Kingsbarn Snaps Up Hollywood Offices Occupied by Kardashian

Kingsbarn Realty Capital has bought a 116,000-square-foot building in Hollywood occupied by Kim Kardashian’s Skims Body shapewear firm for $105 million, following a lawsuit against the lender that derailed a deal for the office tower last year.

The Las Vegas-based investor led by Jeff Pori bought the eight-story building at 1601 Vine Street, along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

The seller was Snyder Vine, an affiliate of Mid-Wilshire based J.H. Snyder, which developed the building in 2017, then revamped it last year to allow Kardashian to set up shop.

The deal works out to $905 per square foot. It was the largest office transaction of the year in Hollywood, and the second largest in Los Angeles behind a $131 million sale in Westwood.

A small army of brokers from Newmark represented the seller, including Kevin Shannon, Alex Foshay, Ken White, Rob Hannan, Laura Stumm, Michael Moll, Bill Bloodgood and Alex Bergeson. The buyers’ brokers, if any, were undisclosed.

Shannon, co-head of U.S. Capital Markets at Newmark, said investors are showing “renewed conviction” this year in quality offices.

“Top-tier tenants like Skims are prioritizing best-in-class buildings, and contrarian investors are capitalizing on the opportunity to acquire premier office product below replacement cost with historically attractive capitalization rates,” he said in a statement.

The rectangular glass building, formerly occupied by New York-based WeWork, has executive suites and photography studios. It sat empty for nearly a year.

In early 2023, Skims signed a 15-year lease through 2038 in a plan to move its hub to Hollywood, from Culver City. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The building sale comes after Skims opened a 4,500-square-foot flagship store on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, and weeks after Kardashian announced she would consolidate her companies.

Skims, founded in 2019, is the seventh highest valued startup in Los Angeles with a $4 billion valuation as of 2023, according to PitchBook.

The $900-per-square-foot price paid by Kingsbarn was extraordinary compared to the office discounts in Downtown Los Angeles, where prices are as low as $120 per square foot, as companies shift to tonier digs in Century City, Pasadena and El Segundo.

Kingsbarn, founded in 2011 by Pori, has $2.4 billion in assets under management after acquiring 315 properties containing 10.6 million square feet across the U.S., with a development pipeline valued at $2 billion, according to its website.

— Dana Bartholomew