Beacon Buys Downtown Building for $116 Million

A postmodern-style office building at 1000 Wilshire Blvd. in downtown Los Angeles that overlooks the Harbor Freeway has been purchased for $116 million by a Boston real estate investment company, brokers announced Thursday.

Beacon Capital Partners bought the 21-story tower from Sumitomo Life Realty. The Japanese life insurance company paid $145 million for the 472,000-square-foot building before it was completed in 1987 as the headquarters for the former Coast Savings Bank.

Last year Beacon bought Citigroup Center in downtown Los Angeles and in July sold the Bank of America Plaza on Bunker Hill.

“We have a tremendous amount of confidence in downtown and think the market has been coming back for several years,” said Jeremy Fletcher, Beacon’s chief executive for the Western region.

The sales price of $246 a square foot for the Wilshire building is far below the $350 a square foot Trizec Properties Inc. paid Beacon for Bank of America Plaza, but it does represent an increase for downtown office buildings, said Richard Plummer of Cushman & Wakefield, who represented the seller. At the beginning of the year, comparable office buildings sold for about $220 a square foot.

Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc. is the largest tenant at 1000 Wilshire, which is 82% leased. The law firm Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger leased 83,000 square feet this year and will move its offices there in August.