Douglas Emmett lands Westside office property.

Brentwood-based real estate operator/investment adviser Douglas Emmett & Co. has added another major Westside office property to its ever-growing portfolio with last week's acquisition of the 15-story Wilshire Brentwood Plaza at 12400 Wilshire Blvd.

Sources said the Douglas Emmett affiliate paid mortgage lender Chase Manhattan Bank more than $38.5 million, or just under $170 per square foot, for the foreclosed 229,000-square-foot property.

That represents a 35-plus percent drop from the $61.5 million mortgage loan Chase funded as property values were peaking in 1989 - clearly a reflection of the slide in "effective" Westside rental rates since the late-1980s real estate heyday.

The property is currently about 85 percent leased. Major tenants include King World Productions, the Italian Consulate General and Taslimi Construction Co., along with several law firms and other professional services operations.

A partnership headed by downtown L.A.-based Search Builders Inc. completed the project in 1985, then refinanced with Chase four years later. Search Builders is affiliated with Hong Kong-based Search International Ltd., a diverse international conglomerate of enterprises headed by Robert W. Miller. Miller is co-founder of the Duty Free Shoppers Group Ltd., the world's largest operator of duty-free shops in airports and downtown locations.

In the L.A. area, Search Builders also co-developed the 95,000-square-foot Courtyard office project at 1250 4th St. in Santa Monica, and bought and later sold the 140,000-square-foot office building at 4221 Wilshire in the Park Mile district.

Last spring, Chase filed suit in San Diego Superior Court seeking to foreclose on deeds of trust the bank held against Wilshire Brentwood Plaza, a San Diego area industrial development and a Los Altos office complex, all owned by Search affiliates.

Receiver appointed

Superior Court Judge J. Richard Hoden appointed the Koll real estate services firm's Stephen M. Willmore, subsequently replaced by Koll's Jim Ewing, as receiver to handle Wilshire Brentwood Plaza's finances. Koll affiliates have been managing and leasing all three properties, and Chase also engaged local Koll Brokerage Group executives to negotiate sales after the big New York bank formally took title Nov. 1.

The new owner's parent has been one of the L.A. area's most active office property investors over the last 30-some months.

The Douglas Emmett group, which has a strong lender-borrower relationship with Chase, has been purchasing properties - leasing and managing them as well - on behalf of investment management clients including Ivy League university endowments and other institutional investors.

Julien J. Studley Inc.'s Howard Sadowsky represented the buyer, while Koll Brokerage Group's Bob Caudill and Steve Morse headed up the seller-side team.

Among last year's purchases by Douglas Emmett-advised investment funds were: the 500,000-square-foot Nestle USA Inc. headquarters in Glendale; the 220,000-square-foot Executive Tower office building in West L.A.; the 106,500-square-foot Palisades Promenade office/retail complex in Santa Monica; the 90,000-square-foot CenFed Bank office building in Brentwood; and the 65,000-square-foot Camden Medical Building in Beverly Hills.