Southern California Gas Co. plans to relocate from its longtime headquarters after signing the largest office lease this year in downtown Los Angeles.
SoCalGas is leaving its eponymous Gas Company Tower at 555 W. 5th St., where it has been an anchor tenant since the building was completed in 1991, and relocating one block north to another skyscraper at 350 S. Grand Ave.
The power company signed a long-term lease for about 200,000 square feet on eight floors in the Grand Avenue building in Bunker Hill known as Two California Plaza and plans to build out its new offices and then move in by spring 2026, according to the new landlord. The gas company will also have offices on the first floor to serve customers.
Office space for lease in the Bunker Hill neighborhood of downtown’s financial district has seen a long-term decline in occupancy since the pandemic began allowing employees to work from home.
Bunker Hill benefits from a diverse mix of building types, including offices, apartments, and hotels, as well as being one of the city’s premier cultural destinations, with institutions such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Broad Museum, and the Colburn School of Music.
“We’re like an island downtown,” said landlord Shaul Kuba, whose CIM Group owns Two California Plaza. “It’s very populated, day and night, and there’s a lot of culture.”
The building is part of an office, hotel and retail complex that dates back to the 1980s, when the former residential neighborhood of Bunker Hill was being rebuilt from the ground up in a process of “urban renewal” aimed at transforming rundown neighborhoods.
With the introduction of SoCalGas, Two California Plaza will be home to two major Los Angeles institutions. City National Bank is already headquartered there and currently has its name plastered across the top. Kuba said that as part of the lease agreement with SoCalGas, the company’s name will be replaced with City National.
The new offices will be about two-thirds the size of SoCalGas’ current space in Gas Company Tower. Power company spokeswoman Erica Berardi did not address the reason for the move but said the current lease expires at the end of 2026.
“SoCalGas is excited to maintain its headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles, where it has a long history as one of the region’s largest tenants,” she said.
The lease is the largest in Downtown Los Angeles this year, according to an analysis by Ray’s Commercial Real Estate.
The utility’s downtown roots date back to the 1800s and it is the largest gas distributor in the United States, serving approximately 21 million customers across 24,000 square miles in Central and Southern California.
In a separate transaction, Gas Company Tower is Los Angeles County has tentatively agreed to buy a prominent office skyscraper near the historic Millennium Biltmore Hotel for $215 million in a foreclosure sale that could take months to complete.
The Board of Supervisors still must approve the purchase, and the county has begun a due diligence process to examine the property for possible structural and other issues before completing the transaction.
