Office Building

A Westwood office building occupied by 20th Century Fox Studios and other entertainment industry tenants was sold for $39.5 million to Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada, brokers said. The financial services company bought 10351 Santa Monica Blvd., also known as Santa Monica Comstock Plaza, from a joint venture of Cambra Realty & Angelo Gordon, brokerage Madison Partners said. The 101,000-square-foot building was completed in 1984 at Santa Monica Boulevard and Comstock Avenue near what is now the Westfield Century City shopping center.

Nearly a year after a social worker blew the whistle, Los Angeles County supervisors acknowledged Tuesday that a "crisis" had developed in a Wilshire Boulevard office building used to house difficult-to-place foster children and requested a new plan to house them. Supervisor Gloria Molina said the office near MacArthur Park, where the county's child protection agency has its nighttime, emergency operations, has become a "dumping ground" for hundreds of the county's most troubled children when social workers can't find a suitable foster home.

A "major emergency" fire that consumed most of a two-story office building Monday at a ConocoPhillips oil refinery was knocked down and did not affect any other refinery facilities, officials said. The knockdown was declared shortly after 8 a.m., nearly four hours after the fire was reported, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Matt Spence. A total of 166 firefighters battled the blaze, which was limited to an administrative building. "This free-standing structure was located some distance away from the refinery itself," Spence said.

Former executives of office landlord MPG Office Trust Inc. have launched their own property company with the purchase of a landmark Los Angeles office building. Nelson and Christopher Rising of Rising Realty Partners expect their acquisition of Pacific Center at 6th and Olive streets to close Monday. Terms of the purchase from Alliance Commercial Partners were not revealed, but experts familiar with downtown real estate prices value the deal at $60 million. The new owners will change the name of the complex to the PacMutual Building, in keeping with origins of the Beaux Arts-style complex that can be traced to railroad tycoons Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins.

A downtown Los Angeles theater and office complex built by silent film stars will be converted to a hotel. Ace Hotel, a Portland, Ore., chain of boutique inns catering to the young and hip, will develop a new outpost in the historic United Artists building at Broadway and 9th Street. The 180-room hotel will occupy the office building's 13 floors, Ace said. It will have a pool, restaurant, bar and 1,600-seat theater when it opens in summer 2013. "The United Artists building has an intriguing history and is an outstanding example of 1920s gothic architecture," said Alex Calderwood, a co-founder of Ace Hotel.

A $3.8-million office building has been completed by McKellar Development in the Interstate Corporate Center, San Diego.

A 38,000-square-foot, $4-million office building under construcion at 1399 S. Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills, for Stagen Realty & Management Inc., is scheduled for completion next spring, according to McClellan Cruz Gaylord & Associates, architects.

An early spring construction start is expected on a $1.5-million, 16,000-square-foot office building by Phoenix Telesis Development on Oceanside Boulevard in Oceanside. The designer is Turpit & Partners, Architects, San Diego.

Construction is complete on Carlsbad Pacifica, a $5.7-million, three-story office building at 5050 Avenida Eninas, Carlsbad, by Meister Development Group of Newport Beach. The 51,000-square-foot building features a contemporary brick and glass design with terracing and landscaped balconies. Koll Construction was the prime contractor. Coldwell Banker is handling the leasing.

A man who stabbed four people in a Columbus, Ohio, office building was shot by police and critically wounded as he tried to flee, authorities said Wednesday. Police received a call at 12:40 p.m. reporting a stabbing at the 27-story downtown building, known as the Continental Centre, which includes offices for the Ohio attorney general, AT&T and a technical school.  The suspect walked into the ground floor lobby of the Miami-Jacobs Career College and stabbed the first victim, Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner told The Times.

A joint venture of Oakfield Realty Partners and Long Wharf Real Estate Partners has acquired three office buildings in the Warner Center district of Woodland Hills for $26.4 million. Oakfield, a privately held commercial real estate investment firm based in Los Angeles, bought 5950 Canoga Ave., 5955 De Soto Ave. and 21155 Califa St. for about $145 per square foot, real estate broker Bob Safai of Madison Partners said. Long Wharf is a Boston private equity real estate manager. The identity of the seller was not released, but real estate data provider CoStar identified the last owner as New York lender-based Guggenheim Commercial Real Estate Finance.

Newport Beach officials recently ordered a real estate investor to stop gutting the interior of an office building designed by celebrated Modernist architect Richard Neutra. It is the latest dispute concerning the Mariners Medical Arts building, a sleek 1963 complex at 1901 Westcliff Drive saved from demolition in 2009. Preservationist John Linnert, a Costa Mesa architect, noticed crews working on the upstairs interior in January and reported them to the city planning staff.

In a move to shed nonessential assets, Bank of America will sell and lease back some of its administrative office space. Only three office buildings — two in North Carolina and one in New York — have been identified for sale so far, but others are expected to follow. "Real estate ownership is not a core business for Bank of America," spokeswoman Kelli Raulerson said. "Therefore we are currently reviewing our administrative portfolio and may make the decision to sell our ownership interest in certain properties.

A downtown Los Angeles theater and office complex built by silent film stars will be converted to a hotel. Ace Hotel, a Portland, Ore., chain of boutique inns catering to the young and hip, will develop a new outpost in the historic United Artists building at Broadway and 9th Street. The 180-room hotel will occupy the office building's 13 floors, Ace said. It will have a pool, restaurant, bar and 1,600-seat theater when it opens in summer 2013. "The United Artists building has an intriguing history and is an outstanding example of 1920s gothic architecture," said Alex Calderwood, a co-founder of Ace Hotel.

A "major emergency" fire that consumed most of a two-story office building Monday at a ConocoPhillips oil refinery was knocked down and did not affect any other refinery facilities, officials said. The knockdown was declared shortly after 8 a.m., nearly four hours after the fire was reported, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Matt Spence. A total of 166 firefighters battled the blaze, which was limited to an administrative building. "This free-standing structure was located some distance away from the refinery itself," Spence said.

As 2011 came to a close, some commercial real estate experts found promising signs in often troubled markets. The office market is gaining interest from investors amid a mixed bag of property-related economic fundamentals such as improvement in employment and business expansions, a recent survey showed. Commercial real estate continues to offer attractive yields compared with alternative investment vehicles, said respondents to a quarterly poll by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.