Weekly Real Estate News
Summary
Newmark announced the completed discounted sale of a loan with a reported $290 million face amount secured by the 45-story, 1.16-million-square-foot Wells Fargo Center South office tower in downtown Los Angeles. Buyer New Age 355 LLC is affiliated with Kam Sang Company. Seller and actual loan-sale price were not disclosed. The tower was approximately 42% leased. This was a loan purchase, not a completed transfer of the underlying building.
An affiliate of Kam Sang Company has acquired a loan secured by one of downtown Los Angeles’s largest office towers at a discount, another sign of the repricing underway in buildings that have struggled to fill space since the pandemic.
New Age 355 LLC bought the loan on Wells Fargo Center South, a 45-story, 1.16-million-square-foot property in the Bunker Hill district. Newmark announced the completed loan sale October 19, describing the debt as a $290 million loan and saying the transaction occurred at a discount.
The actual sale price was not disclosed, nor was the lender that sold the debt. That distinction matters: the $290 million figure describes the loan referenced by the announcement, not the cash paid by Kam Sang’s affiliate. A loan purchase also does not establish that the buyer has acquired title to the building or that a foreclosure has taken place.
A large tower with most space unleased
Wells Fargo Center South was approximately 42% leased when the loan changed hands, according to Newmark. That leaves roughly 58% of the space without reported leases. Applying the percentage to the building’s stated area suggests about 670,000 square feet was not leased, although usable and rentable space calculations can differ from gross building area.
The property was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and stands in the Bunker Hill business district. Its tenant mix includes government, legal, insurance and financial-services occupiers. Newmark highlighted the building’s proximity to transit and cultural destinations, as well as access to an amenity center.
Kevin Shannon, Ken White, Laura Stumm, Rob Hannan and Michael Moll represented the seller, which Newmark did not identify. The firm did not disclose the loan’s maturity, unpaid balance at closing, interest rate, payment status or any restructuring agreement with the borrower. Those gaps prevent a precise estimate of the lender’s loss or the buyer’s expected return.
For an investor acquiring distressed or discounted office debt, the eventual outcome can depend on negotiations with the property owner, additional capital requirements, lease-up spending and the rights attached to the mortgage. Buying debt at a lower basis may improve the economics, but the cost of attracting tenants and maintaining a large tower remains substantial.
Newmark said owner-users represented 59% of Los Angeles office sales above $25 million through the third quarter, more than twice the average share recorded in 2024 and 2025. That is the brokerage’s market analysis; it does not mean New Age 355 has publicly committed to occupy the Wells Fargo Center South tower. The buyer’s intended use was not disclosed in the loan-sale announcement.
WRE recently covered lease rollover exposure in Chicago office loans, another example of how office cash flow and debt structure can interact. Los Angeles’s particular challenge includes finding occupants for large blocks of space in towers whose financing was arranged under different leasing assumptions.
The next developments to watch are whether the new noteholder reaches an agreement with the existing property owner, invests in leasing or pursues remedies under the loan documents. None of those steps was announced as completed.
Primary source: Newmark, October 19, 2026. Featured photograph: Venti Views / Unsplash; illustrative Los Angeles skyline, not a verified image of Wells Fargo Center South.
