Shuwa wraps up its year-long retreat from downtown.

CONTINUING the churn in downtown real estate, Shuwa Investments Corp. may be nearing the end of its 20-year run as a downtown property owner.

Shuwa has transferred ownership to its 132,000-square-foot building at 800 S. Figueroa St. to 800 Figueroa Corp. for $10 million, according to a source close to the deal. In 1986, Shuwa paid a reported $35 million for the 22-year-old building at the southeast corner of Eight and Figueroa streets, one of many it picked up as part of its downtown buying spree in the late '80s. It was not clear whether Shuwa retained a stake in the building as part of the transfer.

The sale is Shuwa's fourth downtown since the beginning of the year, when it sold Arco Plaza for $255 million to Kings Capital LLC (which flipped the property to Thomas Properties Group LLC for $270 million). Since then, it has sold both Chase Plaza at 801 S. Grand Ave. and 655 S. Hope St.--both to CIM Group Inc.--for about $43 million and about $7 million, respectively.

Representatives of 800 Figueroa Corp. and Shuwa officials did not return calls.

Also feeding the ongoing downtown sales frenzy is the recent sale of 811 Wilshire and the upcoming sale of Pacific Center at 523 W. Sixth St., both owned by entities controlled by investor William Chang.

Holualoa Cos. is paying $36 million for Pacific Center and Dr. David Lee's Jamison Properties Inc. bought 811 Wilshire for $26.5 million.

Cushman & Wakefield Inc.'s John Eichler, David Hasbrouck and Richard Plummer represented 811 Wilshire seller L.A. Wilshire Corp. while Eichler and Plummer represented Pacific Center seller L.A. Pacific Center Inc.

Learning Curve

Antioch University has signed a 43,000-square foot lease at 400 Corporate Pointe, taking about half the space Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business & Management will vacate at the end of the year.

No financial figures were disclosed, though at the $2.33 a foot asking rate for Class-A space in Culver City, the 10-year deal would be worth about $12 million.

Graziadio will be relocating to 112,000 square feet at 6100 Center Drive in the nearby Howard Hughes Center, opening the space at Corporate Pointe, near Slauson Avenue and the east end of the Marina (90) Freeway in Culver City, for Antioch, which is moving from Marina del Rey.

"It's a great move because (Antioch) will use the classrooms from Pepperdine," said Patti Gilbert, senior leasing manager at Arden Realty Inc., which owns both 400 Corporate Pointe and 6100 Center Drive.

Gilbert and Arden's Scott Chalmers and Michael Pollack represented the landlord on the deal. Travers/Oncor International's Linda Eng and Howard Feuerstein represented Antioch.

End of the Line?

The city of Santa Monica wants to buy the two-acre parcel at the southeast corner of Colorado Avenue and Fourth Street from Sears Roebuck and Co. as a potential mixed-use or transit-related site.

The city first approached Sears about the Santa Monica (10) Freeway-adjacent site about three months ago, according to Mark Richter, manager with Santa Monica's economic development department.

Sears, however, is balking.

"We have no plans to sell that property," said company spokeswoman Cheryl Ann Lambert. "We have every intention of staying to serve our customer base."

The property has been used by Sears as an auto repair site since 1953 and is across the street from its department store, which opened in 1947.

"They expressed their willingness to discuss the sale of the site a couple of months ago, but we're still waiting for a response," said Richter. "It would very likely be a mixed use project, though a primary purpose would be parking,"

The city sees the site as a potential terminus for a proposed light rail line running along Exposition Boulevard from downtown L.A., according to Santa Monica City Councilman Michael Feinstein. Plans for that project took a hit last year when the $156 million federal commitment to the line's first phase between downtown and Culver City was rescinded.

The city did not name a price on the site, according to Richter, though with the city buying Rand Corp.'s 11.3-acre headquarters campus nearby for $53 million three years ago, the property could be worth as much as $11 million.

More Mixed-Use

At the southern end of Santa Monica, Palisades Development Group will break ground next month on a mixed-use project at Main and Marine streets after a 21-month entitlement process.

The developer, whose Santa Monica projects include the Tides mixed-use project at Fourth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard and the 12th Street Lofts, is building 19 loft-style condominiums--with asking prices ranging from $650,000 to $2 million--and two apartments above 9,000 square feet of ground floor retail.

The $15 million project, dubbed the Sailhouse Loft Building, is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2005, according to Avi Brosh, managing principal of Palisades Development.

Palisades bought the long-vacant half-acre lot in March 2002 for $3.7 million.

Urban Goes Suburban

With projects in downtown Los Angeles, San Pedro and downtown Long Beach in the works, Urban Pacific Builders LLC is eying Signal Hill for its next project.

The developer is in escrow to buy a three-acre site near the southeastern border of Signal Hill, with plans to build 111 townhouses and attached homes. As part of the development, the city of Signal Hill has agreed to vacate about 100 feet of Orizaba Avenue south of 19th Street, according to Scott Choppin, managing partner of Long Beach-based Urban Pacific.

A group of industrial buildings are on the site, part of which had been the longtime home of Beach City Chevrolet.

"It's a fairly underutilized and quasi-blighted mix of properties, so there are some adjacent single family neighbors happy to see us come along," said Choppin, who would not disclose the purchase price of the land but estimated the total project cost at about $40 million.

The project is the first foray into Signal Hill for Urban Pacific, which is in escrow to buy downtown Los Angeles' Brockman Building and co-developed an apartment complex at the CityPlace project in downtown Long Beach.

Staff reporter Danny King can be reached at [phone] ext. 230, or at [e-mail].