Landmark Square sold for paltry $50M in Downtown Long Beach; plans to convert to housing

Landmark Square at 111 W. Ocean Blvd.—often called “The Wells Fargo Building” by locals and visitors alike—has been sold to developer Izek Shomof for a meager $50M, as first reported by The Real Deal. Per city applications submitted at the end of last year, Shomof plans to convert the tower into a mixed-use building with approximately 391 residential units.

To put the purchase into perspective: John Hancock—under the oversight of Manulife Financial Corporation—bought the building in 2013 for a staggering $135.5M. That means the cost per square foot has dropped from $295 to $109 over the past decade under John Hancock’s ownership.

The timeline for this proposed conversion? Years—and that’s on the lowend. Shomof will have to cycle through and properly end current tenant leases. Only then could he, as a developer, move forward with converting the 460,000-square-foot property into housing.

And Shomof is no stranger to convering properties. About a year ago, Shomof purchased 101 N. Brand Blvd. in Glendale for $58.5M from Beacon Capital Partners. (They bought the property in 2016 for $128.5M—and, yet again, another stellar deal for Shomof.) In 2024, he bought 617 W. 7th St. in DTLA from Swig Company for $20.5M, about half of its purchase price a decade prior. 

The significance of Landmark Square in Downtown Long Beach

Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue is a true “main-and-main” gateway into Downtown Long Beach—despite its roller coaster of a history, from the sad demolition of the Jergins Building to the odd-but-fund Loop installation to the adaptive reuse of Ocean Center. And Landmark Square has long played the role its name promises: a skyline anchor meant to read instantly as the modern office address on the waterfront. Built across 1990 and 1991 as a 24-story tower at 111 W. Ocean Blvd., the building rose during the era when cities like Long Beach were actively reshaping their downtown cores with new corporate high-rises, polished public lobbies, and a stronger visual “front door” along Ocean. 

Architecturally, the tower is a confident slice of late-20th-century postmodern commercial design. Rectilinear massing sharpened by crisp edges. A gridded façade that reads as institutional in all the right ways. And a composition that feels intentionally monumental at street level—especially where the base and lobby meet the sidewalk. 

Landau Partnership is credited as the architect, and the building’s material heft—including extensive, now almost non-existent-in-contemporary-towers granite—and dramatic, art-forward lobby were part of the point. This was designed to impress tenants and visitors arriving from Pine or Ocean, with views stretching out toward the harbor, the skyline, and the Queen Mary. 

Its history since completion also tracks the story of downtown’s shifting priorities. The property has cycled through major ownership and, by the 2000s and 2010s, leaned into performance and prestige markers. It earned LEED Silver certigication in 2010 and a BOMA International “Building of the Year” award in 2007.