LOS ANGELES-National law firm Alston & Bird LLP has signed an 80,000-square-foot lease with Brookfield Office Properties Inc. at Bank of America Plaza at 333 South Hope St. downtown. The lease raises the occupancy in the 1.4-million-square-foot tower to 97% in a market whose vacancy is on the rise.
“This is a premier building in the Bunker Hill submarket in downtown L.A.,” John Barganski, VP of leasing in southern California for Brookfield, tells GlobeSt.com. “We always put money into our buildings, but over the course of the last couple of years, we renovated the lobby and upgraded elevators and escalators to make cosmetic as well as infrastructure improvements to this building.”
An 800-attorney firm, Alston & Bird had been a tenant in the 55-story building under a sublease, Barganski continues. “They investigated the market, and we worked with Jones Lang LaSalle to come up with a solution for them that would give them a chance to renovate and expand their space down the road.”
Alston & Bird was represented in the lease negotiations by its Atlanta-based senior partner Mark Rusche, along with JLL’s team of Tony Morales and Maureen Hawley, as well as Whitley Collins, formerly of JLL. Brookfield was represented by Michael E. Meyer of DLA Piper and its in-house Los Angeles leasing team of Barganski and Chris Dillavou.
“Brookfield was creative in working with us to structure a transaction that allowed Alston & Bird to improve and realize greater efficiencies over their existing space, in addition to extending the Alston & Bird standard to its L.A. office and increasing the amenities within their office space,” Morales tells GlobeSt.com. “Alston & Bird has consistently been named one of Fortune magazine’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For,’ and the opportunity to improve their space to a level consistent with other Alston & Bird offices around the country was a priority and goal we achieved in this new lease with Brookfield.”
Downtown vacancy has increased over the past quarter to 17.4%, since many firms renewed and downsized, delivering additional space to the market of about 536,000 square feet of negative net absorption in fourth-quarter 2011, Morales continues. “Considering the increase in the inventory of available direct space, downtown L.A. has not seen dramatic rate compression, due in large part to the trophy asset ownership landscape. MPG Office Trust still controls about half of the class-A+ market, and by extension, close to half of the vacant space available. Rents have held somewhat steady for the past few years, and we don’t expect to see them increase until vacancy decreases and/or the ownership dynamics of the market shift.”
Bank of America Plaza has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council with a LEED Gold certification. One of the older high-rises downtown, it is still one of the most-desired buildings because it boasts a generous and efficient floor plate, parking is easy to access and plentiful, and the plaza is situated adjacent to one of the largest amenity bases in downtown L.A., Morales concludes.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
