Pittsburgh Billionaire to Pay $200 Million : Unocal Finds Buyer for Headquarters
The real estate empire built by Pittsburgh billionaire Henry L. Hillman, one of the nation’s richest men, will pay $200 million cash for Unocal headquarters and a large section of vacant land in downtown Los Angeles, the oil company said Friday.
The price for the 13-story office building and 13 acres, the biggest contiguous piece of undeveloped downtown real estate west of the Harbor Freeway, was at the high end of estimates made at the time Unocal announced plans to sell in July.
The buyer was identified as UC Land Co., an affiliate of Hillman Properties, the Newport Beach-based affiliate of the Hillman Co. of Pittsburgh. It wasn’t known what investors other than Hillman might be involved in UC Land Co.
The Hillman group has been active in California real estate since the mid-1970s. It is part of a fortune estimated at $2.5 billion amassed by Hillman in real estate, industry and high technology. Now 69, he is ranked No. 5 on Forbes magazine’s list of the richest Americans.
December Closing Planned
Unocal will remain in its headquarters building under a three-year lease. The rest of the property will be developed as a “world-class, multi-use office project,” according to Michael R. Chase, president of Hillman Properties. He said no specific plans have been made.
Unocal and Hillman expect to complete the sale by late December.
Richard J. Stegemeier, Unocal president and chief executive, said the company will use the money to pay down debt and explore for oil and gas.
The real estate sale is part of a shift in strategy at Unocal since Stegemeier replaced Fred L. Hartley as chief executive this year. Stegemeier has pledged to sell “non-producing assets” to reduce the heavy debt taken on in its 1985 takeover battle with T. Boone Pickens Jr. Hartley resisted the sale of such assets.
The real estate includes most of the land in an area bordered by West 4th Street on the north, South Beaudry Avenue on the east, West 6th Street on the south and South Bixel Street on the west. It is part of the Center City West master plan being developed by the City of Los Angeles.
Venture Capitalist
Privately held Hillman Properties was recently ranked 16th among U.S. real estate developers, with property or land in 23 states. Chase has estimated its real estate assets at $2 billion, most of it office buildings. It has retail, office and residential projects throughout Southern California.
Hillman, the son of a Pittsburgh coal and steel executive, sold off the family’s heavy-industry holdings and diversified. He has been a significant venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, and one of his recent investments is Cytel Corp., a young California biotechnology firm, according to Forbes.
