UPDATE 2-Hudson Pacific shares rise in market debut

* Shares close at $17.40, up 2.4 pct from $17 IPO price

* Trading on NYSE under symbol "HPP" (Adds byline, updates stock close)

By Ilaina Jonas and Clare Baldwin

NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - Shares of office property owner and operator Hudson Pacific Properties Inc (HPP.N) traded as much as 4.7 percent above their initial public offering price on Thursday.

The stock opened at $17.50 and rose as high as $17.80 before closing at $17.40, up 2.4 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

On Wednesday, the company raised about $217.6 million by selling 12.8 million shares for $17 each, the bottom of an anticipated price range that had a high end of $19.

Los Angeles-based Hudson Pacific owns and operates office properties in Northern and Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, the Silicon Valley and the East Bay.

The founders are veterans of Arden Realty, the former publicly traded real estate investment trust that focused on Southern California office property. GE Real Estate, a unit of General Electric Co (GE.N), took Arden private in 2006 for $4.8 billion, including the assumption of $1.6 billion of debt.

Hudson Chief Executive Officer Victor Coleman co-founded and was president of Arden. Howard Stern, Hudson's president, was Arden's chief investment officer, overseeing its expansion to 20 million square feet from 12 million.

The company's investors include hedge fund firm Farallon Capital Management LLC, which has been active in commercial real estate. Farallon is one of the providers of financing for bankrupt General Growth (GGP.N) and has also invested alongside Simon Property Group (SPG.N) in its acquisition of the Mills Corp in 2007.

Hudson said in a regulatory filing that it would focus on underperforming commercial real estate and properties that need more work to boost rent and occupancy.

After the IPO and formation transactions, Hudson Pacific said it would own eight properties totaling 2 million square feet.

The company said it would use proceeds from the offering to pay off mortgages and acquire new properties.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N), Barclays Capital (BARC.L) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) are leading the underwriters on the offering. The shares are trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HPP."

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Robert MacMillan and Bernard Orr)