The War You Don't See

San Diego Office Building Sold for $55 Million.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News March 28, 2003 By Mike Freeman, The San Diego Union-Tribune Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Mar. 28–Another downtown San Diego office building has been sold to investors looking to bolster their holdings of local high-rises.

BCL Inc., a La Jolla real estate company, purchased 110 Plaza in partnership with Lehman Brothers of New York. The price was $55 million.

Amstar, a Colorado-based property investor, sold the 18-story building at 110 W. A St. Amstar purchased the structure six years ago for $32.1 million, according to records from the San Diego County Assessor’s Office. website downtown san diego

The building, which counts Sempra Energy, Commonwealth Financial and the California Attorney General’s Office as tenants, joins a group of downtown office buildings that either have changed hands or come on the market recently.

Compared with other cities nationwide, downtown San Diego has a relatively low office vacancy rate of 9.9 percent, according to CoStar, a commercial real estate research firm. In addition, competition is limited. No new high-rises have been constructed downtown in 12 years.

Downtown San Diego buildings are attracting top dollar prices from institutional investors, many of whom are boosting their holdings of real estate after selling off poorly performing stocks.

Downtown buildings on the market include the Koll Center, First National Bank Center, the Chamber Building, West Ash Plaza and the Washington Mutual Building.

Recent sales include One America Plaza, 600 W. Broadway, which sold in November for $166.2 million, and Symphony Towers, 750 B St., which sold this month for $134 million. go to web site downtown san diego

110 Plaza is older, smaller and less opulent than One America and Symphony Towers. BCL paid $172 a square foot for 110 Plaza, which was built in 1971 and renovated in 2001. One America sold for about $290 per square foot, while Symphony Towers sold for $235 per square foot.

BCL has been involved in two other deals downtown. It converted the Paladion, a former retail building at 777 Front St., into offices and sold the building to Price Club founder Sol Price. It also purchased and renovated an office building near Little Italy at 444 W. Beech, which it still owns.

“BCL really likes the dynamics of the downtown San Diego office market,” said Casey Brown, a principal in BCL. “This is our third acquisition we have completed downtown during the last three years.

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• http://www.google.com/profiles/thornecassidy Thorne Cassidy

  It’s a shame that this wasn’t broken up into 3 or 4 minute highlight pieces that suit the avg attention span in our country.

• http://www.gonzotimes.com/ PunkJohnnyCash

  That might be a good idea. It did drag in a few places. There were a few great points, but some of the less interesting pieces could easily be condensed. Maybe a shorter more concise version is needed.