Brookfield Acquires $440M Interest in Downtown LA Asset

The California Market Center is home to fashion industry showrooms, creative office spaces, event venues, fitness studios and beauty salons. the property was the first wholesale fashion showroom to open its doors on the West Coast.

By Mihaela Coste

California Market Center, Los Angeles

California Market Center, Los Angeles

A private equity fund of Brookfield, Los Angeles’ biggest landlord, acquired an interest in California Market Center, a 1.8 million-square-foot property located in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles, as part of a joint venture with Jamison Properties. Newmark Knight Frank’s Capital Markets President Kevin Shannon and Executive Managing Director Ken White represented both parties in the off-market agreement.

According to Yardi Matrix data, Brookfield acquired the controlling interest in the property for $440 million and will take control of the asset’s operations. The asset last traded in 2005, when Jamison Services purchased the property from Hertz Investment Group for $135 million.

Located at 110 E. Ninth St., at the corner of Ninth and Main streets, California Market Center consists of three interconnected 13-story buildings. The property is home to fashion industry showrooms, creative office spaces, event venues ranging from 3,000 to 13,000 square feet available for any type of events, eateries, fitness studios and beauty salons.

The first fashion showroom on the West Coast

Built in three phases between 1957 and 1979, the CMC was established in the early 1960s by the Morse family as the first wholesale fashion showroom “mart” on the West Coast. The asset features high ceilings, subterranean parking and common area WiFi.

The new ownership plans to completely modernize the ground floor and improve the consumer experience along Main and Ninth streets by integrating local and regional street-level retailers, curated year-round site activations and intends to amplify connectivity to the surrounding neighborhood.

CMC is a value-add creative office format product which is a nice complement to Brookfield’s Class A vertical portfolio in downtown,” said Shannon in a prepared statement. “Over the next few months the new ownership will embark on a major repositioning of the asset which is anticipated to be completed in 2019.

Brookfield currently owns and operates 60 properties totaling 50 million square feet across seven of the largest cities in the U.S., out of which approximately 8.6 million square feet of Class A office space in downtown Los Angeles.

Image courtesy of Yardi Matrix

You May Also Like