Long Beach deal.

Ensemble Investments LLC, a Phoenix-based real estate firm, has purchased two office buildings on downtown Long Beach's Pine Avenue, increasing its presence there.

The firm has purchased the City Centre building at 200 Pine Ave. and the L'Opera building at 115 Pine Ave. from seller Blue Real Estate in a deal that closed in early May. In total, the sale of the two buildings is valued at about $21 million.

Ensemble, a real estate development, investment and management firm, owns other buildings in downtown Long Beach, including the Coast Long Beach Hotel and an office building at 110 Pine Ave. for a total of 450,000 square feet.

The company has been investing in Long Beach for about a decade and purchased the two office buildings because of the potential for rent growth, according to Kam Babaoff, managing director of Ensemble.

"We like that it is downtown by the beach," Babaoff said. "It has been revitalized with quite a bit of retail coming in, and there is a lot of new residential. It is going to become a 24/7 downtown. It is a good place to live and work."

The 200 Pine Ave. building is a six-story Class B office property with about 69,500 square feet of space. The other building at 115 Pine Ave. is a 1906 office property with about 69,000 square feet of space. The six-story Class A property features a well-known bell tower and is on local and national historic registries.

Class A Long Beach tents are in the $1.50 to $1.70 per foot per month range and 115 Pine Ave. currently has rental rates on the low end of that spectrum, said Bob Safai of Madison Partners, who represented both sides of the deal.

"It's an opportunity to find value in a market that really is hard to find value in--not only from a price per square foot standpoint but also in terms of appreciation for rent," Safai said.

Blue Real Estate did not return calls seeking comment.

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