Kingsbarn Realty Capital has snapped up a building on the Hollywood Walk of Fame fully leased to a fast-growing fashion brand. The top-dollar deal serves as the latest sign of brighter times for the national office market.
The Las Vegas-based investor paid $105 million, or $908 per square foot, to buy the Skims headquarters building at 1601 Vine from JH Snyder. The deal is only the fourth office sale to exceed $100 million in Los Angeles in the past two years, and the per-square-foot price is nearly triple the area average, according to CoStar data.
The Skims office purchase is the latest in a string of bets larger landlords and investors are making as the national office market has demonstrated a broadened sense of recovery. Such bets are even stronger for newer office properties with high-profile and long-term tenants; Skims' lease for the Los Angeles office runs through 2038.
“The combination of the location at Hollywood and Vine, the magnificent design, the perfect Hollywood tenant, and the long-term lease, makes for a winning investment opportunity,” Kingsbarn Chief Executive Officer Jeff Pori said in a statement.
Kingsbarn struck up a prior deal for the property in 2023, when office vacancies were still climbing across the country in response to pandemic work trends. The deal fell through because of capital markets turmoil, Pori said. Two years later, Kingsbarn was able to secure financing and close the deal, showing further "evidence that the office market is recovering, a trend we expect to continue and to even accelerate," he said.
While the national office vacancy rate remains stuck near 14%, Hollywood is still struggling, with office vacancy up to 21% from 18% last year. Tenants in the neighborhood, reacting to entertainment industry doldrums, have given back 267,000 more square feet than they have leased in the past year.
Strong tenant
JH Snyder developed the 115,589-square-foot property — also with a bank branch at street level — in 2017 and extensively renovated it in 2024 to better suit Skims, with high-end finishes including high-volume ceilings, a limestone lobby with terrazzo flooring, floor-to-ceiling windows offering panoramic views of Hollywood, and on-site photography studios.
Skims, founded in 2019 by social media star Kim Kardashian, had an estimated valuation of $4 billion in July 2023 after raising $270 million in a Series C funding round.
“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 cap rates," said a statement from Kevin Shannon, Newmark co-head of U.S. capital markets, who helped represent the seller.
The purchase comes a few days after Skims opened its first Los Angeles retail store at 8569 W. Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood. The digitally native brand started opening physical stores last year in Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Aventura, Florida, the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., and Houston. A New York City flagship opened in March, and the firm plans to open an outpost on Rush Street in Chicago.
Skims has a strong commitment to in-person work as more companies around the country call remote workers back into the office, according to Newmark Vice Chairman Laura Stumm.
"For Skims, in-person collaboration is essential — especially in a tactile, design-led industry like apparel," Stumm said in a statement. "Their 15-year lease signals a strong belief in the long-term value of a physical workspace to foster creativity, culture and innovation.”
U.S. office transaction volume continued an improving trend in the first quarter of 2025, finishing 31% higher from early 2024. This follows a 22% increase in total sales for 2024 compared to the cyclical lows of 2023.
“Capital is showing renewed conviction in high-quality, 2025-vintage office investments,” Shannon said.
For the record
In addition to Shannon and Stumm, Newmark's Alex Foshay, Ken White, Rob Hannan, Michael Moll, Bill Bloodgood and Alex Bergeson represented the seller, while Jonathan Firestone and Henry Cassiday assisted on potential debt financing. Hankey Capital provided the first mortgage for Kingsbarn, with IBI Volcano Investments providing additional equity.