Irvine Company Selling Downtown Office Towers in San Diego

San Diego’s largest office landlord continues to offload its iconic downtown office towers.

A month after it sold the high-profile Symphony Towers for a bargain basement price of $84 per square foot, Irvine Company has listed for sale two office towers near Horton Plaza.

Eastdil Secured is marketing the 40- and 50-year-old towers at 101 W. Broadway and 225 Broadway, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

“These are two of downtown San Diego’s most iconic office towers along Broadway and we anticipate significant interest in this opportunity to acquire these signature Class A buildings,” said Adam Edwards, Eastdil’s managing director.

An asking price was not disclosed. Irvine Company purchased the two Broadway buildings together in a 2005 transaction for $265M, or about $325 per square foot.

The 20-story office tower at 101 W. Broadway, built in 1984 in proximity to the historic Spreckels Building, encompasses 452K SF of office space and ground-floor retail. The building, which is about 77% leased, has Morgan Stanley as its largest tenant.

The 22-story office tower at 225 Broadway, built in 1974 and overlooking Horton Plaza, encompasses 363K SF of space that is 85% leased, the report said.

Last month, Irvine Company sold the 34-story Symphony Towers, a downtown landmark that is home to the San Diego Symphony, to Formosa, Ltd. for $45.7M, nearly 70% less than the $134M Irvine paid for the property in 2003.

Newport Beach-based Irvine Company is the largest office landlord in San Diego, with a portfolio including more than 70 office buildings encompassing a total of more than 8M SF, according to CoStar data.

In addition to the Broadway towers, Irvine Company owns Wells Fargo Plaza at 401 B St., One America Plaza at 600 W. Broadway and 501 W. Broadway. The company’s San Diego portfolio also includes 15 apartment communities.

In a statement posted last month by Ryan Lilyengren, Irvine Company’s VP of communications, the company said the sale of downtown office towers is part of a long-term strategic review.

“We are conducting a long-term strategic review that we anticipate will include the sale of certain downtown San Diego office properties and reinvestment in others,” Lilyengren said.

The statement indicated that Irvine Company will be a major player in a master-planned development in the University City neighborhood around UC San Diego, where a newly approved community plan envisions 30,000 additional residential units.

“We own and operate a number of Class A properties in this growing and economically vibrant area,” Lilyengren said in the statement. “Guided by the city’s vision and our experience creating world-class mixed-use districts, we are beginning our master planning to create quality housing connected to office campuses, retail, transit and open spaces.”

San Diego’s Downtown submarket registered an office vacancy rate of 25% and a total availability rate of 29.9% in Q3 2024, according to CBRE’s latest market report.