Prudential to Put Landmark Century Plaza on the Block

The owners of the landmark Century Plaza Towers--the twin 44-story behemoths that dominate the Westside skyline--said Monday that they will put the complex up for sale.

The 2.2-million-square-foot complex, jointly owned by Prudential Insurance Co. and a consortium led by Citicorp, is expected to attract some of the biggest offers for commercial real estate in Los Angeles in recent years, area real estate brokers said. The towers, nearly 90% occupied, could fetch as much as $500 million.

“It’s going to be some serious money,” said Westside broker Nick Christensen at CB Commercial. He said the property’s high value will limit the list of potential buyers to a few top-tier investors.

Prudential and Citicorp earlier this year announced their plans to explore a sale of the Century Plaza Towers as the regional commercial real estate market was beginning to recover from a long depression in property values and rents.

“We did a considerable amount of research and found [the complex] could command a premium price,” said Rick Matthews, a Prudential spokesman.

The move is consistent with a plan set in place late last year by the Newark, N.J.-based insurance company to replace some of its holdings of office and hotel properties with industrial and apartment properties. The company has not set a deadline for the sale, Matthews said.

Prudential built the complex in the mid-1970s with its then-partner Century City Inc. Century City later ran into financial problems and eventually gave up its interest in Century Plaza to a group of its lenders and led by Citicorp.

Although the towers remain prominent fixtures of the Los Angeles skyline, they have been surpassed in prestige as well as in rents by newer skyscrapers in the area. In recent years, the owners have renovated the lobby and offered rent bargains, which have helped retain tenants and attract newcomers, agents said. The towers’ tenants include several insurance, consulting and Fortune 500 companies.

Bloomberg Business News contributed to this report.