A couple of Hollywood notables are on the move.
Frederick’s of Hollywood Inc., the venerable retailer that has emerged from bankruptcy to recast itself as a higher-end purveyor of intimate apparel, has signed a 10-year, 23,000-square-foot lease for office space at the Sunset Media Tower on Sunset Boulevard.
Terms of the lease were not disclosed, but the average asking rate in the market during the third quarter was $2.27 per foot. At that rate, the value would exceed $6 million.
Frederick’s, which operates 160 stores, will take a floor and a half at the building as its new headquarters, according to Lisa St. John, the Jones Lang LaSalle managing director who represented landlord Archon Group. The space had been vacant for about a year, St. John said.
“Frederick’s has tried to re-brand themselves to be considered in the Victoria’s Secret category, with more higher-end intimate apparel appealing to higher-end clientele, and they wanted a new image for their office,” said St. John.
Frederick’s, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2003, will move from its home of 50 years at 6608 Hollywood Blvd. by Jan. 15, 2005. A Frederick’s spokeswoman declined comment.
Sunset Media Tower is also home to the offices of A.C. Nielsen, House of Blues Entertainment Inc. and the Hollywood offices of the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles. The 303,835-square-foot, 22-story building is 90 percent leased, St. John said.
Two blocks away, at Hollywood & Highland, News Corp. is preparing to swap one unit’s television studio lease for another’s.
The TV Guide Channel has taken the space vacated four months ago when Twentieth Television’s “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” ceased production.
Twentieth TV signed a 10-year lease for the studio space at the giant retail and entertainment complex in late 2003. Rather than assume that contract, the TV Guide Channel is negotiating a new deal with property owner CIM Group Inc.
“We purposely picked this studio because it is in the center of Hollywood and we wanted to stay in the same neighborhood,” said TV Guide Channel spokeswoman Brenda Lowry.
The cable channel has been taping its “What’s On” show, a rundown of daily TV programming with anchors Madison Michele and Lesley Ann Machado, at the studio. That show, which is being reformatted as a weekend program starting Dec. 17, was previously taped at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. The channel also recently premiered “TV Candy,” with Melissa Rivers, which was shot at the new location.
Rather than have the studio serve as the base for just one production, as Twentieth Television did, TV Guide plans to use the soundstages and editing bays at the space as a base for expanded programming, Lowry said.
The live taping of the Seacrest show was credited in part with boosting foot traffic at the mall, but Annette Bethers, Hollywood & Highland’s vice president of marketing and strategic alliances, downplayed the role of TV production in luring traffic.
“While it’s great to have a studio on the property, the studio isn’t that impactful one way or another to our business,” she said.
Burbank Adds Tenants
As Crown Realty & Development enters the second phase of renovations to the Burbank Town Center (previously called the Media City Center), the 1.2 million-square-foot mall has attracted several new tenants.
Bed, Bath & Beyond has signed a lease for a 32,000-square-foot space on the lower level of the mall and Charlotte Russe, an apparel and accessories chain targeting women in their teens and 20s, has inked a deal for a 6,000-square-foot space on the second level that has been vacant for a year-and-a-half. Charlotte Russe is slated to open in the first quarter of 2005, while Bed, Bath & Beyond is expected to open in June 2005.
Other additions include Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, which is expected to open by Thanksgiving, and apparel and accessories store Journeys, which opened earlier this month.
Staff reporter Rebecca Flass can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230, or at
[email protected]
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