The Tape
5909 Blackwelder StSold

Culver City Flex Sold at $634/SF

$4.5 million. Owner-user. Zero leased.

At a glance

Sale Price
$4,500,000

closed May 6, 2026

Initial Ask
$5,641,000

original list price

Bid-Ask Delta
($1,141,000)

20.2% below ask

Price / SF
$634/SF

on 7,096 gross SF

Building SF
7,096 SF

single-story, Class B

Lot SF
7,841 SF

0.18 acres, FAR 0.91

Year Built / Reno
1963 / 2023

renovated Oct 2023

Submarket Vacancy
24.8%

Culver City Submarket

Hold Period
47 months

seller held ~4 years

Sale Type
Owner-User

Fenix Development Inc.

What matters

  1. $4.5 million on May 6.The ask was $5.641 million. They came off $1.141 million, about 20%. It sat 156 days.
  2. 7,096 SF of office. $634 a foot.Built 1963. Renovated October 2023. One story. Culver City. Zero leased at sale. Owner-user.
  3. The buyer is Fenix Development. David Norouzi.The sellers are Jim Jacobsen and Christopher Chee, Redcar Properties. They held it 47 months. Newmark listed it. Michael Moore, Laura Stumm, Ryan Plummer, Andrew Jennison. No buyer broker.
  4. No GRM. No cap. No rent roll.Vacant. I do not have what the buyer will do with it.
5909 Blackwelder St photo
LISTING PHOTO VIA COSTAR.

The Location

5909 Blackwelder St sits in Culver City proper, zip 90232.

Culver City has spent a decade attracting tech and media tenants. Apple TV+, Amazon Studios, and smaller production shops moving in. 

The submarket vacancy rate of 24.8% is the honest ledger entry on where that story stands today.

What an Operator Sees

Owner-user in Culver.  $634 is the number I want.

I don't have the income because there is none.

I'm keeping the sale because I like these Flex buildings and I like Culver City.

I research these transactions to sharpen my own investment strategy and share what I find so Los Angeles owners, brokers and investors can debate the market with better information.

Know one other LA owner who'd want this deal? Forward this — reply with their email and I'll add them.

Property and transaction data: CoStar Research.

Where This Trades

The market answered the question. $4.5M, $634/SF, owner-user. The ask at $5.641M ($794/SF) was priced for a healthier leasing environment than Culver City is running right now. The 20.2% discount to ask is not a distressed trade but it is a meaningful correction that reflects real submarket conditions. An investment buyer at 24.8% vacancy would have needed to see a committed lease in place to pay anywhere near $794/SF. No such lease appears in the record.

Speculation. My assumption, and it is only an assumption until I see Fenix's operating filings, is that Fenix is moving a Culver City-adjacent operation into owned premises rather than renewing a lease at current market rents. At $66.96/SF NNN market rent, a 7,096 SF lease costs roughly $476K/year. Debt service on $4.5M at current rates runs roughly $280K-$310K annually at 65% LTV. The buy-versus-lease math works if they have a 5-plus year horizon.

The right buyer for this asset is exactly who bought it: a user who controls their own occupancy and is willing to pay a slight premium to own in a Culver City address with a fresh 2023 renovation. An investor buying for yield would have needed to see this at $3.8M-$4.0M to make the vacancy risk pencil.

Write to David Safai at David@AtlasBrief.La

Appeared in the Sept. 6, 2026 edition of The Tape.