Freeway-adjacent.

With rental rates on the rise and vacancies down in most submarkets across Los Angeles, brokers say that more and more users are looking to buy office properties.

This was the case in the sale of the two-story office building at 1631 Pontius Ave., just off of Santa Monica Boulevard near the San Diego (405) Freeway.

The 8,052-square-foot building was purchased on Aug. 29 by an unnamed local advertising and marketing company that operated under the Skycannic Ventures LLC.

The seller was Kaiser Family Trust, the entity of a Malibu family that used the building for its company, Kaiser Marketing. Constructed in 1972, the building sits on just about a fifth of an acre.

At $5.03 million, the sale breaks down to a whopping $625 per square foot. But that was not a problem for the buyers, said T.C. Macker of Coldwell Banker Commercial Westmac.

"With rents being so high on the Westside there is an active user market," said Macker, who represented the seller. "At a certain point it makes sense to own rather than lease."

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Macker said that owner-users like the buyer in this deal are often willing to pay 10 percent more than what a typical owner-investor would pony up.

"That's the case here," said Macker, who added that there were multiple offers on the property, which went into escrow with the buyer a week after it hit the market.

Craig Miller and Jeff Lipson of StoneMiller represented the unnamed buyer in the Pontius deal. Timothy C. Macker, T.C.'s lather, also represented the Kaiser Family Trust.

Staff reporter Daniel Miller can be reached at [e-mail] or [phone], ext. 263.