Infomart, the Dallas-based company that purchased the historical Terminal Annex building adjacent to downtown’s Union Station, is beginning to flesh out its plans for assembling a “technology community” on the site.
As envisioned, the project would combine technological facilities with class-A office space in a bid to attract more telecommunications companies to the downtown area.
“We’re trying to draw different types of telecom concerns data centers, call locations, Internet service providers, Web developers in summary, anyone in need of serious bandwidth,” said Andres Friedman, the company’s development manager in Los Angeles.
Infomart’s philosophy is to establish a “communications ecosystem” that would enable technology agents to buy and sell fiber capacity, switch service capacity and create “synergy” through the sharing of ideas.
The company has completed the feat once prior, in its hometown back in 1985. The 1.6 million-square-foot facility it developed in Dallas was purchased in 1999 by NeXcomm Capital Partners.
Friedman says downtown L.A.’s 475,000-square-foot landmark Terminal Annex lends itself perfectly to the kind of project Infomart is planning. Among its desirable characteristics are a floor-load capacity of up to 250 pounds per square foot.
“The typical building has 70 pounds capacity,” explains Friedman. “These companies can put their equipment in our building without having to worry.”
Another important feature is the building’s floor-to-ceiling height, which is 16 feet.
Given that the site is in a federal empowerment zone and city enterprise zone, where developers are given government assistance on projects, the Department of Water & Power has teamed with Infomart to make improvements so that the facility will be able to handle 120 watts of power per square foot.
Friedman says leasing efforts are underway and potential tenants have begun touring the building. He said the average office will range between 100 and 150 square feet.
“It’s not a question of securing an anchor for us,” he notes. “Once you have a telecom or data center in the building, it creates a credibility, and that’s the kind of anchor we’re looking for.”
Infomart hopes to have lessees entering the building to do their own wiring starting in December, with shell and core work set for conclusion in March 2001. He said the site has the potential to hold some 800 employees.
Mark Shaffer, a sales associate who covers the downtown area with the real estate brokerage Seeley Co., thinks there is ample demand by telecom tenants to support the building.
“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” he said. “What’s interesting is that Infomart took a building out in Dallas that you couldn’t find a tenant for and ended up leasing it 100 percent. They consider themselves to be ‘technology chemists,’ and they put the tenants together. With the dot-com revolution right now and everyone trying to find synergy, you want to be with other people with similar ideas, and if you can market (your building) as the place to be, you can even charge a premium.”
