City Center Buys Two Buildings

The Union Bank Getty Oil Building at 3810 Wilshire Blvd. and the former Ohrbach’s department store at Wilshire and Fairfax Avenue have been purchased for about $30 million by the City Center Group of Cos. of Los Angeles in a joint venture with Independence Bank of Encino.

The seller was the Kornwasser & Friedman law firm of Los Angeles. City Center chairman Malcolm Kingston said the former Ohrbach’s property will be rebuilt into a 200,000-square-foot shopping center to be called the Wilshire Market Place Mall.

One big advantage of the property, he said, is the existing parking structure that will hold 900 cars.