Top floors of Downtown's Aon Center set to go condo.

THE owners of the Aon Center, the second tallest skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, are looking to convert 10 upper floors of the 62-story building into condominiums, according to sources close to the deal.

Broadway Real Estate Partners LLP has hired CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.'s Todd Doney and Mark O'Brien to market floors 51 through 60 of the tower at 707 Wilshire Blvd.

The New York-based real estate investment group paid $192 million for the entire building eight months ago and is now seeking $50 million, or about $260 a foot, for the 10 floors, the sources said. That would be a nice deal for Broadway Partners, which paid about $160 a foot for the space.

The Aon Center was the building formerly known as First Interstate Tower. It was the site of a 1988 blaze that was L.A.'s worst skyscraper fire.

Calls seeking comment from Doney, O'Brien and Broadway Partners' Scott Sorensen weren't returned.

Already, the sources said Broadway Partners has spoken to a number of interested parties, and the firm has a letter of intent close to those terms with a partnership of L.A. developer Kor Group Inc. and real estate private equity firm Lubert-Adler Management Inc. The partnership's letter of intent would give it the option of buying up to nine additional floors.

Tyson Sayles, Kor Group's senior vice president of acquisitions, declined to comment on the existence of a letter of intent with Broadway Partners. However, he said the firm likes the idea of building condos at the Aon Center.

"There's no transaction in place." Sayles said. "But it's definitely an opportunity that we would be interested in."

In recent years the Kor Group has begun converting several older office buildings, including the Eastern Columbia building in downtown L.A. and the Broadway building in Hollywood, into condominiums.

The sources said a deal is dependent upon a number of contingencies, including renegotiating a lease with insurance giant Aon Corp. and getting government approvals for a subdivision and a tract map.

However, one of those contingencies is close to being resolved. Broadway Partners is close to finalizing a lease with Aon that would allow the company to consolidate its space on lower floors.

Aon's lease is close to expiring and the company has been searching for 160,000 square feet--down from the roughly 200,000 square feet it currently leases.

So even if the condo deal with Kor Group fails to materialize, Aon would be secured on the lower floors. That would leave the higher-rent, top floors available for lease.

Staff reporter Andy Fixmer can be reached by phone at [phone], ext. 263. or by e-mail at [e-mail].