Trophies continue to chum as 1000 Wilshire hits market.

THE downtown sell-off continues.

Sumitomo Life Realty Inc. has hired Cushman & Wakefield Inc. to find a buyer for 1000 Wilshire. Marketing of the property is expected to begin this week, and sources say Sumitomo wants a buyer to close on the property by the end of the year.

"The seller is selling because they believe that the timing is excellent to take advantage of the extraordinary institutional demand for trophy quality real estate," said David Hasbrouck, who has the listing along with Richard Plummer and Anthony Gatti.

Sumitomo bought the 471,000-square-foot building at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and the Harbor (110) Freeway in December 1999 for $73 million, according to records at the Los Angeles County Assessor's office.

Leases with law firm Buchalter Nemer Fields & Younger, which inked earlier this year for 70,000 square feet in a 10-year, $20 million deal, and Wedbush Morgan Securities, which signed on for 113,000 square feet in a 10-year, $26 million building-top signage lease in 2001, may have helped boost the value.

The building, now 83 percent occupied, could fetch close to $100 million, sources said. While declining to comment on the price, Hasbrouck said there was room for a new owner to improve the building.

"There is upside potential in this building," he said. "This is a building that will attract value-added buyers who will then be able to lease up the remaining space."

Hasbrouck said rents downtown had been increasing at a tar slower rate than in other Los Angeles County submarkets, reducing the chances for a big tall if the market soured.

"In many of the other markets rents went up quickly, exposing them to a possible bubble," he said. "Downtown has been slow and consistent growth, and rents are still well below the levels that they were at the height of the market in the 1980s."

The decision to put 1000 Wilshire on the market comes after several other downtown office properties have gone on the block.

Northridge Capital has hired Secured Capital Corp. to market the twin-tower Figueroa Plaza, Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund LP has hired CB Richard Ellis Inc. to find a buyer for its 32-story Transamerica tower and Secured Capital, along with Kennedy Wilson Inc., has been hired by Cargill Inc. to find a buyer for the downtown Hyatt hotel.

"On the one hand," Hasbrouck said, "sellers are looking to take advantage of improving market conditions in downtown. At the same time, buyers want to capitalize on the opportunity to acquire trophy-class office buildings at below replacement-cost prices."

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