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5/20/21
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Robert F. Maguire III, the prolific commercial real estate developer whose work left a dramatic imprint on the downtown Los Angeles skyline, has passed away at the age of 86 due to complications caused by pneumonia, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Maguire’s development work began with industrial and residential projects in the 1960s, before venturing into the office market. Although his projects can be found in a number of U.S. cities, including Philadelphia and Dallas, many would consider his greatest contribution to be the downtown L.A. high-rise office towers he developed with Jim Thomas as Maguire Thomas Partners in the 1980s and early 1990s.
These projects started with the 2.5 msf Wells Fargo Center and also included the 73-story skyscraper now known as U.S. Bank Tower, the Gas Company Tower and KPMG Tower. U.S. Bank Tower stood as the tallest building on the west coast for many years until the recent completion of Wilshire Grand Center, also in downtown L.A., and Salesforce Tower in San Francisco.
After splitting with Maguire Thomas, Maguire went out his own, getting involved in a number of other office projects, including the acquisition of a large portfolio of properties in L.A. and Orange County at a less than ideal time in 2007. Later, under his own company, Maguire Investments, he developed Water’s Edge, the two-building, 260k sf creative office campus at the edge of Playa Vista that serves as the HQ for video game company Electronic Arts.
Maguire was also active in various philanthropic causes in Los Angeles, even serving as a volunteer President of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. During his tenure he helped the museum acquire the adjacent, eight-acre property that formerly housed a May Company department store.
Maguire also served as a board member of the Los Angeles Music Center and a trustee of St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. Earlier, during his Maguire Thomas days, as part of negotiations to build U.S. Bank Tower and Gas Company Tower, he helped rescue the Los Angeles Central Library. The Library had been badly damaged in an earlier fire and Maguire helped facilitate over $100 mil in needed repairs to save the property.
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