Pasadena Commercial Real Estate Action Continues to Stay Hot

Prime commercial properties in Pasadena continue to attract investors willing to pay serious money as the buy/sell cycle trend heats up.

Just last week, Zurich Alternative Asset Management sold its office building at 350 W. Colorado Blvd. for $34 million to an investment group. At $385 per square foot, that deal was way above the average of $293 paid last year in the submarket.

The building, known locally as the Wells Fargo Bank building, measures 88,304 square feet and houses the offices of West L.A. professional services firm Holthouse Carlin and Van Tright, among other businesses. Ninety-eight percent of the building is leased by Wells Fargo.

Bob Safai, president of Madison Partners, who represented the seller in the deal, told the Los Angeles Business Journal that many interested parties bid on the building, and that it sold higher than other comparable assets because it has “a great rent roll in a prime location.”

Speaking with the LA Business Journal, Safai said, “Pasadena is attracting investors. The tech revolution taking place in the Tri-Cities is for the most part taking place in Pasadena.”

Also last week, Congress Management Associates, a Pasadena physician investment group, bought a medical office building adjacent to Huntington Memorial Hospital for nearly $11 million.

The group purchased the 20,000 square foot property for roughly $550 per square foot from a partnership formed by the family of the late Dr. George Mullfinger who built the building in 1984. The average price in the area last year was $243 per square foot.

In May, a major European real estate portfolio and asset manager called AXA Real Estate Investment Managers purchased the Pasadena Hilton Hotel.  AXA Real Estate said it completed the acquisition on behalf of one of its clients and in a joint venture with hotel operator Aimbridge Hospitality, LLC. The hotel was previously owned by Amstar, a Denver-based private equity firm.

The hotel will be completely renovated, AXA Real Estate said, calling the makeover a “significant redevelopment of the asset.” All guest bedrooms, public areas and meeting rooms will be made over.

Earlier, in March, Carey Watermark Investors Inc. purchased the Westin Pasadena Hotel at 191 N, Los Robles for $143 million. That’s about $408,000 a room for its 350 rooms.

PFK Consulting called the sale one of the biggest hotel deals in the Los Angeles county this year.