$75 million mixed-use project slated for lincoln heights.

AMCAL Multi-Housing Inc., which completed two apartment projects in or ear downtown Los Angeles last year, bought the old Bassett Furniture Manufacturing plant in Lincoln Heights and will redevelop the 6.7-acre site into a $75 million mixed-use project that will include nearly 400 residential units.

AMCAL paid $7.3 million for the property at 306-360 W. Avenue 26, just east of the intersection of the Harbor (110) and Golden State (5) freeways. The property includes 190,000 square feet of buildings completed between 1919 and 1978.

The five buildings will be razed for a 121-unit affordable apartment complex and a 101-unit senior housing complex, as well as 165 condominiums and l0,000 square feet of retail, said Percy Vaz, president at Westlake Village-based AMCAL. The project is scheduled for completion in mid-2006.

Vaz said the market-rate condos would be sold from the high $100,000s to the high $200,000s.

As for the retail space, "We're thinking of a Kinko's-type retailer and a coffee shop," said Vaz, who added that property grading would begin later this month.

AMCAL finished work on the 101-unit Castellar Apartments on Cesar Chavez Avenue in Chinatown in October and completed a 49-unit complex at Figueroa and 78th streets in December.

Lee & Associates' Mike Smith and Jim Kinetz represented AMCAL while Lee's Matthew Artukovich and David Brandt represented the seller, E.B. Malone Co.

Going Poslal

The U.S. Postal Service is buying the two acre site at the northeast corner of Olympic Boulevard and Seventh Street in Santa Monica where it will build an annex facility to serve the southern part of the city.

Between land and construction costs, the Postal Service will spend $35.2 million on the project, at 711 Olympic Blvd., razing an existing building on the site and replacing it with a 32,000-square-foot one.

The Postal Service will be consolidating operations from its Colorado Main Facility, at Colorado Avenue and 10th Street, and a smaller annex across the street. Larry Dozier, a spokesman for the service, said its leases for both sites are up in 2006.

"We're overcrowded (at the Colorado Avenue facilities) so we must find another place," said Dozier. "This will give us room for postal vehicles and employees as well as room for expansion."

The Olympic Boulevard project is scheduled for completion at the end of next year.

Road Trip

A partnership of Macerich Co. and an affiliate of Walton Street Capital LLC has purchased the 1 million-square-foot Inland Center Mall in San Bernardino.

The retail center, just east of the Barstow (215) Freeway, is 82 percent occupied and anchored by Robinsons-May, Macy's, Sears and Harris Gottschalks. Built in 1966, expanded in 1998 and renovated four years ago, Inland Center Mall generates more than $430 a square foot in annual sales.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

It is the third major Southern California deal in 16 months for Chicago-based Walton Street Capital. In October 2002, it bought the 646,000-square-foot Union Bank Plaza in downtown Los Angeles for $110 million, and last June it paid $49 million for the 436-room Sheraton Universal Hotel.

Macerich owns nearly 60 million square feet of retail space nationwide, including Santa Monica Place and Westside Pavilion.

"This is a quality regional mall in Southern California, where we're strongest," said Randy Brant, senior vice president at Macerich, who said the partnership was a 50/50 venture. The mall is Macerich's first in San Bernardino County. Walton Street officials did not return calls.

CB Richard Ellis' Lawrence Krasner, William Palmer and David Doupe represented LaSalle Investment Management, advisor to seller Mind Management Co. Inc. The buyers were represented internally.

Hollywood Roll

Sunset + Vine co-developer Bond Cos. bought the 1-acre property at 5555 Hollywood Blvd. for $5.2 million, continuing the Santa Monica-based developer's investment in Hollywood and foreshadowing continued development in the area near Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue.

Bond paid about $111 a square foot for four parcels at the northwest corner of Hollywood and Garfield Place, according to John Tronson, principal with Ramsey-Shilling Commercial Real Estate Services, who represented both Bond and the sellers, Gafra Partnership and Hollywood 5555 Partnership.

The site, which once housed an apartment building that was red-tagged and demolished after the 1994 Northridge quake, consists of a small commercial building and a handful of residences.

Bond Cos. Chairman Larry Bond, who could not be reached late last week, formed the entity Bond 5555 Hollywood LLC in December, according to state records.

Still, the developer's purchase hints at more investment in the area. In October, Shooshani Developers LLC paid $30.5 million for the recently completed 121,000-square-foot retail component of Hollywest Promenade, at the northeast corner of Hollywood and Western. Meanwhile, cater-corner, American Housing Construction Inc. is planning a $30 million to $40 million mixed-use project for the 74-year-old Louis B. Mayer building and three adjoining properties.

The project would be Bond's third in Hollywood. With Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund, it is putting the finishing touches on the $125 million Sunset + Vine mixed-use project. That partnership is also developing the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and St. Andrews Place, three blocks south of the Garfield site, into a 29,000-square-foot retail building.

Staff reporter Danny King can be reached at [phone] ext. 230, or at [e-mail].

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