Another major lease deal and a new development project on the Westside are the latest evidence that the entertainment industry’s westward expansion is far from over.

Ironically, much of that expanion is taking place on properties that formerly housed defense companies, reflecting the changed nature of the L.A. economy.

The lease deal involves Fox Inc. parent company of 20th Century Fox committing to three buildings on Olympic Boulevard near Bundy Drive that formerly were occupied by Teledyne Inc., according to John F. Anderson, vice president of real estate for Fox.

Broker Pat Ayau of Lee & Associates said Fox’s 10-year lease for 85,000 square feet of former warehouse space is just the latest in a number of deals reflecting the continued growth of the entertainment industry on the Westside.

“Virtually any space that’s suitable for the entertainment business gets leased pretty quickly” in Santa Monica, West Los Angeles and nearby locales where entertainment and other creative-oriented firms now want to locate, Ayau said.

Entertainment and multimedia tenants may eventually occupy another former Teledyne site, according to Jeff Pion, a senior vice president at CB Commercial Real Estate Group’s Century City office.

Westbrook Marina Office LLC has bought a 4.5-acre site on Culver Boulevard near the Marina (90) Freeway that formerly was used as warehouse space by Teledyne, according to Pion, who represented Westbrook in its purchase of the property from Florida-based Ocwen Bank.

Westbrook plans to remodel the existing 97,200-square-foot building at the site, add two new 10,000-square-foot buildings and call the complex Media Works: A Multimedia Campus, said Lawry Meister, a partner at Santa Monica-based Steaven Jones Development Co., the general partner in Westbrook.

Meister said the remodeling will include installation of skylights, upgraded electrical and communications wiring, and knocking out most of the second floor of the existing building to create higher ceilings and construct mezzanine space all features that are very popular with companies in the advertising, entertainment and multimedia businesses, she said. Entertainment firms need the higher ceilings for stages, she said, while advertising and multimedia firms like the “creative, loft look” of buildings with higher ceilings.

Meister said her firm has completed about five other projects, most of them in Santa Monica, designed especially for the entertainment industry and multimedia firms.

Among those are spaces occupied by Microsoft Corp. and a Microsoft subsidiary called SoftImage Inc., as well as space occupied by Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of such hit action movies as “Con Air,” “Top Gun” and “The Rock.”

According to Lawry, entertainment and multimedia firms have specific requirements, both for practical reasons and because they like the open, airy design of former warehouse buildings. For example, she said film production companies need fiber-optic cable for high-speed transmission of video, but the demand for space is also rising because independent producers and small post-production companies “want to be off the studio lots, in their own spaces, and closer to their homes.”

They also like such amenities as individual air conditioning controls, showers and kitchens because “they often work crazy hours,” Meister said.

Converting warehouse space to attract such tenants usually means gutting the building and undertaking lots of remodeling to suit their needs, Meister said.

One other consideration, Meiser added: The entertainment folk like to be near good restaurants, hence their preference for Santa Monica and, she hopes, Marina del Rey.

Jacobs to relocate

Jacobs Engineering Group will move to a new headquarters in Pasadena about a mile and a half from its existing headquarters at Lake Avenue and Cordova Street, said Noel Watson, Jacobs president and chief executive.

The 50-year-old firm has agreed to move to 75,000 square feet of space at Arroyo Parkway Plaza, at the corner of Arroyo Parkway and Glenarm Street, said R. Todd Doney of Cushman Realty Corp., who represented Jacobs in the 10-year, $15 million lease. Under its current lease, Jacobs committed to 200,000 square feet of space at its existing building but never occupied all of it and was subleasing the space it didn’t need to other companies, Doney said.

According to Watson, Jacobs now needs less space in Pasadena than the company originally planned when it leased its current headquarters because it has decentralized operations considerably and now has branch offices in other parts of L.A. County and elsewhere in the state.

Brokerage promotions

Two Los Angeles executives of CB Commercial were named to new posts last week as part of that brokerage firm’s merger with Koll Real Estate Services, a deal which was scheduled to close late last week.

Brett White, formerly executive managing officer of the Los Angeles Region for CB Commercial, was named president of the Brokerage Services Division for the combined company, which will be called CB Commercial Real Estate Services Group Inc. and will be based in Los Angeles.

Lewis Horne, formerly a managing officer of CB Commercial’s Glendale and Commerce offices and director of education for the company, has been named executive managing officer of the Los Angeles Metro Region, the largest of all of the company’s regions.

Although CB Commercial will be the parent company after the merger, a number of the merged company’s business units will carry CB Commercial or Koll names after the deal closes. Among these will be CB Commercial/Koll Management Services, which will be the company’s property management arm; and CB Commercial/Madison Advisory Group, which will provide a range of corporate real estate services.

Industrial buy

An importer of dishware and table settings, Tabletops Unlimited, has bought an 80,000-square-foot building the company formerly was leasing on Artesia Boulevard near Western Avenue in Gardena.

Dennis Dinneen, a broker with the Torrance office of Lee & Associates who represented the company, said Tabletops bought the property from Southfield, Mich.-based Harada Corp., which formerly used the building to manufacture automobile aerials.

Dinneen said Tabletops paid $2.8 million for the building, or about $36.25 per square foot, which Dinneen described as “slightly under” the current market price for industrial space.

According to Dinneen, changing market conditions enabled Tabletops to strike a good deal. He said the company had two years left on its lease at rates considerably lower than current rates, so the owner was willing to sell as a way of getting more money out of the property than it would have by continuing to lease it.

Another industrial buy

Weyerhaeuser Paper Co. has bought a 75,000-square-foot industrial building in Norwalk for $3.55 million to expand its L.A.-area recycling activities, according to Pat Remolacio, associate vice president at The Seeley Co.

Remolacio said Weyerhaeuser chose the 4.3-acre site, on Alondra Boulevard near Shoemaker Avenue, because it needed a rail-served building for transporting paper to the company’s mills. The company plans to move into the building in November and will employ 70 workers there, he said.

Contributing reporter Bob Howard writes on commercial real estate for the Los Angeles Business Journal.