Porcelain-figurine maker Lladro acquires Beverly Hills retail center.

A real estate company affiliated with the famed Spanish porcelain-figurine maker, Lladro S.A., has purchased the Rodeo Drive retail center formerly housing Beverly Hills' chic Torie Steele boutique collection.

The property at 408-414 N. Rodeo, near Brighton Way, was purchased by Lladro Realty Inc. for about $14.8 million -- well below the property's 1989 price of more than $22 million. It includes a 10,000-square-foot shop with a 3,800-square-foot mezzanine on an approximately 15,000-square-foot site.

Lladro plans to occupy a portion of the facility and continues to formulate plans for the balance, noted Gil Dembo, principal in his namesake Beverly Hills commercial real estate brokerage. Dembo added that the few shops now in the building -- Torie Steele has been gone for years now -- are all on month-to-month leases.

Dembo worked closely with Dan Blatteis, principal in the Westside brokerage bearing his name, in helping Lladro negotiate the purchase. Michael Zietsman and Tom Miller of the local office of international brokerage/consulting firm Jones Lang Wootton also helped represent the buyer, as well as the seller. Miller will handle leasing responsibilities for Lladro.

The seller is North Rodeo Drive Power Investment Inc., a corporation affiliated with Dublin, Ireland-based developer/investor Robin Power.

Power Corp. plc's U.S. affiliates went on a high-profile acquisition spree in the late 1980s, investing in landmark properties such as the New York building housing Polo Ralph Lauren's flagship store, the San Francisco Centre "vertical mall," Beverly Hills' ritzy Two Rodeo development, and even the Ambassador Hotel site in L.A.'s Mid-Wilshire district, through an investment group including Donald Trump.

Under the direction of Power's top U.S. operative, M. Finbar Hill, the developer had planned to redevelop the Torie Steele boutique into a "split-level" retail center. But the plans fizzled as recession hit Beverly Hills retailers with the new decade.

Sources noted that Westside developer Avi Lerner bought the property for about $6 million in the early 1980s, leased the project to boutiques operator Torie Steele -- who brought in the likes of Valentino and Soprani shops -- and sold the property to a European pension fund for about $11 million in 1985. The Power group, financed by a loan from Japan-based Yasuda Trust & Banking Co., acquired the property in 1989, reportedly for more than $22 million.

Nearly five years later, Power engaged Jones Lang Wootton (USA) -- the American arm of the big U.K.-based international property firm -- to generate as many serious bids as possible during a three-week period ending in mid-March. The Power group accepted Lladro's bid, and the deal closed in mid-July.

The seller apparently had the blessing of Yasuda. The selling price is thought to be well below the balance of the bank's loan, but no loan default had been recorded on public records.