Foreigners Own More Than Half of Downtown Offices

Of downtown Los Angeles’ 61 office buildings, 30 are owned, wholly or partly, by foreign firms, according to a study made by Cushman Realty Corp.

The total inventory in downtown Los Angeles is 22,538,079 square feet. Of this, 11,622,726 square feet or 51.56% is foreign owned.

Downtown, as defined by the study, is bounded on the north by 3rd Street, on the east by Olive Street, on the south by 9th Street and by the Harbor Freeway on the west. Figueroa Plaza at 1st and Figueroa streets is also included.

The Cushman study emphasized that the percentage of foreign ownership interest varies from building to building and from 20% to 100%.

Japanese firms have ownership interest in 16 buildings with 6,513,756 square feet, or 28.9% of the inventory. Robert Ortiz, Cushman senior vice president, said the Japanese rarely take a minority ownership.

The British have ownership in seven buildings with 1,294,995 square feet.

Canadians have interest in three buildings with 704,225 square feet.

Germans have interest in three buildings with 1,056,944 square feet.

Other foreign investors, Dutch, Iranians, Israelis and Filipinos, have ownership interests in four buildings with 2,052,806 square feet.