Singapore-based Manulife U.S. REIT has proposed offloading the TCW Tower downtown to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Should the Los Angeles City Council sign off on the deal, the agency would pay $92.5 million for the 35-story tower, located at 865 S. Figueroa St. – coming to about $129 per square foot.
The proposed sale is among the latest developments in downtown’s beleaguered office market, which has yet to recover from setbacks related to the Covid-19 pandemic and has seen its distress exacerbated by a ramped up homeless population and rise in crime.
At about the same time this proposed sale came to light, downtown’s Capital Group announced it was purchasing the Bank of America Plaza at 333 S. Hope St. – where the investment management firm is currently located. Additionally, Los Angeles County in 2024 spent more than $200 million to acquire the Gas Company Tower – a deal representing about a third of what the building had been valued at in 2021.
The Real Deal reported that Manulife proposed the sale knowing it would absorb a loss of about $10 million and that proceeds would immediately be channeled to an early debt repayment.
The tower was about 46% occupied at the end of 2025, largely after the namesake tenant TCW Group downsized operations. It’s not all doom and gloom for the property, however.
Brentwood-based Banc of California inked an 11-year deal for 40,000 square feet of space at the tower in October; the institution also obtained naming rights for the building in that deal.