Tishman Speyer Buys $200M Development Site

PLAYA VISTA, CA-A joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Walton Street Capital LLC has acquired 64 acres entitled for 2.2 million sf of office space at the 1,000-acre Playa Vista project. Neither the buyer nor seller Playa Phase I Commercial Land Co. would comment on the price, but industry sources estimate that the JV paid $200 million for the land, which includes the huge hangar in which Howard Hughes built his legendary Spruce Goose wooden aircraft, along with 10 other historic buildings.

John Miller, West Coast senior managing director for Tishman Speyer, tells GlobeSt.com that the developer expects to begin construction of the first 400,000 sf of the office space in February 2008 and have the 400,000 sf completed in about a year. That 400,000 sf will be part of 900,000 sf that Tishman Speyer will develop on one of the properties at Playa Vista. After that 900,000 sf is absorbed, Tishman Speyer will redevelop the other property, which includes the Spruce Goose hangar and the 10 other existing buildings.

The property that the Tishman Speyer-Walton Street JV bought is located in the eastern portion of the Playa Vista community known as “the Campus at Playa Vista,” adjacent to the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Centinela Avenue. The 11 historic buildings occupy land that was home to the famed Hughes Aircraft Co. during much of the 20th Century.