Del Amo Financial Center in Torrance sold for $62.4 million
Del Amo Financial Center, a prominent Torrance office complex, has been sold for $62.4 million to developers who plan to make large-scale improvements to the aging property.
The eight-acre complex in the city’s financial district, dating to the mid-1960s, will get new shops, restaurants and a health club in a $35-million makeover over the next two years, the new owners said. It will be also be renamed Del Amo Crossing.
Muller Co., an Irvine real estate investment company, and GreenOak Real Estate, a real estate private equity investment firm, bought Del Amo Financial Center from Los Angeles commercial property landlord Jamison Properties. It consists of a 13-story office tower, a curving five-story office building and four circle-shaped two-story buildings.
Plans call for renovating the tower and turning the five-story structure into a medical office building. In a second phase of construction, the owners plan to build more retail outlets including a gym and a large restaurant at the intersection of Hawthorne Boulevard and Carson Street. A water feature — currently drained of water — will be removed to make way for a public rock garden.
The buildings now suffer from vacancies. According to real estate data provider CoStar Group, the tower is 66% leased and the five-story building is 37% leased. The new owners hope the makeover will reverse the trend, in part because there is a shortage of medical offices in the region.
“The Del Amo Financial Center acquisition marks a rare opportunity to reinvent what was once one of the area’s most prestigious business complexes,” said Stephen Muller, principal at Muller Co.
Across Hawthorne Boulevard from the office complex is Del Amo Fashion Center, one of the largest shopping malls in the country at 2.4 million square feet. The mall’s owners, Simon Property Group, are conducting a multimillion-dollar makeover intended to make the mall more modern and upscale.
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