Washington, DC-based CarrAmerica was attracted to the property because the 21-story tower is situated in one of the most prestigious business locations in West Los Angeles, is in a location with high barriers to entry, and is occupied by a roster of quality tenants including national law firms, New York-based investment banks, and entertainment firms, according to Malcolm O'Donnell, the REIT's managing director for Southern California. Beacon Capital's SVP in the West, Jeremy Fletcher, called Century City historically one of the best performing submarkets in the Westside and Los Angeles. The building is next door to the 140-store Century City Shopping Center, one of the most popular retail destinations on the Westside of Los Angeles, and is a short walk from the Century Plaza Hotel, the St. Regis, and the Park Hyatt.

The transaction, in which CarrAmerica obtains a 35% ownership position in the project, also provides that an affiliate of the REIT will provide property management services for the building. The joint venture with Boston-based Beacon follows an earlier deal in which Beacon and CarrAmerica in June purchased the 774,240-sf, 35-story 10 Universal City Plaza building in Universal City, in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, for $190 million. The purchase also adds to a growing Beacon portfolio in Southern California, where the Boston-based investment firm last month bought the 48-story, 900,000-sf Citibank Center in Downtown Los Angeles for approximately of $170 million. Beacon's other holdings here include the 55-story BP Plaza office tower at 333 S. Hope St. in Downtown Los Angeles, which it bought in 2002 from Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. of New York for $270 million.