Broker Sells Building 3 Times in 14 Months

It’s no wonder commercial real estate investment broker Bob Safai was comfortable setting up his new Madison Partners “boutique” brokerage at the 3130 Wilshire Blvd. building in Santa Monica. After all, Safai has sold the six-story building three times in the last 14 months by capitalizing on heavy interest in the Westside market, driven by real estate investment trusts and institutional investors.

First, Safai brokered a deal in which an affiliate of local investment group Rubin-Pachulski Properties took control of the 85,731-square-foot building from its former Japanese owner. Rubin-Pachulski actually purchased the defaulted mortgage on the structure from Mitsubishi Trust & Banking for what Safai described as “a fraction of replacement cost” and then concluded the foreclosure already in progress.

Hardly six months later, and six months before the lease of the anchor tenant, PennCorp, was set to expire, Safai helped Rubin-Pachulski sell the building to an affiliate of Brentwood-based real estate firm Lowe Enterprises for $12.1 million. Lowe launched an extensive renovation and worked closely with Safai’s team to negotiate leases directly with PennCorp subtenants and other prospective tenants.

Lowe and Madison Partners quickly consummated deals for all but the first and sixth floors as the Westside market continued to tighten. Then last week, Safai helped Lowe sell the building to fast-growing REIT Kilroy Realty Corp. for more than $16 million.

During that same period, Safai actually sold another six-story Santa Monica office building twice.

The broker helped Rubin-Pachulski sell the 83,000-square-foot 429 Santa Monica Blvd. building to a pension fund client of PM Realty Advisors for $12.6 million.

A year later, Safai completed another sale of the same building on PM’s behalf, with another institutional advisor--William Wilson & Associates--purchasing the building for $16 million.