Entrepreneur Ziman buys more office properties: he snares buildings in Woodland Hills, Beverly Hills.

Beverly Hills-based real estate entrepreneur Dick Ziman has continued his "down-market" office property acquisitions with simultaneous Dec. 28 purchases of projects in Woodland Hills and Beverly Hills.

Using mortgage financing totaling nearly $40 million from Stamford, Conn.-based General Electric Capital Corp., a partnership affiliated with Ziman's Arden Investment Group bought the 225,000-square-foot Woodland Hills Financial Center and the 60,000-square-foot Beverly Atrium.

During the 1980s, Ziman and his partners in the investment/management operation known as Pacific Financial Group built up a local office property portfolio reportedly valued at near $1 billion before liquidating it just before values began sliding late in the decade.

Last March, Arden Investment Group signaled Ziman's return to the local office property investment game with the purchase of the 260,000-square-foot Century Park Center at 9911 Pico Blvd. near Century City for a reported $25 million. Arden Investment Group had also been identified as a leading bidder for the 108,000-square-foot 520 Broadway building in Santa Monica, which was eventually purchased by auctioneer Kennedy-Wilson Inc.

Through a partnership known as Beverly Ventura Associates, an investment team headed by Ziman and longtime associate Victor Coleman has now supplemented Arden Investment Group's upstart portfolio with the 1971-vintage Woodland Hills complex and the Atrium, which opened in 1989, Ziman noted. He didn't specify how much cash equity Beverly Ventura put into the simultaneous purchases, but noted that GE Capital provided only debt financing.

"The two purchases are being treated as a (single) transaction, but it's not a true cross-collateralization," Ziman said, suggesting that the debt doesn't constitute a single "blanket" mortgage on both properties.

The Woodland Hills property, at 21021/21031 Ventura Blvd. near DeSoto Ave., includes four- and 12-story black-glass towers visible from the Ventura (101) Freeway. The seller is a partnership affiliated with Chicago's JMB Realty Corp., which purchased the property in 1985 and completed a major renovation about five years later. Title records indicate Prudential Insurance Co. provided the partnership with a $16 million loan in December 1985.

Local office brokers noted that the complex's occupancy rate is about 85 percent, with major tenants including Presidential Mortgage Co., Pacific Thrift & Loan, First Interstate Bank and the Denison Bennett & Press law firm.

One broker noted the renovated property "shows well," but suggested the new owners will have to drop JMB's asking lease rates -- $1.90 to $2 "gross" per square foot monthly -- to compete with new highrises in nearby Warner Center.

Title records indicate GE Capital has provided Beverly Ventura with $23 million in debt financing associated with that property's purchase. Ziman noted that in both the Woodland Hills and Beverly Hills acquisitions, financing arrangements include "significant undisbursed dollars for future leasing commissions, tenant improvements, capital expenditures and other costs associated with ownership."

The Beverly Atrium, at 350 S. Beverly Dr. just north of Olympic Boulevard, was developed by a partnership affiliated with Beverly Hills-based Jovet Inc. at a reported cost of $15 million. The three-story building featuring a 45-foot-high atrium has maintained occupancy near 100 percent -- and remains there today.

Nevertheless, the partnership known as Beverly South #564-M defaulted on its $17 million GE Capital mortgage in late 1992, and an affiliate of the lender took title to the property last August after about eight months of control by a court-appointed receiver.

Major tenants in the building include Republic Pictures Corp., which is committed through 1995, and Unigem International, which recently renewed its lease for another five years at about $1.80 per square foot, according to a source familiar with the property. The Atrium also houses an Islands restaurant.

Title records indicate GE Capital provided Beverly Ventura Associates with a new mortgage on the Atrium of approximately $15.9 million.

Ziman said Arden Pacific Management will take over management of both properties, but noted that leasing responsibilities haven't been assigned. He also suggested other acquisitions are in the works.

"We are an astute buyer targeting properties where we feel our management expertise and oversight of leasing will create value," he said.