The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday authorised the county’s buy of the Fuel Firm Tower, one in every of downtown L.A.’s most outstanding skyscrapers, paving the best way for the switch of hundreds of employees and public companies out of the town’s civic heart.
With a 4-1 vote, the supervisors gave county officers the ultimate inexperienced mild to maneuver forward with shopping for the tower for $200 million.
The approval came to visit vehement objections from Supervisor Janice Hahn, who warned that the acquisition would sound the loss of life knell for downtown’s civic coronary heart and shunt the county’s workforce to a “souless” workplace tower on Bunker Hill.
“None of you listed here are going to persuade me that it is a good thought,” Hahn stated earlier than casting her vote in opposition to the acquisition with a “hell no.”
County staff are at present primarily based contained in the Kenneth Hahn Corridor of Administration, a 1960 constructing named after Hahn’s father, a longtime county supervisor.
The constructing is one in every of a number of county-owned properties thought-about weak to break down in a significant earthquake. Officers have estimated that it’ll price a whole lot of thousands and thousands to improve the buildings, making a brand new, presumably safer skyscraper an interesting different to some on the board.
“If we all know this constructing just isn’t seismically secure, then now we have an obligation and a accountability to take motion,” Supervisor Holly Mitchell stated from the room inside Hahn Corridor the place the board holds its weekly conferences.
County Chief Government Fesia Davenport, whose workplace spearheaded the sale, promised the acquisition “will save the county a whole lot of thousands and thousands of {dollars}” in contrast with the price of upgrading the Corridor of Administration and different county buildings.
No supervisors have toured the constructing themselves, in accordance with a county spokesperson, although a number of of their employees members have visited.
The 52-story tower at 555 W. fifth St. was extensively thought-about one of many metropolis’s most prestigious workplace buildings when it was accomplished in 1991. It has almost 1.5 million sq. ft of house on a 1.4-acre website on the base of Bunker Hill.
The value is a deep low cost from the constructing’s appraised worth of $632 million in 2020, underscoring how a lot downtown workplace values have fallen in recent times.
At $200 million, the county would get the Fuel Firm Tower for about $137 a sq. foot, a cut price by historic requirements. The county additionally agreed to pay as a lot as an extra $5 million in closing prices on the transaction.
“This chance is not going to final without end,” Davenport warned, including that the county might finance the acquisition partially from cash put aside for capital tasks.
Hahn stated the transaction was akin to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
“The cash getting used to pay for this buy is being stolen from the funds that had been meant to maintain this constructing alive,” she stated from Hahn Corridor.
Richard Keating, the architect who designed the Fuel Firm Tower to attraction to company America, stated it is sensible for a public entity to take possession now.
“We’re taking a look at a decline in want for normal workplace use, that means attorneys, architects and accountants are doing issues in another way” for the reason that pandemic, Keating stated. “Metropolis and county staff are nonetheless exhausting at work of their workplace areas, however they’re drained, outdated, generally decrepit and oftentimes not as much as code when it comes to earthquake” security necessities.
“It’s an ideal time to reap the benefits of a few of these roughly empty workplace buildings.”
Transferring a whole lot of county employees into the Fuel Firm Tower additionally stands to elevate outlets, eating places and different companies within the close by blocks by Pershing Sq., he stated. “I feel it’s a superb transfer all the best way round.”
Lately, the downtown workplace market has turned in opposition to landlords as many tenants lowered their workplace footprint in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it turned extra frequent for workers to work remotely.
Final yr, the proprietor of the Fuel Firm Tower, an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Administration, defaulted on its debt, and the property was put in receivership, by which a court-appointed consultant took custody of the constructing to assist collectors get better funds they lent to Brookfield. The constructing has about $465 million in excellent loans.
Different main tenants within the Fuel Firm Tower embody regulation agency Latham & Watkins and accounting agency Deloitte. The county will assume the tenant leases as landlord.
When the Fuel Firm Tower is formally owned by the county, it will likely be faraway from the tax rolls. The constructing’s property tax invoice final yr was greater than $7.1 million, in accordance with actual property information supplier CoStar.
Tenants would, nevertheless, be required to contribute to the tax rolls by an unspecified quantity via a “possessory curiosity tax” that may be levied on personal corporations leasing public buildings. Tenants in privately owned workplace buildings additionally generally pay a share of the owner’s property taxes.
The constructing is in good situation with “a remaining helpful life” of at least 35 years, in accordance with a latest property situation report ready for the present proprietor that was obtained by The Instances.
The report additionally stated the tower and the World Commerce Middle storage at 333 S. Flower St. included within the deal require about $1.3 million to deal with urgently wanted repairs and deferred upkeep. Extra long-term prices to keep up and modernize the properties had been estimated at about $48.7 million over 12 years. Projected prices embody roof repairs, refurbishing air-con programs and updating the elevators.
The county at present occupies about 16.5 million sq. ft of workplace house for 38 departments, which includes 6.9 million sq. ft of leased workplace house and 9.6 million sq. ft of owned workplace house, Davenport stated in a memo to the board recommending the acquisition of the Fuel Firm Tower.
The county spends about $195 million per yr on leased workplace house, and the property it owns “is in poor situation and outdated,” Davenport stated. Almost half of it’s greater than 50 years outdated.
By shifting employees from each leased workplace house and getting old buildings in poor situation, the county avoids paying hire and the “important” prices of seismic retrofits and different wanted renovations to outdated buildings similar to getting old air-con, plumbing and electrical programs, the chief government’s memo stated. Funds earmarked for seismic retrofits and different renovations of outdated buildings shall be included within the fee for the Fuel Firm Tower.
The county inspected the constructing and can purchase it “as-is,” Davenport stated. The Division of Public Works reviewed a seismic report for the tower and agreed with its findings. A county spokesperson stated the findings will stay confidential till the deal closes.
If the county elects to finish a seismic retrofit and different enhancements to the Fuel Firm Tower, it could notice a future return on its funding by promoting the constructing when the market recovers, Davenport stated.
Southern California Fuel Co. stated in September that it’s planning to maneuver from its longtime headquarters in its namesake tower, the place it has been a major tenant for the reason that constructing was accomplished, to a different skyscraper a block north at 350 S. Grand Ave.
The utility signed a long-term lease for almost 200,000 sq. ft on eight flooring within the Grand Avenue constructing on Bunker Hill typically often called Two California Plaza, its new landlord stated, and is predicted to maneuver by spring 2026 after constructing out the brand new workplaces. SoCalGas may even have an workplace on the bottom flooring to serve clients.
