Vornado Pays $54 Mil for Downtown Landmark, the L.A. Mart

LOS ANGELES-Vornado Realty Trust of New Jersey has paid $54 million for the massive L.A. Mart in a deal that will place one of Downtown’s most enduring landmarks into a powerful nationwide chain of wholesale markets.

A tentative agreement to sell the 720,000-sf complex at South Broadway and Washington Boulevard was reached a few months ago, brokers involved in the deal say, but several contingencies had to be met before the transaction could close. The sprawling complex features 13 floors of furniture, home accessory and gift wholesalers.

L.A. Mart was developed in 1958 by the Los Angeles Home Furniture Manufacturers Association, which had long pined for a single spot where buyers from around the nation could view the products of hundreds of companies under a single roof. It thrived through the 1980s, but then suffered—-as did the region’s other wholesale marts—-during the deep recession of the early 1990s.