EL SEGUNDO, CA—Tishman Speyer has purchased a 260,000-square-foot, single-story property in El Segundo, CA, with plans to renovate the building into a creative office space. The name of the seller and the transaction details were not disclosed, however sources unrelated to the deal tell GlobeSt.com that private investor Larry Worchell sold the property to Tishman for $45 million.

Located at 555 Aviation Blvd. in the South Bay, the single-story and low-rise property is a rare find and perfect for a creative office conversion. “Physically the property is very unique,” Mark Laderman, regional managing director at Tishman Speyer, tells GlobeSt.com. “It is a single-story, 260,000-square-foot building with abnormally large ceiling heights, so it is essentially one big box with a lot of volume. That provides us the opportunity to basically carve up the building in different ways and do different things to it that I think will ultimately be very appealing to creative types of users. The ability to have that much square footage on a single floor is very uncommon. Traditionally office buildings are multistory, but the type of tenant that we are going after loves the low-rise, single-story, high-volume space. Those types of tenants crave that space, and it is very unique in Los Angeles to get that type of square footage under one story.”

The multi-million-dollar renovation will include the addition of skylights, mezzanine space and cut out portions of the property to add amenities, like a fitness center, café and bicycle storage. These are the types of spaces that have come in high demand in the South Bay recently, especially in El Segundo. “Historically, we have seen creative tenants gravitate toward Santa Monica and the Silicon Beach locations, but I think over the past year or two, you are starting to see a burgeoning creative office market in El Segundo and the South Bay in general,” Laderman explains. “There are a lot of reasons that is happening, one of them is the nearby housing and amenities that are being built in the South Bay beach cities. We are very excited about the submarket.”

Because El Segundo has become a popular stomping ground for creative office development, it can tend to be fairly competitive. However, Tishman avoided the aggressive bidding rounds by getting to the property before it came to market. “Fortunately, we avoided that marketing process, which in our minds was pretty beneficial because it avoided a competitive process,” says Laderman. “We feel really good about the acquisition.”

The property is currently fully leased by an industrial user, who will vacate the property once its lease expires. Construction on the renovation will likely begin in 2017.