Bank of America Expands Office Space in L.A.
January 23 2018 - 5:38PM
Dow Jones News
By Esther Fung
Bank of America Corp. has renewed its office lease in downtown
Los Angeles and taken more space as competition for office tenants
heats up among landlords.
The third largest U.S. bank by assets extended and expanded its
anchor lease at Bank of America Plaza to 218,000 square feet from
163,000 square feet, according to Brookfield Properties, which owns
the 55-story building.
The lender, one of the biggest office tenants in the area, will
relocate its regional Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust offices to Bank
of America Plaza.
"There were a lot of choices for the bank," said Bert Dezzutti,
senior vice president at Brookfield Properties overseeing the
Southern California region. "To renew and expand their location is
a significant milestone for downtown L.A. as a location of choice."
He declined to provide details about the terms of the lease. Bank
of America didn't respond to a request for comment.
Los Angeles has experienced an uptick in office supply in the
past year as major development projects were completed. C3 in
Culver City added 280,000 square feet of office space, while
Downtown Wilshire Grand has 18 floors of office space totaling
around 365,000 square feet.
To remain competitive, some office-building owners in downtown
L.A. have been aggressively retooling their assets with ambitious
lobby and plaza renovations, according to property consultancy JLL.
In the Bunker Hill area, where Brookfield owns four buildings
including the Bank of America Plaza, it has added food options,
tenant services and landscaping improvements.
Asking rents in greater Los Angeles rose to $3.21 a square foot
a month in the third quarter of 2017 from $3.10 the previous
quarter, but the vacancy rate rose to 13.8% from 13.3% during the
same periods, according to data from real estate consultancy
CBRE.
Downtown L.A. has been a hotbed of construction activity in
recent years, with numerous cranes dotting the skyline as property
developers, including some from China, built high-rise residential,
hotel and mixed-use properties.
There hasn't been as significant an increase in the construction
pipeline for office space in the area, Mr. Dezzutti said. He added
that while there might be some oversupply of housing, it would
likely be absorbed.
"We're not overly concerned," said Mr. Dezzutti.
Write to Esther Fung at esther.fung@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 23, 2018 17:23 ET (22:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024