Former Merv Griffin office in Beverly Hills is sold to Kuwait

The government of Kuwait bought a modest but expensive office building in downtown Beverly Hills where the country is expected to move its local consulate.

The property at 130 S. El Camino Drive was built in 1951 and formerly housed the offices of entertainer and business mogul Merv Griffin, broker Joshua Meltzer of the real estate firm Studley Inc. said.

Near Rodeo Drive and across the street from the Beverly Wilshire hotel, the two-story building is unoccupied.

Kuwait’s consulate in Los Angeles carries out a variety of missions, including issuing travel and work visas, handling consular services and providing other services for Kuwaiti residents, and it seeks to maintain cooperation between the two nations.

Studley did not identify the buyer, but public records collected by DataQuick show the new owner as the Royal Consulate of Kuwait. The local consulate building of the oil-rich country in the Middle East is now in Century City.

Building Gas Stations With Flair

The buyers paid the former owner, Steven Wallace Living Trust, $10.4 million for the 9,046-square-foot building on El Camino Drive. That represents a record price for a Beverly Hills office building at nearly $1,150 a square foot, according to Studley.

“The property’s valued location in the heart of Beverly Hills, combined with an improving economic and real estate climate,” Meltzer said, “pushed the price of the building to record levels.”

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