The California market Center, the massive 1.8 million square-foot retail property in Downtown Los Angeles, has new ownership. Under a new joint venture agreement, Jamison Properties has sold an interest in the asset to Brookfield. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Dr. Lee of Jamison Properties is an active buyer, seller and developer. His pulse on the market is very good which allows him to be comfortable selling off market transactions,” Kevin Shannon, the West Coast president of NKF, tells GlobeSt.com. “The joint venture agreement allowed Dr. Lee to take a significant amount of chips off the table while still participating in the evolution of what will be an amazing project transformation with a world-class operator as his partner.” Shannon put the joint venture agreement together with Executive Managing Director Ken White.

As Jamison looked for a capital partner, Brookfield, a major owner in the Downtown Los Angeles market, became an ideal fit. “Brookfield is one of a short list of potential players that could take on a massive value-add project of this scale,” explains Shannon. “The fact that CalMart was a complementary creative lifestyle product to their massive more traditional Class A vertical office portfolio was attractive to them. The project's fashion element was an added “cool factor” as well. Brookfield loves the momentum of Downtown Los Angeles and recognizes that the market is to improving and will continue to do so.”

Still, the deal took more than a year to put together from start to finish. “It was well over a year ago during a lunch at Drago's in Downtown Los Angeles with Dr. Lee and Scott Burrin from Jamison Properties, Michael Speer of Brookfield, and Ken White and me that conversation regarding California Market Center (CalMart) began,” adds Shannon. “It wasn't until the fifth lunch with the same five people every time over the course of that year that a deal was close to coming together. The valuation for the CalMart campus was the primary topic for the first two lunches and then over the course of the last few meetings, we focused on deal structure. We would review a one-page deal structure sheet at each lunch. The group really got along well, which was important for a joint venture agreement of this magnitude and complexity. It took an enormous amount of effort to complete.”

The Downtown Los Angeles market has been rapidly evolving over the last decade, and this deal speaks to the growth in the market. “Downtown Los Angeles still offers the safest CBD basis play late cycle of all the major coastal markets by far,” says Shannon. “Almost every month a new chapter is added to the strength and excitement of the Downtown Los Angeles story. The latest example is the opening of the landmark 73-story Wilshire Grand Center, now the tallest building west of the Mississippi.”