Pacifica Buys Oceanfront Complex at Sunset and PCH

An oceanfront office and retail complex at the intersection of two of Southern California’s most recognizable thoroughfares, Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, has been purchased by Pacifica Holding Co. for $21 million.

Pacifica, headed by the Leonard family, bought the three-building Sunset Coast Plaza complex in Pacific Palisades from Southwest Value Partners, said Steve Solomon, the Seeley Co. broker who represented the principals in the transaction.

The property, which cost about $30 million to complete in 1989, is currently about 85% leased. Solomon, whom Pacifica has retained to lease the remaining ground-floor space in one building, said both retailers and “creative” office tenants, primarily from the media and entertainment fields, have shown interest in the Mediterranean-style buildings.

Property records and other real estate sources indicate that Southwest Value paid about $13 million for the property in the summer of 1996, acquiring the then-half-vacant complex from mortgage lender First Korea Bank, which had taken it back from the previous owner.

After focusing on real estate in Denver for much of the last decade, Pacifica is active once again in this region as a partner in a $50-million office development in Santa Monica--also targeted at creative industries--in addition to its purchase of Sunset Coast Plaza.

Over the last four months, Pacifica and its partners, including investor Leon Black’s Apollo group, have taken advantage of aggressive investment by publicly traded real estate investment trusts. Pacifica cut three deals totaling more than $430 million as it sold and traded stakes in its substantial Colorado office, industrial and retail property portfolios.