Ares Inks Deal to Anchor Anderson's Century City Tower

Los Angeles-based global investment manager Ares Management has inked a 12-year pre-lease to become an anchor tenant at a Century City office campus now being redeveloped by Anderson Real Estate.

The investment manager will occupy 206K SF at 1800 Avenue of the Stars, beginning in June. The deal includes the naming rights to the building, part of a $100M renovation of a three-building campus at 1800 and 1900 Avenue of the Stars.

The developers, who are calling the campus Anderson Towers, say they are “reimagining” the campus into a landmark office address “unmatched” in Los Angeles.

The campus will be surrounded by five acres of outdoor spaces filled with a park landscape of interconnected pathways, including a footbridge connecting the development to the Westfield Century City Mall. Anderson Towers will offer panoramic views of the city.

“The office of the future must be a space that attracts tenants by providing them with what they can’t get at home,” said Matt Lavin, president of Anderson Real Estate, in a statement.

“Anderson Towers [will be] a tech-integrated, environmentally friendly space that will make the workday more fulfilling. As the concept of how we interact with work continues to evolve, we believe what we are creating are the types of spaces and amenities that forward-thinking companies will demand for their employees,” Lavin said.

The redesign of the Anderson Towers campus is being led by Montalba Architects and JB Landscape Architecture. EEI is leading the development management, and AllianceBernstein provided the project financing in transaction brokered by CBRE and LA Realty Partners.

As of the end of Q3 2022, Ares Management’s holdings encompassed an estimated $341B assets under management. Ares has been based in Los Angeles since its founding in 1997.

In October, Ares reported that its Credit Group closed $5.7B in US direct lending commitments across 45 transactions during the Q3 2022 and $32B in direct lending commitments across 251 transactions in the twelve-month period ended September 30, 2022.

This compares to the $7.2B in commitments closed on 54 transactions during the third quarter of 2021 and approximately $27B in commitments on 244 transactions in the twelve-month period ended September 30, 2021.

Ares in Q4 announced the final closing of its Ares Special Opportunities Fund II (ASOF II) at a hard cap with $7.1 billion of commitments, including General Partner commitments, which far surpassed its $4.0 billion target.