Northridge bought the property from a venture of Goldman Sachs and Insignia's Co-Investment Group called W/9 Fig Realty that had owned it since 1997.

The property consists of twin 16-story office towers at 201 and 221 N. Figueroa St. that were completed in 1986 and 1991, respectively, and are 99% leased.

Insignia/ESG's David Doupe, who led a team from Insignia/ESG Capital Advisors Group that represented the seller, tells GlobeSt.com that the transaction indicates the increasing investor interest in Downtown Los Angeles office buildings after a period in which relatively few buildings traded there. Institutional investors, especially, shied away from Downtown properties, but a few of them have come back to Downtown, along with more entrepreneurial buyers who have closed a number of deals in recent years.

Institutional investor interest is still not what it once was, Doupe tells GlobeSt.com, but he believes that could change because of developments under way or planned. "Once there is more housing in the market, you'll see more institutional investors," he said. Besides Doupe, others on the Insignia team included Lawrence H. Krasner and Brian Corrigan. Corrigan arranged the first mortgage financing for the Northridge, which invests funds on behalf of offshore investors.

Major tenants at Figueroa Plaza include the City of Los Angeles, the law firm of Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard and Smith, the County of Los Angeles, and the California Employment Development Department.

The towers feature an exterior clad in polished red granite with tinted glazing, and are connected by a single-story atrium lobby. The development features on-site restaurants and a sundries shop, with parking provided at a ratio of two spaces per 1,000 sf, relatively high for downtown Los Angeles. By comparison, most high-rise buildings in the Downtown CBD offer parking at one space per 1,000 sf or lower.

Northridge Capital Inc. is an asset owner and manager whose investments include commercial real estate in the United States and United Kingdom, portfolios of publicly traded and private equity securities, and direct private equity investments. Its U.S. commercial real estate portfolio is divided roughly equally between stabilized income-producing assets and partnership interests in development projects. The company has focused lately on urban markets with strong economic fundamentals and favorable competitive conditions.