The online movie company Ifilm.com recently announced plans to move its headquarters from San Francisco to Los Angeles. But where exactly?
That was finalized Jan. 28 when, in an agreement that came together in only seven calendar days, the company signed a 10-year lease for 30,000 square feet in Hollywood, at 1024 N. Orange Drive. The deal is valued at $9 million.
The building is owned by Albert Sweet, a Hollywood owner-investor who converted the former industrial building into office space on spec. It had been on the market for more than eight months, and a large entertainment company was said to be close to a deal.
Ifilm’s broker, Matthew Miller of Cresa Partners, said the location choice wasn’t tied to talk of Tinseltown’s long-awaited renaissance. The site simply made the most sense out of all the options on the market. “It was the right building and location,” he said.
Ifilm has received $35 million in funding from Paul Allen, Sony Pictures Entertainment and other big-name investors. Launched last year, the company aims to be a leading online entertainment site, as well as provider of Web-based services for Hollywood professionals.
It plans to increase its presence in L.A., where top executives already have relocated, from 10 to about 70 employees.
The Hollywood office market has been picking up steam, with lots of deals in smaller, creative buildings. And content-based Internet companies are migrating there rather than Santa Monica, where the rates are higher and space is getting scarce, said Chris Bonbright, president of Ramsey-Shilling Co.
But some still see a gap between tenant interest and actual commitments, which is why deals such as Ifilm are good news.
“A lot of people are poking around, but it’s not to the level of saying, ‘We’ve really got to be there,'” said Shaul Kuba with CIM Group, which owns five buildings in Hollywood. “(Ifilm is) a great company to have in the neighborhood. It’s like one company after another, and all of a sudden they want to be there because they feel comfortable and they’re not all by themselves.”
Mega-Lease
Less than three months after Ratkovich Co. purchased the 1000 S. Fremont Ave. office complex in Alhambra, it has signed a major lease deal.
Los Angeles County has signed a 210,000-square-foot deal valued at about $50 million. Ron Heim, senior vice president with Trammell Crow Co., spearheads leasing at The Alhambra and represented Ratkovich in the deal. The space will house offices for the Department of Health Services, Public Works and Sheriff’s Department.
The campus dates to the 1920s. A group including L.A.-based Ratkovich purchased it last November for $75 million. Company President Wayne Ratkovich said occupancy now stands at 75 percent and with other leases underway, that should soon rise to 85 percent.
“We have a unique environment and we hope to attract a variety of tenants,” he said.
Office Sale
Kearny Real Estate Co. has sold 6330 San Vicente Blvd., adjacent to Beverly Hills, to Lexington Commercial Holdings for $15 million.
After Kearny purchased the 100,000-square-foot building in 1997, it invested about $2 million in renovations and raised the occupancy from 30 percent to 95 percent.
“It’s a classic example of a value-added transaction,” said David Simon, senior vice president with Kearny.
Howard Hughes Gets a Dot-Com
HomePage.com, an Idealab company, has leased a full floor at Arden Realty’s Howard Hughes Center.
Homepage has leased 24,000 square feet in the new building under construction at 6060 Center Drive, along the San Diego (405) Freeway. The five-year deal is valued at $4.5 million. Asking rates at the building are about $3 per square foot per month.
“It’s our first dot-com deal in the center and we’re negotiating with several others,” said Michael Pollack, director of leasing for the center. Matthew Miller represented Homepage and a CB Richard Ellis team of Grafton Tanquary, John Ayoob, Bill Bloodgood and Stan Gerlach represented Arden.
The building is now 30 percent pre-leased, expected to be 90 percent by the time it opens June 1. Law firm Fulwider Patton Lee & Utecht had earlier leased the top two floors of the 240,000-square-foot building.
RE/MAX Expands
Long perceived as mainly a residential company, RE/MAX is expanding its presence in the commercial real estate world.
It has opened its commercial brokerage offices at 11620 Wilshire Blvd. and hired several agents, including: apartment specialists Jeff McGuire, David Brumer and Max Golestan-Parast from Marcus & Millichap; retail specialist Brenton Gilmore from Grubb & Ellis; office leasing specialist Ben Super from Charles Dunn Co.; Dieter Hochheimer from RW Selby & Co.; and Carlos Vigon, Carl Alaniz, Jacqueline Fleming and Jody Laport from other area RE/MAX offices.
The brokerage is a joint venture by the principals of Secured California Investments, Marc Paul and Robert Robotti, and RE/MAX Beach Cities/Westside Properties.
MGM Deal?
Douglas Emmett Realty Advisors is the frontrunner to either buy or enter into some sort of deal with MaguirePartners for MGM Plaza. Possibilities being discussed include a joint venture or participating mortgage.
The complex has flip-flopped between the two over the years. Douglas Emmett bought the complex in 1996 for $220 million from Maguire Thomas Partners, as it was then known. Developer Robert Maguire had secured an option to repurchase the complex and did so a year later. He then put it up for sale late last year.
CFO to Leave
John Haeckel, who has served as CB’s chief financial officer for the past three years, has resigned effective mid-February and is returning to his hometown of Chicago.
Elizabeth Hayes can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 229, or at [email protected].
