Gateway Plaza Sold to Retiree Assn.

13-story Pasadena Gateway Plaza building, completed a year ago, has been sold to the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Assn. in a $70-million sale-lease transaction, real estate officials announced.

The association will own and manage the building through Heitman Properties, a subsidiary of Heitman Advisory Corp. of Los Angeles. In addition, the retirement association will lease 80,000 square feet in the building.

The sale, reported to be the largest real estate transaction in the city’s history, calls for a sale price of between $55 million and $60 million. The remainder of the transaction cost is the amount to lease the 80,000 square feet.

The sale was announced Tuesday by John Alle Co., a commercial real estate brokerage in Pasadena that handled the transaction.

The 300,000-square-foot building and an accompanying 200,000-square-foot parking structure at 300 N. Lake Ave. were built by Trenton Development Corp. of Los Angeles and H. Theodore Greene of H. T. Green and Associates, of Los Angeles.

The building is 85% occupied, according to the John Alle Co.

Its tenants include Provident Investment Counsel; Paula Financial; Westport Petroleum Inc.; A. G. Edwards and Sons Inc.; United States Aviation Underwriters; Long Beach Bank; the California headquarters of Osaka Gas Co. Ltd.; Norcal Inc., and the Hanes Co. Inc.