Developer Buys Office Tower on Wilshire Blvd.

Los Angeles real estate developer and investor Wayne Ratkovich has returned to the downtown area with the $30-million purchase of an office building at 800 Wilshire Blvd.

In the late 1970s Ratkovich bought and restored two historic properties--the Fine Arts and the Oviatt buildings -- in the central business district. He sold them by the early 1980s and moved on to renovate historic properties in the Wilshire Center including the Wiltern Theater and Chapman Market.

Ratkovich bought the 16-story tower at 800 Wilshire with Prudential Real Estate Advisors from joint owners Praedium Group and ScanlanKemperBard Cos. The deal closed Tuesday. The 213,518-square-foot building is 80% leased; tenants include Johnson Fain Architects, United Mizrahi Bank and Black & Veach Construction.

The tower designed by Los Angeles architect Welton Beckett was built in 1971. Ratkovich said he intended to make $3 million in improvements including upgrades to the lobby and other public areas.

Ratkovich said he bought the building at Wilshire Boulevard and Flower Street because he believed the central city’s appeal was growing and he intended to move his Ratkovich Co. headquarters there.

“We’re delighted to become a part of the renaissance taking place downtown,” he said, “one that will inevitably increase the value of this acquisition.”

Ratkovich Co. also developed the downtown campus for the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in the 1980s. Its largest project is the ongoing development of the Alhambra, a 45-acre, 1-million-square-foot office and retail complex in Alhambra.