No less a source than Politico recently flagged as particularly newsworthy the “seven-figures” in campaign money the broad business community in Los Angeles is set to spend over four city races this November.
Rick Caruso is set to double that, out of his own pocket in backing Matt Mahan’s gubernatorial bid.
Caruso has never been particularly clubby with other real estate developers or the rest of the business community — he’s got his USC alumni ties, to be sure, but has tended to be just as involved with the Catholic Church and nonprofits such as social service provider Para Los Ninos over the years.
The common denominator for Caruso, however, has always been big checks. And, when he recently said there was more money to come for Mahan, he meant it, with another $250,000 going to an independent expenditure committee backing the San Jose mayor’s bid for the governor’s mansion.
Caruso recently doled out a million dollars to the same entity — and another $250,000 in mid-March. Oh, and before that, he gave the individual max, $78,400, to Mahan’s campaign.
Caruso has dropped about $1.6 million on his choice for governor all by himself, in case Politico is taking notes.
The big money puts the Los Angeles developer in the company of Silicon Valley elite, more so than the rest of the L.A. real estate crew backing the NorCal mayor. Caruso joined the million-dollar donation club that counts Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and venture capitalists John Doerr, Michael Moritz and Vinod Khosla as members.
Mahan’s L.A. real estate backers — Jordan Kaplan, Victor Coleman, Angela Aman, Jason Oppenheim and Bill Witte — have made donations ranging from $10,000 to the maximum individual cap of $78,400. But, there is a new addition to that circle: Elliott Kahn. Kahn is a Los Angeles-based partner for developer Crescent Heights, one of the more active condo converters in the city, founded by his father — and is on The Real Deal’s Top 100.
CEO shakeup with a board twist
Less about executives and their politics, and more about their corporate world: Jaime Lee is out as chief executive of Jamison, and her brother Garrett Lee took the corner office — and Douglas Emmett elected a Gensler co-chair to its board of directors.
A company spokesperson said she stepped back from the day-to-day to pursue other activities, and she is now a senior advisor for the company co-founded by her father Dr. David Lee. The change comes six years after she got the gig. Jaime Lee was one of the only women at the top of an L.A. commercial real estate company. There’s still Aman at Kilroy, Laura Clark at Rexford, Reon Roski at Majestic and Ann Silverberg at Related on our list.
- What we know: Douglas Emmett
Andy Cohen is now on the real estate investment trust’s board. Cohen is the global co-chair of Gensler and was co-CEO for about two decades. Kaplan’s company paid Gensler around $2 million for its services last year, it disclosed. The REIT said it does not believe that influences Cohen. He should receive an annual retainer of long term incentive plan units with a face value of $220,000.
Third time’s a charm?
Another one bites the dust, or whatever idiom you prefer. A second EY Plaza deal has collapsed. An approved but undisclosed buyer backed out, putting the downtown Los Angeles office tower back on the market and looking for a lucky buyer.
Colliers was shopping the $275 million non-performing note on the Financial District skyscraper, owned by Brookfield but in a receiver’s hands — and the buyer was selected out of a pool offering more than $100 million.
That deal came after Carolwood, a private equity outfit helmed by Adam Rubin and Andrew Shanfeld, had a $130 million pact to purchase the office tower, which fell apart, too. A person familiar with the Carolwood deal said the breakdown had to do with a lease renewal involving the United States Secret Service.
A $100 million price tag for around 900,000 square feet would come out to around $110 per square foot. That’s less than the around $130 mark that keeps popping up, and the seller may have to go even lower if it wants to close.
Boxed out
Speaking of downtown Los Angeles office distress and non-performing note sales, the loan auction on ex-boxer Oscar De La Hoya’s building has ended. We don’t know what the highest offer was, but the starting bid was $5.5 million, which is much less than what the Olympic gold medalist and world champion owes … around $23 million.
It’s a smaller office tower, around 150,000-square-foot, but let’s say the winning bid was $12 million (double, plus another million), that would be $80 per square foot — a low I have yet to see.
Read more
Rick Caruso joins Silicon Valley crowd with million-dollar donation to Mahan
Coleman joins Caruso, Witte, Oppenheim to highlight industry backing of Mahan’s bid for governor
EY Plaza loses another buyer
