LOS ANGELES—Archway Holdings Corp. has sold 9033 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills for $75.05 million or $1,500 per square foot to an affiliate of UBS Affiliated. The sale is the latest example of post-recession success, or rather success for those investors who took major risk during the downturn to see it pay off in strides today. Archway purchased the property in 2008 for $500 per square foot, and invested $10 million into renovating and stabilizing the asset. Now, it has sold for the highest pure office price on the West Coast.

"The partners wanted to sell, and because they are very dear to us, we agreed to do it. Generally, we would have like to hold onto it for longer," Sean Moghaven, president of Archway Holdings Corp., tells GlobeSt.com. "We see this as a generational asset. When you have multiple partners, although we were the majority partner, needs are different. Because we got a strong price, we were okay to sell." The investor brought the property to market and saw interest from the gamut of buyers, from foreign capital to institutional investors.

Archway purchased the property in 2008, at the onset of the recession, and paid a high price for the market. "We bought the property right at the beginning of the recession for quite a record price back then for that class of a property," explains Moghaven. "At the time, everybody asked us what we were doing to pay such a high price when the whole world was going down the tubes. We felt that because the City of Beverly Hills was considering a medical moratorium, and generally medical is considered a recession-resistant asset class, added to ability of the asset."

Recognizing the future need for quality medical office in the market, the investor completely gutted the building, investing $10 million into the property. At the time of the purchase, most of the tenants in the property were on short-term or month-to-month leases, making this an ideal candidate for a renovation project. "We wanted to have a building that we could gut, and where we were able to renovate the building from inside to out," says Moghaven. "We redid every single element inside the building. We understood were the medical field was going and that the smaller practitioners would be facing an uphill battle. Obamacare wasn't the fad when we bought the building, but even then the writing was on the wall that consolidation was going to happen and that only larger groups could survive." Since the renovation, the property is now 50% occupied by USC.

Allen Matkins attorneys Julie Hoffman and Michael McFadden represented the seller, while Bob Bickford and Stacey Daniel of Kelley Drye represented the buyer. Stephen Somer of Eastdil acted as the broker.