It may be an opportune time to sell a downtown skyscraper, Bohlinger said. and law firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, which recently agreed to expand its headquarters there. Tenants include US Bank, insurance company Marsh & McLennan Cos. The building has three restaurants, including 71Above on the 71st floor, and will soon be 85% occupied, said real estate broker Tom Bohlinger of JLL, who does not represent OUE. The once-imposing lobby was altered to attract passersby with the installation of a video screen 126 feet wide by 17 feet high that displays arty images of California and Los Angeles. OUE built an outdoor observation deck, bar and restaurant on the upper floors and added an outdoor glass-enclosed slide to let thrill-seekers whoosh 45 feet from the 70th floor to the 69th, drawing renewed media attention to the building. In 2015 OUE announced plans for a $50-million makeover intended to broaden its appeal beyond buttoned-down corporate firms and take advantage of its status as home to the city’s highest point. The building then was home to First Interstate Bancorp, a Los Angeles bank that merged with Wells Fargo in 1996, which led to the layoffs of thousands of employees and the bank’s departure from the tower. “They put a lot of money into the building and now it’s time to see what kind of return they can get.”
The owner “believes it’s an opportune time to investigate the market,” said Peter Johnston, a senior vice president at OUE in Los Angeles. OUE appears to be executing a classic real estate play on a grand scale - buy a good building that has fallen on hard times, make improvements and sell at a profit - rather than getting out before any market downturn were the economy to begin to slow. The property owned by OUE USA Services Corp., the American division of Singapore-based landlord and developer OUE Ltd., could command more than $700 million based on recent downtown office sales. It has appeared in numerous movies and even been fictionally destroyed for dramatic effect in such films as “Independence Day,” which saw aliens blow up the tower as they began their invasion of Earth. Standing 72 stories on Bunker Hill, the building holds a prominent position in business and in popular culture. US Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles, the tallest skyscraper in the West for decades, is on the block as its Singaporean owners test the limits of the city’s burgeoning real estate investment market.
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