Los Angeles County is poised to take ownership of one of the city's tallest office towers, according to multiple published reports.

The County has offered to pay $215 million for the Gas Company Tower, a 52-story building located at 555 W. 5th Street.  According to the Los Angeles Times, that would allow the workers to move out of existing county building - including the landmark Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration.

Located across the street from Pershing Square, the 52-story tower was completed in 1991 and features roughly 1.4 million square feet of offices. The building, like other trophy towers in the neighborhood, has struggled to retain tenants in the wake of the global pandemic, seeing its occupancy sink to roughly 50 percent, with remaining tenants including the namesake Southern California Gas Co., Deloitte, and Latham & Watkins.

Consequently, the Times reports that the proposed $215 million purchase price is well below the $632 million valuation Gas Company Tower was appraised at in 2020. Commercial Observer reports that the County would pay that reduced price in cash.

Conversion of the tower to Los Angeles County offices may throw off earlier plans by the City of Los Angeles to lease roughly 300,000 square feet of space within the building.

Also unclear is what this means for the County's portfolio of 33 buildings which are in need of seismic retrofit, including the Hall of Administration.

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