Real estate firm goes on buying, development spree.

During the last two weeks, partnerships headed by El Segundo-based "contrarian" real estate investment firm Highridge Partners have acquired two local office complexes and garnered approvals to develop what would be the biggest multiplex movie house in the Western U.S.

The firm headed by veteran real estate builder/investor John S. Long is noted for picking up promising projects at cut-rate prices during "down-market" periods.

On March 31, Highridge affiliates bought the Whittier Financial Center, which includes one four-story and one five-story office building with a combined 132,500 square feet of space, a "stand-alone" Marie Callender's restaurant, a "stand-alone" Great Western Bank branch and a 760-stall parking structure. The property was acquired through a seller-financed transaction from an affiliate of Glendale Federal Bank.

Also on March 31, another Highridge affiliate partnership acquired the vacant 12- and eight-story Todd Towers buildings, totaling more than 225,000 square feet of office space, along with an 800-space parking structure, on Sepulveda Boulevard in El Segundo. The partnership had previously purchased mortgages on the towers from Great Western Bank, then took title to the properties from Prudential Insurance Co. of America by foreclosing on trust deeds underlying those notes.

Then on April 5, Norwalk's City Council unanimously approved the "disposition and development agreement" through which a Highridge affiliate plans to develop a 24-screen AMC Theatres facility, adjacent 22,000-square-foot retail/restaurant complex and a 40,000-square-foot State of California office building on about 10 acres within Norwalk's Civic Center redevelopment district. The centerpiece of the planned $23 million Norwalk Entertainment Center project is the multiplex theater facility -- believed to feature more movie screens than any other multiplex west of Kansas City, where AMC Entertainment Inc. is headquartered.

Long, Highridge's managing partner and chairman, is the driving force behind the increasingly active firm, which was known as LAMCO (for Long Asset Management Co.) until about a year ago. Long left big Westwood-based homebuilder Kaufman & Broad Inc. to establish LAMCO in 1978 with former Kaufman & Broad President and Chief Financial Officer Gene Rosenfeld, who also holds the managing partner title with Highridge.

Highridge's California operating subsidiary, LAMWEST, has been scouring the L.A. vicinity in search of acquisitions offering substantial "value enhancement" opportunities, Long noted. Highridge's equity investors include "silent" offshore players, Wall Street firms, corporate pension funds and credit companies, he explained.

LAMWEST President David J. Gaulton noted that Whittier Financial Center's two office buildings, at 15111 and 15141 Whittier Blvd., are approximately 80 percent leased. Neither he nor Long would reveal the price the Highridge partnership paid for the Lusk Co.-developed property, the first phase of which opened in 1967.

Title records show that GlenFed financed the deal with new mortgages totaling about $8.6 million. Records also show that GlenFed had taken title to the property in May 1993 in lieu of about $14.8 million in debt tied to Whittier Financial Center and other Lusk-controlled assets.

Long and Gaulton also declined to specify what the Highridge affiliate paid for the Great Western notes secured by the El Segundo property at 888 and 898 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Title records show that the balance of unpaid debt and costs associated with the foreclosure sale totaled more than $4.1 million. Gaulton confirmed that the 12-story 888 tower requires asbestos abatement and fire sprinklers, while the eight-story 898 building has sprinklers and contains no asbestos.

Gaulton noted that the office space has been entirely vacant since a Hughes Aircraft Co. unit left the facility about two years ago. He added that the new owner will endeavor to secure a big anchor tenant and then negotiate with smaller firms for the balance of the space.

Construction on the Norwalk Entertainment Center complex, slated for Norwalk Redevelopment Agency property just off the I-5 (Santa Ana) Freeway along Norwalk Boulevard, should get under way early this summer, Long predicted. The Highridge development partnership plans to develop the cinema and retail/restaurant segments through long-term ground leases with the agency, and also build the office building that the state is expected to eventually own, noted City Manager Richard Powers.

AMC, which will operate the cinema, released a statement last week quoting Gregory Rutowski, vice president of west operations for AMC Theatres, saying the company is "pleased to be working with the City of Norwalk and Highridge Partners" on the 24-screen complex.

Just three blocks away from the Norwalk Entertainment Center site, construction commenced last week on a $13 million transportation center planned as "a major point of entry" to Los Angeles County for Metro Link and Amtrak riders traveling from Orange County, Powers continued. He added that the center is also expected to eventually serve the Metro Rail Green Line, which is planned to run directly west to LAX.

Long noted that Highridge, even after all its recent investments, still has an investment war chest of available cash that exceeds $50 million. Armed with that war chest, the company will continue to aggressively pursue acquisitions of retail, office and industrial properties "all over California," Long said.

Hence, further local acquisitions are soon to follow, he added, noting that his firm's residential development affiliate has two projects under way in southern Orange County.