EXCLUSIVE: Sunset Media Tower For Sale

The Sunset Media Tower, one of the largest office buildings in Hollywood, was listed for sale Monday. The building at 6255 Sunset Blvd. could fetch upward of $80 million, according to sources with knowledge of the Hollywood office market.

The 22-story tower is home to several media and entertainment companies, including Associated Production Music, a music library and music services company, and Nielsen Media Research, a unit of Nielsen Co., the former owner of The Hollywood Reporter.

The property also serves as the corporate headquarters of lingerie company Frederick’s of Hollywood and until recently was home to the main offices of the House of Blues.

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The 320,892-square-foot building is owned by 34 investors through a tenancy-in-common arrangement, an ownership structure that allows individuals to jointly hold real estate. Irvine, Calif.-based PASSCO Cos. manages the asset on behalf of the investors.

Although no one was talking on the record, an e-mail publicizing the listing of the property was sent to real estate industry professionals Monday morning. The message from listing agent Stephen Algermissen of Cushman & Wakefield said that the Class A building is 71% leased, and two pending leases will bring occupancy to 85%.

The tower, which is just east of Sunset and Vine, was built in 1971 and renovated in the late 1990s. It is just a block or so from the newly opened W Hollywood Hotel & Residences and across the street from Sunset Vine Tower, a new luxury apartment building.

“The Sunset Media Tower benefits greatly from its gateway location on the rapidly gentrifying Hollywood section at Sunset and Vine as well as its close proximity to a flurry of new retail and residential development along Hollywood’s major thoroughfare,” Algermissen’s e-mail said.

The property was listed without an asking price. It is difficult to gauge what the building could fetch because few office properties of the tower’s size have traded in Hollywood during the recession. At $80 million, the building would fetch $249 per square foot. In recent years, quality Los Angeles office buildings have typically sold for more than that.

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the recent departure of House of Blues, which in April relocated its headquarters nearby to 7060 Hollywood Blvd., led the owners to list the property. The concert venue operator, a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment, had occupied about 70,000 square feet.

The source said a more traditional office landlord would be better suited to rehabilitate and lease House of Blues’ old space.

“A buyer will be better equipped to handle leasing [the vacant space] than 34 individual investors,” the source said.

Algermissen declined to comment. Carl Muhlstein of Cushman & Wakefield, who also has the listing, could not be reached for comment.