GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Astani Acquires $30M Site for 400 Downtown Condos

The Astani president tells GlobeSt.com that the development firm's $30-million purchase of the property from the Equitable Life Assurance Society is scheduled to close today and will provide the Beverly Hills firm with "an opportunity to develop a signature building" at one of Downtown's prime locations. "I've been chasing this property for years," says Astani, who describes the location as "probably the best development site in the whole central business district, within walking distance of the Staples Center and about three million sf of class A office space."

The property's location is what made it worth the nearly $300 per sf purchase price, one of the highest paid per sf in Downtown L.A. in the past 15 years, Astani points out. The site, which is now a parking lot, occupies the southeast corner of Figueroa and Ninth streets, diagonally across from the Pantry restaurant and a block from the Staples Center. "This location deserves a signature building," says Astani, who admires the work of architect Lorenzo Piano and says he plans to develop a project with a Piano-style design.

Besides the 400 condominiums in the two towers, the site is ideal for retail space because it includes about 1,000 feet of street frontage that lends itself to a number of different possibilities, he adds. "It could be anything from a high-volume restaurant to a drug store or a group of smaller retailers," Astani says, noting that "the corner is somewhat circular and is a perfect opportunity for multimedia signage." The property is composed of 11 parcels, some entitled for high-density residential and some for commercial. Astani's purchase of the site came in "a very quick closing, two weeks from beginning to end," he says. The transaction was brokered by Carl Muhlstein and Richard Plummer of the Downtown Los Angeles office of Cushman & Wakefield.

The Ninth and Figueroa project will become the latest in a series of development deals, investments and dispositions by Astani. The firm expects to break ground any day now on a 235-unit apartment project and 10,000 sf of retail space called the Verona at Wilshire Boulevard and Bixel Street in Downtown L.A, where the developer has been working on entitlements for 15 months. Astani tells GlobeSt.com that Subway has already signed as a tenant for the project, where 15% (40 units) of the apartments will be affordable housing without any government subsidies. In August, Astani sold the 628-unit Baywood Villa Apartments in Corona to Palo Alto-based Pacific Property Co. for $65.2 million, and earlier this year, Astani sold the 270-unit Riverwalk at Town Center apartment complex in Valencia to Chicago's Equity Residential REIT for approximately $48 million.