LOS ANGELES—U.S. Bank has signed a 10-year lease renewal with OUE Limited's American subsidiary for its 105,000-square-foot space at the U.S. Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles. The lease transaction includes the option to renew for another 10 years.

U.S. Bank houses its regional headquarters in the 1.4-million square-foot building, and serves as the anchor tenant. “Retaining U.S. Bank as an anchor tenant was a key objective for us,” says Richard Stockton, president and CEO of OUE Limited's Americas subsidiary. “I am thrilled that this long-term lease will keep one of the nation's premier banks at our building for the next decade.” The class-A building is currently the tallest building in the West at 1,018 feet, but will soon be beat by Korean Air's Wilshire Grand development.

OUE Limited purchased the asset last yearfor $376.5 million at 56.1% occupancy. Although few new leases have been signed, the company has managed to renew an additional 12 leases, totalling 67,000 square feet, not including this major lease renewal with U.S. Bank. "New tenants are attracted to the building for several reasons, including the new asset management initiatives we have introduced," Stockton tells GlobeSt.com. "These include installing complimentary electric vehicle charging stations, commons area enhancements such as introducing artwork into the main lobby, launching our OUE Skyspace Event Space on the 71^st floor, reducing visitor parking rates, activating our outside plaza with public tables and chairs, and pulling fiber optic cabling throughout the building to offer higher speed data and video services to tenants.  We are also able to be more competitive than our predecessor owner by offering tenant improvement allowances to assist new tenants in the funding the refurbishment, configuration, and decoration of their new space."

Although OUE has signed some new tenants and has a deep pool of prospective clients, rental rates have remained pretty flat since it acquired the building last year. Currently, they are collecting $22 to $24 per foot, depending on the quality of tenant, building location and lease terms.