Invesco Real Estate CEO R. Scott Dennis and the property at 1555 4th Street
Talk about good timing.
A developer turned a $37 million profit on a parcel of land by entitling it ahead of a November ballot measure that will dramatically curb development in Santa Monica if passed.
In February, Santa Monica-based Worthe Real Estate Group acquired a developable lot at 407 Colorado Avenue for a mere $15.8 million. It took it through the entitlement process, getting city approval for a five-story 59,800-square-foot apartment building, according to Real Capital Analytics. Then, last month, Worthe went on to sell it to Atlanta-based Invesco for $52.7 million, according to property records.
Invesco paid roughly $880 per buildable square foot to acquire the .34-acre parcel, which currently houses a 4,600-square-foot shuttered bank building. Eastdil Secured brokered the deal, but could not be reached for comment.
Worthe’s disposition was astutely timed, as Santa Monica residents will vote next month on the looming Land Use Voter Empowerment (LUVE) ballot initiative. If enacted, the measure would subject every development taller than two stories to a popular vote to secure approval in the density-averse city.
It is easy to see why an already entitled parcel would be attractive to Invesco, especially given the possibility that competing developers could be shut out of the market by LUVE.
Invesco has been on both sides of several pricey deals this year, including its sale of an El Segundo creative office complex at 2175 Park Place. The firm sold it to Boston’s Intercontinental for $328 million — six times what it paid in 2013. Three months prior to that sale, Invesco bought Runway Playa Vista, a 14-acre mixed-use retail complex, for a whopping $475 million.
Worthe and Invesco did not immediately return requests for comment.