Lincoln Property Co. Buys Back 915 Wilshire

915 Wilshire is a 390,312-square-foot 22-story office tower in Downtown Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES— Lincoln Property Co. has partnered with Rockwood Capital to purchase 915 Wilshire Blvd., a 22-story 390,312-square-foot class-A office tower in Downtown Los Angeles. The investor owned and renovated the property a decade ago, and sold it to Brickman Associates in 2007. The purchase price was not disclosed; however, sources unrelated to the deal say that Lincoln paid $130 million for the asset. After selling the property to Brickman in 2007, Lincoln Property Co. stayed on as a property manager. “We have operated in this building for 10-plus years, so we have great insight into how the building operates,” Stephen Lindgren , a director at Lincoln Property Co., tells GlobeSt.com. “We thought that there were significant value-add opportunities with renovations to the building lobbies, an outdoor deck that has been underutilized, and back-of-the house operational upgrades as well.” Lincoln Property’s business plan for the property includes a “significant” capital investment, according to Lindgren, which will include upgrades to the common areas that will help drive occupancy. “The building is stuck in a prior time of commodity downtown office buildings,” says Lindgren. “We are going to go in and refresh the lobby with more contemporary design elements that are borrowed from hospitality and design trends. The building has always been pretty well leased, but we think that the demand from tenant has been changing in Downtown L.A. and we need to follow those trends.” The property is currently 88% occupied by a more traditional tenant mix, but Lincoln hopes to attract some more creative tenants. “I don’t think the building will be creative; there is always going to be a strong presence of engineering, finance and insurance type tenants,” says Lindgren. “We are trying to attract more media and tech tenants with out redesign.” Lincoln has a history of playing in the Downtown Los Angeles market, and this sale is indicative of the investor’s continued bullishness in the market. This particular acquisition is going to by a similar business plan to the repositioning and sale of 800 Wilshire last year . “I think this is a similar play to what we completed at 800 Wilshire,” says Lindgren. “We purchased that a few years ago and sold it last year, and we went through a lobby renovation and lease out the available space.” Kevin Shannon of NGKF represented Lincoln in the transaction.