CIM Group tries again to sell office-condo project in LA’s Hancock Park

CIM Group, the Los Angeles-based developer and landlord, is once again seeking to sell its eight-story condominium and office project in Hancock Park.

Located at 4680 Wilshire Boulevard, the project is fully entitled to convert some floors to residential. It’s currently a 184,800-square-foot office building. 

Sean Fulp, Ryan Plummer and Mark Tarczynski at Colliers hold the listing for the project, which does not include an asking price.

“The mixed-use residential and office building will be delivered with fully approved redevelopment plans, allowing an investor to bypass the arduous entitlement process with the city and capitalize on the substantial residential demand in the market,” according to the LoopNet listing.

The residential component will include 65 units over 127,000 square feet, and a rooftop pool deck. The office portion would span 58,300 square feet. A representative for CIM said the property has not sold yet, but did not comment further. 

The seller has kept the office portion due to zoning.

“They would have gone 100 percent residential if they could have, but they were pushing a lot of projects through in the area and there weren’t remedies available to them,” said Plummer, the listing broker, noting that a zoning line required them to keep approximately 50,000 square feet of office space.

“They could be condos because they’re larger, they could be for for-rent projects, it actually works both ways. The average unit size is over 2,000 square feet,” Plummer noted. “These condos should trade somewhere between $800 and $1,000-plus per square foot, depending on location in the building.”

The location offers proximity to Wilshire Country Club, The Grove and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

Back in 2015, CIM filed plans for an 87-unit mixed-used project, TRD reported. Those plans were scrapped. CIM, headquartered in the same complex at 4700 Wilshire Boulevard, put 4680 Wilshire on the market in 2017 for $52 million.

The combination of condos and offices on the 2.1-acre site would attract a buyer interested in both product types. Other luxe condo developments in Los Angeles have faced sales headwinds. 

And while office vacancy remains high in L.A., the listing cites the flight-to-quality trend as a potential benefit for a new building in the market.

“An investor has the opportunity to undertake a residential condominium redevelopment without entitlement risk that would garner considerable residential demand and renewed interest for the rejuvenated office space,” according to the LoopNet listing.

Many investors and brokers believe that L.A.’s office market has reached its bottom, but a lot of uncertainty remains when it comes to the type of buyers as well as prospective tenants.  

Earlier this year, CIM sold 888 at Grand Hope Park, a 34-story luxury residential tower in Downtown Los Angeles, for $186 million, according to a TRD report.