Pendulum, Long Wharf Make $56M Los Angeles Play

3000 Robertson Blvd. Photo courtesy of CBRE

Pendulum Property Partners has continued its push into the Los Angeles office market. In partnership with Boston-based Long Wharf Capital, the company paid $56 million in an off-market transaction for a four-story, 111,384-square-foot property in the Culver City submarket.

A CBRE team comprising Mike Longo, Todd Tydlaska, Sean Sullivan and Greg Grant represented the seller—a partnership of Watt Properties and Edge Principal Advisors—and procured acquisition financing for the buyer. According to CommercialEdge, the property previously traded in 2015 for $26.7 million.

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Situated at 3000 S. Robertson Blvd., the four-story building has floorplates averaging 28,000 square feet. In 2017, the previous owner invested $5 million to transform the building into creative office space, according to a Newmark press release. Wolcott Architecture provided design services for the cosmetic upgrade. This included courtyard and façade renovations, landscaping, upgrades to the main lobby and common areas and the addition of signage.

Amenities include outdoor seating and Wi-Fi areas, ping pong tables, bike storage and a parking ratio of 3 spaces per 1,000 square feet. Tenants include WeWork—which takes up an entire floor—Kaiser Permanente, Michelson Foundation, Universal Protection Services and Complete Care. The office building is located just off Interstate 10, near several public transit routes and retail destinations.

Bullish on media markets

Pendulum’s new office property traded at roughly $502 per square foot, higher than the metro’s average  year-to-date through September ($378 per square foot), CommercialEdge data shows. However, submarkets like Culver City have been among the priciest, with the concentration of tech, media and film production industries drawing large investments.

In July, Pendulum announced plans to invest $1.3 billion annually on western U.S. office and retail properties. The company entered into a partnership with pension advisor Banner Oak Capital—which committed $100 million to an “evergreen” joint venture, while also seeding a separate, $40 million investment vehicle. The partnership’s initial plan had been to focus solely on Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco and Denver. However, the pandemic shifted that focus and the partnership is looking at other markets.

The first acquisition of this new initiative closed in May, when Pendulum and Long Wharf paid $61.5 million for The Link in Burbank, a 124,785-square-foot office building in Burbank, Calif. The property had recently been renovated and was 76 percent occupied at the time of the sale.

According to CommercialEdge, office sales in metro Los Angeles cooled off in September, with the month generating just over $181 million—43.3 percent lower than the previous month. Still, the third quarter was the strongest so far this year, with office investment topping off at $991.6 million.