Florida pension fund buys Century City North office tower.

A Florida state public employee pension fund has just completed the L.A. area's biggest real estate acquisition of the year - the $120 million purchase of the big Century City North office tower at 10100 Santa Monica Blvd.

The Florida fund, advised by an affiliate of Chicago real estate firm Heitman Financial Ltd., is said to have paid an affiliate of Aetna Life Insurance Co. about $200 per square foot for the 26-story, 605,000-square-foot tower that opened in 1972.

The building boasts a premier location along "little" Santa Monica between Avenue of the Stars and Century Park East. Its biggest tenant is Princess Cruises, which is considering a move to a custom-developed campus but still has several years remaining on its lease in Century City.

Last December, Heitman also helped a Florida public pension fund buy Beverly Hills' Wilshire Rodeo Plaza, the former West Coast headquarters of securities brokerage Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. The fund is said to have paid more than $81 million - well over $300 a foot - for the 260,000-square-foot office/retail property.

Heitman Executive Vice President Larry Krasner, who helped negotiate the purchase, declined to name Century City North's new owner.

However, the buyer's identity was well known in the real estate investment community, which watched eagerly as several major institutional investors bid up the property's price over the last several months.

The $120 million figure the pension fund is said to have paid illustrates the aggressive bidding now under way throughout the Westside.

Steve Pilch, managing director with Aetna Real Estate Investments, said the bidding for Century City North reflects the improving local economy - and made the timing right for a sale.

"L.A. was among the last to go through the recession and is among the last to come out ... and now there is a lot of East Coast money out here looking around," Pilch said.

"The marketplace is definitely on the upswing," agreed Krasner.

Krasner said the new owners will invest another $25 million into capital improvements including the full installation of fire sprinklers, completing asbestos abatement programs and renovations of the building's lobby and other common areas.

Century City North actually sold for substantially more than the mortgage balance the property had carried when its previous owner deeded it back to Aetna amid a foreclosure action 17 months ago.

Title records show that the previous owner, a partnership affiliated with big Chicago real estate operation JMB Realty Corp., had owed Aetna just under $109 million when it relinquished ownership in June of 1995.

The JMB partnership had acquired Century City North in 1985, with a $92 million Aetna mortgage loan financing the bulk of the purchase. Other mid-1980s acquisitions would bring JMB and affiliates control of about half the office space in Century City for several years.

The Century City North tower is about 90 percent leased, primarily to professional and entertainment firms. Aetna had engaged PM Realty Group to lease and manage the property, and to negotiate a sale as well.