The landmark office towers are considered by many to be an architectural gem in one of the city's best downtown locations. The twin 52-story towers fill an entire city block bounded by Figueroa, Flower, Fifth and Sixth streets. The project includes 221,773 sf of retail beneath the center on two levels, and an 11-story parking garage one block north. Atop the garage is the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles.

The new owner of the 30-year-old office development will be TPG Plaza Investments. Besides Los Angeles-based Thomas Properties Group, the ownership's other partners are the California State Teachers Retirement System and Kings Capital, a privately held company controlled by Kenneth A. Picerne and managed by the Picerne Group.

Picerne last year obtained an agreement to purchase the towers from Japan's Shuwa Investment Corp. and chose Thomas Properties Group and CalSTRS after considering other possible investors. Thomas says the Arco Towers acquisition is the first transaction for a new Thomas Properties Group/CalSTRS joint venture that will focus on opportunistic and value-added office investments.

James A. Thomas, CEO of Thomas Properties, says the new owners plan to "restore and upgrade the complex" to regain its prominence among the premier office complexes in Los Angeles. Shuwa acquired the towers for more than $640 million at the height of the 1980s downtown office market, when Japanese investors were buying up U.S. real estate. Shuwa has been trying to unload this property for some time.

Arco Towers was designed by AC Martin Partners and built in 1972-1973 as the world headquarters for Atlantic Richfield Co. and the Southern California headquarters of Bank of America. Since Arco was acquired by British Petroleum in 2000, it no longer occupies space in its namesake tower. The southern tower, named Bank of America Tower, continues as the bank's Southern California headquarters.

With this acquisition, Thomas Properties Group, founded by Thomas in 1996, owns and/or manages eight million sf of office and retail space, with an additional six million sf under construction or in pre-development. Kings Capital, with offices in San Juan Capistrano, CA and Los Angeles, is one of a family of privately held companies with real estate and financial asset investments in countries around the world.