Wilshire Boulevard is adding to its roster of car companies. The next entrant? Rolls-Royce. 

Creative Media & Community Trust Corp. has signed a long-term lease with O’Gara Coach for 18,000 square feet at 9460 Wilshire Blvd., an office building in Beverly Hills. The company will open a flagship showroom for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. O’Gara Coach is the largest Rolls-Royce dealer worldwide.  

“The Beverly Hills luxury strip brings to life the young and vibrant culture that defines the Rolls-Royce brand today. This new showcase location lies at the heart of the world’s entertainment, sports and business clientele that influence luxury lovers worldwide,” Martin Fritsches, president and chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas, said in a statement. 

The property is a nine-story office building in the Beverly Hills Golden Triangle. Rolls-Royce will occupy the property in 2023. 

Shaul Kuba, director and board member of CMCT and co-founder and principal of Mid Wilshire-based CIM Group, said the space was previously used by office tenants. When they vacated, Kuba decided it would be better as “something more pedestrian-oriented.” 

CIM manages CMCT. 

“One of the things that we were very excited about is, as you can see, these car companies started to move into Wilshire Boulevard to put their showroom on Wilshire Boulevard, Audi and Ferrari and a few others,” Kuba said. “For us, it was very obvious that it could be a showroom considering its proximity to Rodeo Drive and the Four Seasons next door. …It made sense for it to become something more pedestrian-friendly and not keep it as an office space.” 

Kuba added that the entire area is undergoing a transformation. Earlier this year it was announced that Hudson’s Bay Company’s real estate and investments portfolio business had a five-year plan to redevelop properties affiliated with Saks Fifth Avenue around Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The project will include a pair of office buildings, apartments, retail and dining.  

“There is a shift in the retail along Wilshire Boulevard,” Kuba said. “For us, clearly a very high-end showroom is something that we see has potential for generating an enormous amount of sales tax for the city and some foot traffic along that section of Wilshire Boulevard.” 

He added that “retail is in the process of reinventing itself right now and specifically in that stretch.” 

In Beverly Hills, he said, landlords have to work to find “the right high-end users” to fill spaces. Where Rolls-Royce is going, he said, was not the right space for fashion retailers or food, so a showroom made sense.  

For a car showroom, he said, it is important to “create the wow effect.” That means high ceilings, lots of glass, sight lines and excess space. Kuba said that despite 9460 Wilshire Blvd. having a large office building, the portion of the property Rolls-Royce will occupy feels “like a single-story retail building.” 

Looking forward, Kuba said landlords have to be “very open-minded about new ideas and new concepts in the retail space” when looking at different types of tenants. One example, he said, are urgent care centers. A few years back, some landlords weren’t interested in putting them in retail centers, but now many such centers are in retail locations.  

He is also seeing a lot of interest in pop-up stores. Many online-only retailers, he said, want to test the waters by signing a short-term lease only and expanding with a larger lease if things go well. 

“It’s a good thing, because they draw attention to a retail space,” Kuba said. “They bring in a lot of customers to the space. They help drive traffic, which is very important. You are seeing all kinds of ideas that are starting to pop around to reuse the retail space.” 

Still, Kuba said “CMCT is really not in the business of retail.” Instead, the company is largely focused on creative office spaces. 

“Certain parts of the city have more demand than others … we are going to see a small drop in demand around the city, probably in the next year and a half or so, but it’s just temporary. The talent is here and a lot of the production companies are here. If we’re going to have a little slowdown in the demand it’s very temporary and for very short periods of time. It’s still a very exciting market and nothing within L.A. is without challenges, but it’s still a very good real estate market regarding creative office space, which has enormous demand.”