On a recent Wednesday morning, the staff at a small cafe in the lobby of a major Los Angeles skyscraper was struggling to keep up with the rush of customers when two men hopped behind the counter to help with coffee orders.

Adam Tischer and Adam Rubin were not some random good Samaritans, they are the building's landlords, part of the new ownership group of the 62-story Aon Center at 707 Wilshire Blvd., the third-tallest building in Los Angeles.

Aon Center is the first office tower that either man has ever owned, and they are eager to be hands on, whether it is serving up breakfast sandwiches on a busy morning or introducing luxury car service for tenants.

Rubin, whose firm has been a tenant in the building for seven years, said he would often daydream about improvements he might make. "You see all the opportunities and you think it would be so easy to do this and why isn't the building owner doing that and so here we are, making those changes."

Tischer and Rubin both spoke with CoStar News about buying and operating a high-rise office for the first time. You can listen to the interview here:

Though they are no strangers to commercial real estate, the new ownership group is biting off a challenge that has overwhelmed even seasoned office owners.

The office market in downtown Los Angeles hasn't been this weak in at least a decade, with vacancy rates remaining near 20% and asking rents falling to $38.19 per square foot, according to CoStar data.

Tischer recalls when he first told acquaintances about his new acquisition "there was shock and sometimes horror."

But he and his partners reason the market overall has over-corrected negatively and they can reap the upside by making Aon Center — a building they said still has "good bones" — more attractive to tenants. The building is roughly 64% leased, below the area average of 80%, according to CoStar data.

Tischer is a senior vice president of Colliers and Rubin is the co-founder of Carolwood LP and president of L&R Group of Companies, an owner of parking companies including Wally Park and Joe's Auto Parks. The two met at a Los Angeles Clippers game where they decided to go into business together, and made their first purchase in December with the $147.8 million acquisition of Aon Center.

For nearly a decade after it was built, Aon Center was the tallest U.S. building west of the Mississippi River. Last year's sale of the property is the only transaction in the region since 2020 for tower properties spanning more than 1 million square feet.

The recent price is still well below the $268.5 million that the seller, San Francisco-based Shorenstein, paid for the tower in October 2014, according to CoStar and public records.

"Internally as a group the biggest question was 'Are we buying too soon, are we too early to the party?'" Tischer said.

The duo say they feel good about their timing now that they are owners. They are betting on long-term demand for the office sector with plans to ramp up occupancy through upgrades at the nearly 50-year-old building. Current tenants include the building's namesake, the professional services company Aon, as well as law firm Morrison & Foerster and bank Wells Fargo, according to CoStar data.

To entice prospective tenants to move to Aon Center, the owners are leaning on unique amenities like giving tenants access to a luxury car service — with a fleet including a $200,000-plus Mercedes-Maybach Sedan — to take someone to a meeting or picking up an executive from the airport.

The owners also opened an upscale cafe in the building with a sister concept Croft Alley in Beverly Hills, contrasting with the office's prior food operator that had "airport-level food," Rubin said.

Planned upgrades include a renovated gym with in-demand additions like a cold plunge, the executives note, as well as an upgraded lobby.

For years, office owners were less visible in downtown Los Angeles, with skyscrapers typically controlled by global real estate firms like Brookfield and Blackstone.

Now, these institutional buyers are bowing out of office ownership in response to weakening demand. In 2023, private buyers and owner-users were more active in Los Angeles office sales than in years past, according to CoStar data. Private buyers have ticked up nationally, too, and represent about half of all purchases today as institutional investors and real estate investment trusts step back, according to CoStar data.

As other investors scale back, the Tischer-Rubin venture is scouting additional office properties with plans to expand its holdings over the next year, in and outside of Los Angeles.

The venture hopes Aon Center can serve as an early success story for the company, with the owners not necessarily looking to make the building profitable or "take out" any of the cash flow, Tischer said. The profits probably will arrive later when they decide to sell.

"We're looking forward to pouring that [cash flow] back in to create a best-in-class office experience," Tischer said.