Real estate investment and lending firm REM Finance is heading west.

The Arizona-based company made its first acquisition in California, paying $52 million for a 47,000-square-foot flex office property in Venice, records show.

The sellers were trusts associated with Linda and Ronald Swepston, according to public records.

An entity tied REM Finance was the registered buyer of the property, located at 606-654 Venice Boulevard and 1800 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in a business park.

REM did not return a call for comment.

Venice and Los Angeles’ West Side remain strong office markets, with vacancy rates dropping to 12.4 percent, according to a Colliers International second quarter report. Century City, Marina Del Rey/Venice and the Olympic Corridor accounted for most of the demand in the West L.A. office market, according to Colliers, with the average asking rates totalling $4.92 per square foot. Overall, the Greater L.A. office market has also performed well, due in large part to the emergence of tech and new-media tenants.

Along that busy stretch of Abbot Kinney Boulevard, retail rents have also pushed up, to $14 per square foot.

Meanwhile, Venice is also one of the city’s hottest rental residential markets, a boon for companies inking lease deals in the area. The influx of those tech firms and their young, affluent employees is driving demand and pricing.

Music streaming giant Spotify has increased its footprint to 155,000 square feet at the Arts District’s At Mateo complex, as tech firms continue plowing into the Los Angeles office market, The Real Deal has learned.

Spotify’s lease for an additional 45,000 square feet comes roughly one year after it made the move from West Hollywood to the Arts District, joining the likes of Warner Music Group and other firms in the area.

Sources said Spotify is playing close to $4 per square foot, which values its lease at around $2.1 million a year. The firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Located at 555 Mateo Street, the $80 million retail and office complex was developed by a joint venture between Blatteis & Schnur and ASB Real Estate Investments. Though originally envisioned as an outdoor retail complex, At Mateo opened in early 2018 featuring mostly office space.

Spotify first inked a 10-year lease to occupy 110,000 square feet at the complex in July 2018. At the time, the deal marked a major expansion from the company’s former 8,200-square-foot office on the Sunset Strip.

Other tenants include the University of Southern California’s design school, as well as an offshoot of renowned Chicago-based restaurant Girl & the Goat. Spotify’s recent lease brings the complex up to full occupancy.

Mike Condon Jr., Pete Collins, Andrew Tashjian and Brianna Demus of Cushman & Wakefield had the listing. They could not be reached for comment.

Spotify is one of many tech companies that have been gobbling up office space across L.A., exceeding the leasing velocity of media and entertainment companies for the first time. A recent report from Cushman & Wakefield reveals tech companies have leased 1.1 million square feet so far this year, roughly double that of entertainment firms.

The Federal Reserve’s decision on Wednesday to again cut its benchmark interest rate, this time by 25 basis points, sends a message to commercial real estate investors that the bank is proceeding cautiously, one industry pro said.

“The Fed clearly has some concerns that they’re responding to,” said Sam Chandan, associate dean at New York University’s Schack Institute.

The Fed cut rates to a range between 1.75 and 2.00 percent, a widely anticipated move. The U.S. economy has been rising moderately, with solid job gains and continued low unemployment, the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement announcing its decision this afternoon.

For real estate investors, rate cuts typically mean it may get cheaper to borrow capital.

But Wednesday’s adjustment — which is for the shortest-term rates — has less of an impact on the longer-term interest rates that commercial real estate investors more commonly use, Chandan added.

The Fed’s decision is an attempt to bring down those longer-term interest rates, said Jim Costello. But the cut — smaller than what some may have liked — will unlikely affect cap rates, which have remained flat for the year, he added. “I don’t think cap rates are going to move at all from today,” he said. “Today’s notice is just a small move.”

On the residential side, lower rates may make it easier to refinance homes, but it may not translate to more home sales, said broker Jason Haber of Warburg Realty in Manhattan.

“Lower rates are good, but lower prices are better,” he said. “Most markets are still priced too high and that’s led to the inventory issues across the country.”

About an hour after the 2 p.m. decision, the S&P 500 had dipped 15 points and the Dow Jones had dropped 99 points. And out of the 28 real estate stocks tracked by The Real Deal, 22 had seen falling prices by that point.

The real estate industry has long been bracing for an economic slowdown. Investors have been grappling to price in the impact of tit-for-tat tariffs between the U.S. and China, job growth has slowed and yields on short-term bonds are now higher than long-term ones — a consistent predictor of a recession.

Business investment and exports have also slowed and inflation is still below 2 percent, a target the Fed works to hit.

In August, expectations for short- and medium-term inflation fell, with consumers particularly less optimistic about changes in the prices of homes, rent and medical care, according to data released this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In July, the Fed slashed rates by 25 basis points, a shift in the bank’s policy of hiking up rates since 2015. During the financial crisis, the Fed had slashed interest rates to nearly zero in a bid to boost economic activity.

Wednesday’s decision, however, was not unanimous.

In its vote, two Fed Reserve board members wanted to keep the target range the same, and one wanted to drop it to between 1.50 to 1.75 percent. The Fed, which has faced mounting pressure from President Donald Trump to set zero and negative rates, would not say whether it might cut the federal funds rate again before the end of the year.

The Los Angeles luxury residential market is in a long slump but Rockstar Energy founder Russell Weiner hasn’t gotten that memo. Or if he has, the billionaire has chosen to crumple it up, toss it in his mouth and chase it with one of his caffeine-charged beverages.

A mere two weeks ago, Weiner scooped up a mansion in the Bird Streets enclave from tech honcho Lynda Weinman for $16.5 million. That was a drastic price chop from the $27 million that Weinman had spent on the 12,530-square-foot home two years ago.

Now, Weiner — whose net worth is $4 billion, according to Forbes — wants to pull off the ultimate flip.

He has relisted the home for $27.9 million, about $11.5 million more than he paid and even more than Weinman had purchased it for, according to the Los Angeles Times.

As would be expected no major changes have been done to the six-bedroom, 10-bedroom estate in the two weeks since he purchased it.

Katelyn Byrd of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage is handling the listing.

Weiner is something of a collector of high-end homes, having scooped up former N.B.A. player Carlos Boozer’s Sunset Strip estate in 2006, along with a Beverly Hills compound in 2015 that had once belonged to Madonna. He paid $19 million for that one. After extensively renovating the mansion, he listed it for $49 million nearly two years ago. But it still hasn’t sold and in February he shaved $4 million off the price tag. [LAT] — Alison Stateman

The controversies surrounding the We Company’s pending public offering have been almost nonstop — and Adam Neumann has been at the center of almost all of them.

Since the WeWork parent company filed its S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last month, investors have raised concerns about issues ranging from the amount of control Neumann has over the company to his leadership style to his efforts to trademark the term “We.” And now a new profile on Neumann from the Wall Street Journal has shed even more light on the enigmatic CEO. Below are some zany takeaways:

1. Can you say tequila?
The profile opens with an anecdote about Neumann smoking pot while flying across the Atlantic Ocean in a private jet last summer — a “sizable chunk” of it was stuffed into a cereal box. He also has a fondness for alcohol, particularly tequila, according to the profile.
After firing 7 percent of WeWork staffers in 2016, he treated employees to multiple rounds of tequila shots. But the report also notes that he has cut back on the partying in recent years.

2. Neumann wants to live forever.
He’s invested in Life Biosciences LLC, where the mission is “to create a future where age-related decline is not a fact of life.” Other lofty goals include becoming the world’s first trillionaire, prime minister of Israel and president of the world. As for his company, he’s apparently proposed it would “solve the problem of children without parents,” and eradicate world hunger.

3. WeWork doesn’t like bad “energy.”
Neumann has complained about the number of “B” staffers at WeWork, and has told staffers to fire 20 percent of employees per year. His wife, Rebekah Neumann, has also ordered several employees fired after spending just minutes with them because she “didn’t like their energy,” according to the Journal.

4. Neumann wasn’t ready for criticism.
After running WeWork as a private company for years, Neumann was unprepared for the market’s largely negative reaction to its pending IPO.

5. What was with that whole “no meat” thing? 
Executives were caught off guard by Neumann’s 2018 announcement that WeWork was banning meat and came up with the “sustainability” rationale on their own. Former employees say Neumann has since eaten meat. [WSJ]  – Eddie Small

Three months after it hit the market, 5900 Wilshire has a buyer.

Rockpoint Group is in escrow to buy the Miracle Mile office tower for $310 million, The Real Deal has confirmed.

The deal for the 493,000-square-foot office building pencils out to around $630 per square foot and would be Rockpoint’s second big purchase along that stretch stretch in less than two years.

An ownership group that includes PGIM Real Estate, Ratkovich Co. and AXA Capital put the building on the market for sale or recapitalization in June. At the time, sources told TRD that the owners were seeking around $300 million for the 30-story building.

Ratkovich declined to comment. Rockpoint could not be reached.

Located across the street from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the office tower is one of the largest and most recognizable properties in the area. It is about 93 percent leased, though anchor tenant SBE hospitality company will be exiting next month. Other tenants include public relations firm Edelman, talent agency Buchwald, marketing firm Phenomenon and staffing agency Creative Circle.

Real Estate Alert first reported the pending sale.

Ratkovich and PGIM acquired the building for about $102 million in 2005. In 2016, following a major renovation, AXA acquired a 49 percent stake from PGIM.

Boston-based Rockpoint also owns a 27-story office tower down the street, which it bought in 2017. The firm paid $215 million, or $483 per square foot, to acquire the building at 5670 Wilshire Boulevard from Blackstone Group.

The private equity fund also owns a 460-room Westin Hotel in Long Beach, plus several multifamily properties.

Jason Post, Compass’ head of communications, is leaving the SoftBank-backed brokerage after nine months on the job.

The former Uber executive is taking a job at Google, he said.

“I’m proud of what I accomplished at Compass, but I’m excited to move on to a new opportunity and I wish everyone at Compass well,” said Post, who gave his notice last week but started telling people Tuesday.

Post joined the real estate firm in January as vice president of communications following the departure of Julie Binder, who had the job for a year and a half.

Prior to Compass, Post worked as Uber’s director of policy and communication for more than three years. Before that, he was a managing director of Teneo Strategy, a consulting firm, and he was a deputy press secretary under New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Post said he’ll be winding down his work at Compass in the next few weeks. In June, Matt Spangler, who was Compass’ chief creative officer, was named chief brand and communications officer.

Compass did not immediately comment on Post’s departure, but it comes at a potentially-sensitive time for the firm, which is widely believed to be plotting an IPO.

Founded in 2012, Compass’ valuation reached $6.4 billion this summer following a $370 million funding round. Investors in the round included SoftBank’s Vision Fund as well as Dragoneer, a late-stage investor whose participation fueled IPO rumors.

During an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” on Monday to announce A.I.-driven home search tools, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said it is “likely” Compass will go public in the future. But he declined to offer a timeline.

“I don’t go to sleep at night thinking about an IPO,” he said.

But some industry sources said WeWork’s ill-fated IPO could cast a shadow on proptech companies that are losing money. The co-working giant, once valued at $47 billion, delayed its public offering on Monday amid concern about its financial metrics and corporate governance. Its valuation has been slashed to around $15 billion, according to published reports.

Since April, Compass has parted ways with several high-profile executives, including general counsel David Carp and chief people officer Madan Nagaldinne. In June, three executives in marketing and product resigned or were let go, including chief marketing officer Khurrum Malik, Eytan Seidman, head of product, and Max Henderson, a vice president of product.

At the time, sources said those departures stemmed from tension in the C-suite. Compass portrayed the departures as part of a larger reorganization. In an email to agents, Reffkin said he planned to oversee a streamlined tech team. COO Maelle Gavet would be overseeing Compass’ people and culture department, along with marketing and a new team called “New Ventures.”

The company has been embroiled in a very public legal battle with brokerage conglomerate Realogy, which has accused Compass of attempts at price fixing and “predatory” poaching. Most recently, Compass said it rejected a merger offer from Realogy — a claim Realogy has vehemently denied.

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Los Angeles’ biggest real estate news. We update this page in real time, starting at 9 a.m. PT. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com

This page was last updated at 3:15 p.m. PT

Trump administration takes interest in landmark FAA building. During their visit to L.A. last week, Trump administration officials secretly toured the vacant Federal Aviation Administration facility in Hawthorne as part of a plan that could see it be converted into government-run homeless housing. Worthe Real Estate Group owns the building, though it is in escrow to be sold to a commercial developer. Details remain scant, though it’s likely locals will oppose the project. [LAT]

The city should establish “anti-displacement zones.” That’s according to L.A. City Council president Herb Wesson, who said he does not support the fully market-rate “District Square” project. In a letter to the South L.A. Planning Commission, Wesson said the 577-unit residential project by Charles Co. would displace “lifelong community residents,” and that the city should implement “anti-displacement zones” around certain housing developments. [LAT]

Home of Golden Age film star hits the market. The one-time Brentwood home of Tyrone Power listed for nearly $12 million. It was designed by celebrated architect Paul R. Williams, and spans 5,600 square feet. [LAT]

A trillionaire, prime minister of Israel and president of the world. Those are all the things WeWork founder and CEO Adam Neumann has said he wants to be, according to a new profile of a leader who is struggling to take his company public. [WSJ]

Compass’ top communications executive is out. Jason Post, who joined the brokerage nine months ago, will depart as the company mulls plans for an IPO. Post previously worked for Uber and the Bloomberg administration. [TRD]

Tom Barrack has buyers remorse. Three years after his firm Colony Capital merged with NorthStar Realty Finance Corp, the renowned CEO and Trump pal is seeking to offload almost $20 billion in real estate assets, as he plans for an entry to digital infrastructure. [WSJ]

Airbnb says it will spend $25 million on affordable housing and community infrastructure in L.A. and San Francisco. The company said it will invest the money between L.A. County and the Bay Area in affordable development, small business loans, and programs to promote low-income homeownership. Critics have long accused the home-sharing giant of contributing to housing crises across the country. L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer recently pledged $75 million to build affordable housing in Inglewood, where he wants to build a stadium for the team. [LAT]

Los Angeles will vote on $62 million in supportive housing funds for nearly 600 affordable units in the San Fernando Valley. The City Council’s Homelessness and Poverty Committee is weighing the funds for nine projects spread across the city. The $1.2 billion in bond funds created through Proposition HHH in 2016 was meant to fund 10,000 units over a decade, but rising costs and questionable dispersement methods have slowed the program. [LADN]

Aerospace millionaire and philanthropist unloads Malibu manse. James Randall and wife Eleanor Randall sold their 1.7-acre estate on a Malibu bluff for $24 million. Four years ago, they shelled out about twice that for a larger estate in Bel Air. [LAT]

Inglewood’s Hollywood Park gets first retail tenants. Earlier this week, the development team behind the 298-acre Los Angeles Stadium & Entertainment District at Hollywood Park announced the stadium would be named SoFi Stadium. Now, the team announced its first retail tenants. The list includes an Olympix Fitness gym, a 12-screen Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas, and a restaurant by the founders of the local Three Weavers Brewing Company. [Connect Media]

Affordable units planned for city-owned lot in West L.A. About a year and a half after local City Councilmember Paul Koretz suggested the site, a staff report recommends the city tap the Weingart Center Association and Valued Housing to build a 50-unit project there. The two affordable developers are asking for $7 million in Prop HHH funds for the development. [Urbanize]

WeWork makes some employee cuts. After delaying its IPO, the office space company laid off 10 employees in a New York-based unit that handles on-demand rentals. The news came after TRD reported that a real estate executive is leaving the company. [Bloomberg]

Prodigy’s CEO is stepping down. The embattled real estate crowdfunding platform is facing three lawsuits from an investor and employees who allege the firm is insolvent and claim that they remain unpaid as investment properties underperform. [TRD]

FROM THE CITY’S RECORDS:

A 16-unit Transit Oriented Communities building is planned at 1450 S. Reeves Street in South Robertson. Two of the units would be set aside for “extremely low-income” renters. The developer is 1450 Reeves LLC, led by Yonatan Rabin. [LADCP]

Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders released his much-anticipated $2.5 trillion housing plan today.

The Vermont senator and presidential candidate would cap annual rent increases at 3 percent or one and a half times the consumer price index, whichever is higher. He would also allow states and cities to pass their own rent-control standards, even if they had stricter limits on rent increases.

Sanders also promised to enact “just cause” eviction, which limits the cases in which a landlord can evict a tenant, including for high rent increases. Versions of it are already in place in Oregon and New Jersey, and another is expected to be passed in California. A similar measure failed in New York in June.

“In the richest country in the history of the world, every American must have a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home as a fundamental right,” Sanders said in a statement. “We need a homes guarantee.”

Read more: Inside Bernie Sanders’ $2.5T housing plan 

The plan would spend $1.48 trillion over 10 years to repair and maintain 7.4 million housing units and $400 billion for mixed-income social housing through the National Affordable Housing Trust fund. It proposes putting $32 billion over the next five years toward ending homelessness, in part by creating 25,000 units for the homeless and doubling homelessness assistance grants. The plan also includes $3 billion for the Indian Housing Block Grant Program and $500 million to expand affordable development in rural areas.

The wide-ranging plan has provisions that Sanders says would address public housing funding shortfalls, end homelessness, decarbonize public and market-rate housing by 2030 and strengthen provisions to prevent housing discrimination.

The plan not only calls for a dramatic increase in investment in affordable housing, but also outlines changes long championed by supporters of market-based solutions, notably easing restrictive zoning ordinances and the development review process. Sanders would also expand federal mechanisms for identifying and combating predatory lending and mortgage fraud.

Sanders would also create an office within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to work with cities to beef up rent control, which would include academics, local officials, homeowners and tenants. Another new body, the National Fair Housing Agency, would be modeled on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to enforce housing standards by conducting audits and rooting out housing discrimination.

Sanders would also invest $70 billion to repair and modernize public housing and, as part of the Green New Deal, electrify, decarbonize and retrofit housing stock. He would fully fund the Section 8 program, which reimburses landlords in return for keeping units affordable. The New York City Housing Authority provides affordable housing to at least 400,000 in New York, but has faced chronic underfunding and management scandals.

The plan would increase enforcement of non-descrimination policies, including the Fair Housing Act and income-based discrimination, and provide $2 billion for tenants’ right to counsel in eviction or foreclosure proceedings. The plan would also expand the “Small Area Fair Market Rent Rule,” which ensures Section 8 landlords are not overcompensated.

The plan would impose a 2 percent “empty homes” tax and a 25 percent “house flipping” tax. It includes provisions to end exclusionary and restrictive zoning, replacing them with zoning intended to encourage integration and affordability.

Every day, The Real Deal rounds up Los Angeles’ biggest real estate news. We update this page in real time, starting at 9 a.m. PT. Please send any tips or deals to tips@therealdeal.com

This page was last updated at 10:45 a.m. PT

Blackstone slides into massive purchase for waterpark operator. The deal to buy Great Wolf Resorts Inc. from New York-based Centerbridge Partners would Great Wolf at around $2.9 billion, including debt. Centerbridge bought Chicago-based Great Wolf in 2015 and the operator has since added six resorts to its portfolio — including Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove — bringing its total to 17. [Bloomberg] 

Developer City Century’s plan for freeway-facing balconies at its Olympia residential project is back on the table. The firm won its appeal of a Planning Commission decision that said the 110 Freeway posed health concerns to residents with balconies facing the roadway. City Century also won an appeal over its plan to build digital signage facing the highway. The full City Council must now must give its approval. [Curbed]

Details surface for hotel conversion of LA’s first skyscraper. Chicago-based developer Rebel Hospitality wants to turn the Continental Hotel, built in 1903, into a 140-room hotel with 16,900 square feet of food and beverage space. That includes a basement bar, a ground-floor restaurant, a 12th floor bar with bowling lanes, and a rooftop patio. [Urbanize]

Gov. Gavin Newsom signs “gig economy” law with real estate agent exemption. The law will likely reclassify thousands of laborers from independent contractors to employees. It was designed to address labor issues in the “gig economy,” such as drivers for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. An exemption for real estate agents was added just before it cleared the state legislature, assuaging concerns in the industry. [LAT]

Beverly Hills home with Hollywood pedigree hits market again. Just two years after the 85-year-old home on Tower Road sold for $25 million, it’s back on the market. This time it’s being offered for $32.5 million. The 15,300-square-foot home was once owned by former MGM executive L.K. Sidney, and “The Terminator” producer Gale Anne Hurd. [Redfin]

FROM THE CITY’S RECORDS:

A developer wants to build a 120-unit mixed-use residential complex at 111 N. Harbor Boulevard in San Pedro. 11 of the units in the six-story development would be set aside for “extremely low-income” renters. [LADCP]

Compass is expanding in the West Coast. As its legal battle with Realogy continues to play out, Compass has announced a new technology center in Seattle, which the SoftBank-backed firm hopes will help to attract new talent. [Inman]

IBM is suing Zillow. A new lawsuit filed in California this week accuses Zillow of multiple charges of patent infringement over its computer programs. A Zillow rep said the claims were “without merit.” [Inman]

The Fed has cut rates again. The announcement signals to commercial real estate investors that the bank is proceeding with caution. [TRD]

Deals for WeWork buildings in London are in strife as IPO woes deepen. A Saudi Arabian buyer has pulled out of a $112 million deal for a WeWork building, with sources citing concern over the startup’s public offering in the U.S. Meanwhile talks to sell WeWork Waterloo, branded as the largest co-working space in the world, have stalled. [Bloomberg]

Brookfield Properties has inked a long-term lease renewal with its longtime tenant Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher at the Wells Fargo Center tower in DTLA.

The New York-based law firm will continue to occupy 215,000 square feet across eight floors of the North Tower, according to a release from Brookfield Properties. Gibson Dunn has been a tenant at the two-tower office complex since it opened in 1982.

The renewal comes on the heels of a major upgrade that Brookfield announced last year at the 2.4 million-square-foot complex at 333 South Grand Avenue. Brookfield acquired the property — the towers are 55 and 47 stories each — as part of a $3 billion portfolio purchase in 2014.

In 2018, Brookfield said it would undertake a $60 million renovation plan to replace an outdated atrium with an indoor-outdoor space dubbed Halo. That will include a full-service restaurant as well as quick-service options. The year before, Brookfield inked a lease with meeting space provider Convene to its first West Coast location.

Brookfield, which calls itself Los Angeles’ largest commercial property owner, said its DTLA office portfolio occupancy stands at nearly 90 percent. The company signed more than 700,000 square feet of leases across its Downtown portfolio last year.

Gibson Dunn was represented by Stephen Bay, Mark Sprague and Danny Rees of CBRE. Brookfield was represented in-house by John Barganski, and from CBRE’s team of Todd Doney, John Zanetos, Chris Penrose and Phillip Ruhl.

A spokesperson for Brookfield declined to provide additional lease details.

Homebuilder KB Homes has acquired a condo development site at the 18-acre former Daniel Freeman Hospital site in Inglewood. The deal comes as Inglewood development in the city plows ahead — including plans for the new L.A. Clippers arena — amid growing unease from some residents concerned about displacement.

Harridge Development Group and Varde Partners were the sellers. The property at 333 N. Prairie Avenue sold for $23 million, and is entitled for 55 single-family homes, sources told The Real Deal.

The entire development site encompasses 226 lots, Los Angeles County records show.

Harridge and Varde bought the entire development site from Shopoff Realty Investments for $36.3 million in 2017, when the hospital was still standing.

Shopoff had plans in place to build a 310-unit gated condominium community there and the joint venture said it would tweak those plans.

The site was cleared, approvals obtained for a 226-condo subdivision. In March, the joint venture sold about half of the condo lots to Atlanta-based developer Pulte Homes for $42 million.

Pulte is building 105 condos on its portion of the site. Harridge and Varde still own about 66 lots.

The site is close to the L.A. Forum and Inglewood’s two largest projects in the works: the under-construction SoFi Stadium (on track for a summer 2020 opening) and the site where the Clippers want to build their new stadium.

Both are driving investment and subsequent gentrification in the area, a trend the city has struggled to combat. Activists have sued the Clippers over its planned arena, claiming the site is better suited for affordable housing. This week, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer pledged $100 million for the city, including $75 million to build affordable housing.

KB Homes did not immediately return a request for comment on the Prairie Avenue acquisition. The Westwood-based homebuilder is active across the country and mostly develops suburban single-family home communities.

The firm has benefited from low mortgage rates in the current cycle. The drop of mortgage rates this year has boosted its stock price nearly 50 percent.

Harridge has other projects on its plate. In January, the L.A. City Council approved the Wilshire-based firm’s massive Crossroads of the World project in Hollywood. Plans for the 1.4-million-square-foot project includes 950 residential units, a 308-room hotel, and 190,000 square feet of commercial space.

When WeWork rebranded itself The We Company in January, CEO Adam Nuemann sent a clear message about his vision for the firm: it is much bigger than co-working.

But We Company’s side businesses, including co-living venture WeLive, have a patchy track record of success, according to the Wall Street Journal. Some are struggling to survive while others have fizzled out altogether.

The company spent about $164 million on side businesses in 2018 but it earned only $124 million in revenue from all its outside ventures, according to the Journal.

The news follows weeks of scrutiny over We Company’s business model, corporate governance and valuation. The faltering path to expansion has caused perception problems for the firm as it heads into its initial public offering — which has been pushed back — and seeks to convince investors it’s bigger than the co-working brand.

But even as We Company continued to diversify, four acquisitions made between 2017 and 2018 — valued at some $400 million — garnered little mention in the company’s IPO prospectus. [WSJ] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan

Join The Real Deal on Tuesday, September 24 at 2 p.m. for our next subscribers-only conference call.

TRD’s senior content director Jill Noonan will talk to reporters Sylvia Varnham O’Regan and Kevin Sun about their recent coverage of foreign investment in New York amid this latest wave of global turmoil.

In TRD’s September magazine, Varnham O’Regan and Sun examined the fallout in the residential market and looked at how the commercial market is holding up.  Plus, they broke down investors by country on some of Manhattan’s biggest commercial deals

Do you have questions about foreign investors in today’s market? What would you like to know about TRD’s reporting process? Email us at subscribercalls@therealdeal.com or tweet at us.

An email with the call-in number and access code will be sent to subscribers Tuesday morning.

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Lincoln Property Company has found a buyer for its 19-building office campus in increasingly media-focused Culver City, The Real Deal has learned.

Prolific investor Kilroy Realty is in escrow to pay $185 million for the complex, roughly 23 percent above the projected price, sources said. The deal for the “Blackwelder” campus pencils out to $1,173 per square foot.

The adaptive reuse project, located on the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, spans 157,600 square feet across the 19 standalone buildings. With an industrial look, it is mostly geared toward media and entertainment tenants.

Lincoln Property put the office complex on the market for sale in the summer. The first round of bids — expected to fetch as much as $150 million — closed late July.

Cushman & Wakefield had the listing. Kilroy and Lincoln Property declined to comment.

Kilroy is among the biggest real estate developers based in Los Angeles. The firm is in the midst of developing one of its largest projects, dubbed Academy on Vine, in Hollywood. The $450 million project is slated to include a 193-unit residential building, plus three office towers. Netflix signed on to occupy 355,000 square feet of office space at the complex late last year.

Culver City, however, has also become an attractive alternative to Hollywood and Santa Monica for media and entertainment tenants. HBO recently inked a deal for its new headquarters in Culver City, joining Apple and Amazon.

“Eyebrow queen” Anastasia Soare, the billionaire founder of her namesake beauty products company, filled out her real estate portfolio with the purchase of a Beverly Park mansion.

Soare, who made her name tending to the brows of the celebrities like Kim Kardashian and runs Anastasia Beverly Hills, paid $19.5 million for the 9,400-square-foot home, according to Variety.

Despite the serious price tag, the 2-acre compound was marked as a “development opportunity,” meaning the home could be torn down and the property reshaped.

The seller was Ling-Ning Yen, a Taiwanese businesswoman who listed the property for $28 million in 2016, according to the report. The 30 percent discount from its original asking in part reflects the current state of the Los Angeles luxury market, which has been in a months-long decline. The Ling-Ning Yen bought the home almost 20 years ago for $7.5 million, according to the report.

The property features a gated driveway, two motor courts, and a large pool and spa tucked into the corner of the 2-acre property.

Soare is partial to the 90210 ZIP code, where she owns a current compound of two separate side-by-side homes in a cul-de-sac above Benedict Canyon. She bought one of the homes for $1.9 million in 2004, and the other for $2.5 million in 2014, Variety reported.

Mauricio Umansky and Farrah Brittany Aldjufrie of The Agency held the listing for the Beverly Park manse. It was not clear who represented Soare. [Variety] — Alison Stateman

The co-head of WeWork’s real estate investment fund has left the company, the latest in a string of recent high-level departures at the embattled co-working giant.

Wendy Silverstein, a New York real estate veteran who joined WeWork last fall to lead its investment vehicle known as ARK, resigned last week, The Real Deal has learned.

Silverstein said her departure had nothing to do with the troubles surrounding the company’s planned initial public offering, which WeWork said last week it was delaying.

“Worldwide travel was not compatible with being available for my two elderly parents,” she said in an interview Friday.

WeWork declined to comment.

A person with knowledge of the matter said that Larry Fuchs, the managing director of alternative investments at JPMorgan Asset Management, is joining ARK. Rich Gomel, ARK’s managing director, will continue to lead the fund, the person said.

Silverstein is among at least a half dozen prominent departures from the office space giant, as the company has struggled to attract investor interest for a public offering and its multibillion-dollar valuation has come under severe scrutiny. Earlier this week, TRD reported that Sarah Pontius, WeWork’s head of real estate partnerships, was leaving the company.

Hiring Silverstein was a major coup for WeWork when she arrived as its chief investment officer last year. Before joining, she was CEO of New York REIT, and previously led Vornado Realty Trust’s acquisition and capital markets divisions, where she oversaw $30 billion of debt and equity financings. She also served on the boards of multiple companies, including Toys R Us Inc., TPG RE Finance Trust Inc. and Alexander’s Inc.

In May, WeWork announced Silverstein would lead ARK, its $2.9 billion real estate investment vehicle, which is in part backed by a $1 billion investment from Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate arm of Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. TRD first reported on the existence of ARK in November last year, when it acquired a ground-up development in Austin.

WeWork lost $1.61 billion last year, with its total revenues at $1.82 billion.

Scott Rechler’s RXR Realty is betting big on the shared commercial kitchen model.

The developer led a Pasadena-based remote kitchen startup’s $40 million funding round, which recently closed.

The company, Kitchen United, plans to use that Series B funding round to expand in New York, Boston, and San Francisco, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. The company plans to open kitchens in some of RXR-owned properties. Kitchen United also has locations in Chicago, Austin, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Remote or virtual kitchens provide shared spaces that are rented to pickup and delivery exclusive “restaurants,” with no physical dining space.

Last year, Uber founder Travis Kalanick made a splash when he bought Los Angeles-based virtual kitchen business CloudKitchen. Kalanick’s plan is to scoop up distressed real estate across the country and turn those locations into spaces for digital-age retail businesses and restaurants that don’t need physical storefronts.

The model is designed to tap demand from operators who want to lower expenses related to renting a full restaurant space, as well as growing consumer demand for food delivery services. Delivery sales are expected to reach $25 billion by 2023 from $18 billion in 2018, according to a study.

Kitchen United also offers a suite of technology services to restaurants that rent its kitchens. Restaurants operating out of its Pasadena location include Halal Guys Inc. and Wetzel’s Pretzels. The company signed a lease for its second L.A. location, at 152 W. Pico Boulevard in Downtown, in April. [LABJ] — Dennis Lynch

KTGY Architecture + Planning has found a new home.

The residential architecture firm inked a deal for its new headquarters at Rising Realty Partners’ recently renovated Trust Building. KTGY will take 15,730 square feet at the nearly century-old building at 433 S. Spring St.

KTGY, which had been operating in Playa Vista, is the first tenant Rising has signed since the $40 million creative office remodel was completed, the company announced Friday. Spanning 340,000 square feet, the 1928-built Trust Building now includes a concierge, valet parking and a roof deck.

The architecture firm’s principal, David Senden, said the company wanted to be closer to many of its clients in the downtown area. Last year, KTGY was fourth on The Real Deal’s ranking of top architecture firms in Los Angeles, with $148 million in value of projects and 1.2 million square feet.

Its new office on the seventh floor of the landmark Art Deco Trust Building will include outdoor deck space, an open floor plan, lounge and room for approximately 60 employees. KTGY also has offices in Chicago, Denver, Irvine, Oakland, among others.

Rising bought the iconic tower — formerly the headquarters of Title Insurance and Trust Co. — with Lionstone Investments in 2016 for around $80 million, records show. The joint venture then undertook and completed work on the 11-story building.

Gary McArdell of Lee & Associates represented KTGY. Mike Condon Jr.’s team at Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlords.

Next week brings another batch of real estate events.

Host: California Association of Realtors
Date: September 25 to September 26
Time: 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The California Association of Realtors is holding its REimagine event at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueroa Street from September 25 to September 26. Come to this event to hear presentations on an array of topics such as brand management and current market trends. Speakers include Ryan Gorman of NRT and Skylar Olsen of Zillow.

Host: Opus Connect
Date: September 26
Time: 11:30 a.m.

Opus Connect is hosting its September Panel at Sklar Kirsh, 1880 Century Park East starting at 11:30 a.m. Attend to hear a panel discussion on the evolving relationship between the entertainment and real estate industries. Craig Peters of CBRE and Nicole Mihalka of JLL will be among the speakers at the event.

To search for future industry events or browse past ones, click here. And to submit more industry events, please reach out to events@therealdeal.com.