three blocks from the John Wayne Airport.
Privately-held Greenlaw has bought and sold $10 billion worth of assets and has 5 million square feet of projects that are entitled or under development.
Von Karman Towers, built in 1985, sold as part of a two-property, $77 million transaction in March 2004. The building traded for $351.96 per square foot more than 11 years later, per CoStar.
Office Building Values on the Decline
New York Life selling Von Karman Towers at a 55% discount is part of a recent trend of office buildings being sold at significantly lower prices, especially in the years after COVID-19.
CBRE Investment Management recently sold the 17-floor office tower it owned at 2600 Michelson Drive for $42 million, almost one-third the price it paid for the building in 2017.
TA Realty sold City Centre I at 625 The City Drive South in Orange for $22.5 million in 2023, a discount from the $33 million it paid for the building, five years earlier.
Newport Coast executive Joe Wen paid $25 million for the 216,864-square-foot 4 Hutton Centre in Santa Ana in 2023, more than $30 million less than what the building’s previous owner paid for it in 2019.
PRES Cos. paid $20.5 million for the 120,560-square-foot Wells Fargo Building in 2016 and flipped it for $18.6 million in 2024.
