Sanwa Building May Be Razed for Office Tower

Downtown Los Angeles’ Sanwa Bank building at 612 S. Flower St. may face the wrecking ball and be replaced with a new 33-story office tower if the Koll Co. gets a go-ahead from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.

Building owner Charter Hendrix Flower Street Associates has agreed to sell its 13-story office building to a partnership headed by Koll in exchange for a share in a planned 615,000-square-foot replacement.

Included in the pending sale would be a nondescript parking garage at the corner of 8th and Flower streets.

That parcel has taken on great value in the last year as neighboring owners Ahmanson Commercial Development, the Macklowe Group and Mitsui compete for rights to develop their share of the centrally located block.

“We’ve talked to the adjacent owners,” reports Rick Stephens, L.A. division president for Koll, “but we don’t intend to complicate development on the block,” Koll and partners, he said, intend to either keep the garage as-is or sell to the neighbors.

Undecided is whether Koll will invite Ohbayashi America Corp. to participate in these two parcels. The Japan-based contracting giant is Koll’s current partner in the 28-story, $200-million 550 S. Hope St.building that started construction downtown this month.