Santa Monica : Pasadena Firm Buys Interest in Colorado Place

Southmark Pacific Corp. of Pasadena has purchased Becket Investment Corp.’s partnership interest in Colorado Place, an office-restaurant complex at Cloverfield Boulevard and 26th Street.

Officials declined to disclose the purchase price.

The project opened in early 1984 with 435,000 square feet of office space, a 45,000-square-foot restaurant complex, a child-care center and parking for 1,800 cars.

Becket decided to postpone the second phase of the project, a 396-room hotel and 330,000 more square feet of offices, citing high interest rates and an overabundance of office space in the Westside.

The new owner “is desirous of completing the overall project as soon as possible, following (a) detailed review of the second-phase plans and current market-demand data,” said Gene E. Phillips, chairman and president of Southmark Corp., the Dallas-based parent company of Southmark Pacific.

Southmark Corp. is one of the largest diversified public real estate companies in the country, with assets of more than $3.5 billion, officials said.

Becket Investment Corp is the principal investor in Colorado Place Limited, which developed the project designed by Welton Becket Associates. The Kranz Interests will retain limited-partner status in the project.