801 TOWER FETCHES OVER $60 MILLION : INDONESIAN INVESTMENT GROUP BUYS SKYSCRAPER.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer

In the first major commercial real estate deal for downtown Los Angeles since 1990, the Japanese developer of a prime office tower sold the property Friday for almost $61 million, about half of what it cost to build.

The new owner of 801 Tower, a stylish 24-story high rise at 801 S. Figueroa in the city's financial district, is an Indonesian investment group that has numerous manufacturing facilities and investments in the United States, said William J. McMorrow, chairman of Santa Monica-based Kennedy-Wilson International Inc., a property marketing firm that negotiated the sale.

He declined to identify the owner, saying only that the building sold for ``more than $60 million'' in a sealed bid auction.

``It was obviously a substantial discount from what it cost to build,'' he said.

A source familiar with the sale said that the property fetched close to $61 million for the builder, R&T Development, a joint venture between Ryoshin Fudosan Co. Ltd. and Takenaka Corp. It cost R&T about $120 million to build the distinctive office tower in 1991, the source said. 801 Tower is the downtown area's newest high-rise and 85 percent of the space is leased, he said.

Despite the 50 percent discount, the tower's price was still higher than some industry experts had predicted.

``I thought it might go for a cheaper price,'' said Paul Garrity, a commercial real estate consultant at KPMG Peat Marwick. ``Maybe the (office) leases justify the added premium.''

The building has about 435,000 square feet of rentable space and high technology features like a thermal energy storage system that produces coolant during off-peak hours for peak daytime usage. The underground parking garage has electric car-charging stalls.

The downtown office market suffered a heavy blow during the recession and subsequent restructuring of the region's economy. Office vacancy rates soared past 26 percent at the end of 1994 as companies downsized or, like Security Pacific Bank, disappeared in mergers.

Downtown's office vacancy rate now stands at 22.5 percent.

Industry officials are worrying about the impact the acquisition of First Interstate Bancorp by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. will have on the market.

Wells Fargo will have a headquarters office in Los Angeles but the company has not said which building it will retain. A First Interstate executive has predicted that his bank's offices, which dominate the downtown skyline, will be vacated.

Thousands of workers at both banks will begin losing their jobs Monday.

But some brokers see some positive signs downtown.

The leasing agent for 801 Tower, John Eichler at Cushman & Wakefield of California Inc., said the selling price works out to about $140 a square foot, which indicates there is demand for prime office space.

``The downtown market is a lot stronger than many people anticipated in spite of all you hear about the the First Interstate merger,'' he said.

And John Karevoll, an analyst at Dataquick Information Services, a real estate research firm, said the price for 801 Tower was reasonable given the market, which is starting to recover.

``The trend is the same we've seen everywhere else. It's just four to six months behind the curve,'' Karevoll said of downtown. ``As far as vacancy rates go it's better than it was two years ago. But it's certainly not Irvine.''

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Photo

Photo: (color) The 801 Tower is a 24-story high-rise in the city's financial district.

David Sprague/Daily News