‘Premier Business Address’ Retains Allure With Renewals

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The busy corner of Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards has been especially active of late not only with traffic but leasing.


Four deals worth a combined $50 million have been signed at 6500 Wilshire Blvd. The leases with Dow Jones & Co., Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Starcom MediaVest Group and Franzel Robins Bloom & Csato LC are all renewals and account for 170,000 square feet.


Cedars-Sinai renewed 80,000 square feet that houses the hospital’s executive and administrative operations. The health-care provider was represented by Todd Doney of CB Richard Ellis Inc.


Dow Jones, represented by Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s Brad Feld, renewed its 30,000-square-foot space, which is occupied by the company’s eponymous wire service and offices of the Wall Street Journal.


Starcom MediaVest Group, a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe one of the world’s largest publicity conglomerates, renewed its 32,000 square feet and was represented by Joseph Thanhauser of Byrnam Wood and Ralph Simmonds of Simmonds Realty Group.


Business law firm Frandzel Robins Bloom & Csato was represented by Chris Houge, a principal with Madison Partners and CB Richard Ellis’ Stephen Bay in the firm’s 28,000-square-foot renewal.


The 23-story building is owned by WRC Properties Inc., a subsidiary of TIAA-CREF. Rick Buckley, a Madison Partners principal, represented the landlord in each transaction.


“This property endures as one of L.A.’s premier business addresses, even while soft market conditions have allowed major tenants to have their pick of the finest office projects in the city,” he said, adding that more leases would be announced “in the near future.”



More Momentum


CIM Group Inc. continues its fast-paced acquisition of all things Hollywood with the purchase of one of the submarket’s top office properties.


The company is paying about $20 million for the 88,000-square-foot black glass building at 7083 Hollywood Blvd. with a roughly 250-space parking garage, according to Shaul Kuba, a CIM principal. The seller is Mar-Gulf Management Co. Inc., which developed the property in 1982.


The building, where TV producer Stephen J. Cannell keeps his offices and has naming rights, is about 100 percent leased. At rates of about $2.40 a foot, it commands some of the submarket’s highest rents.


The building is also home to the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., a non-profit joint partnership of L.A. county and city that promotes and expedites local filming. Other tenants include Partizan Entertainment LLC and LegalZoom.com Inc., an Internet law firm.


“It’s always been one of the best buildings in the market,” said John Tronson, a principal at Ramsey-Shilling Commercial Real Estate Services. “It’s got a fantastic location and it’s relatively modern by Hollywood standards.”


Kuba said CIM doesn’t have any plans for the building, but wanted to acquire more Hollywood office space. “There’s not much we need to do with it,” he said. “We just want to run it the way it is. It’s already a good building.”


CIM already owns and is headquartered in the TV Guide building at 6922 Hollywood Blvd., another of the submarket’s premiere properties. It also owns Hollywood & Highland and the Hollywood Galaxy, among numerous other boulevard properties.


Tronson said buyers are quick to nab any property that comes onto the market. Ramsey-Shilling just listed a 75,000-square-foot building at 6725 Sunset Blvd., where the Catalina Bar & Grill is located. The building’s owner, Asset Management Consultants in Granada Hills, is asking $21 million for the property, which has an enclosed 225-space parking garage.


The building is 100 percent leased and has been fetching rents of about $2.15 a foot, Tronson said.



Changing Places


Law firm Harrington Bennet & Dorman LLP has inked a $12 million deal to move its offices to the TCW building at 865 S. Figueroa St.


The firm will move its offices from 601 S. Figueroa which was recently put on the market by Hines and a German investment partner and will occupy nearly 41,500 square feet at TCW.


Harrington Bennet & Dorman signed a 10-year lease with TCW owner Manufacturer’s Life Insurance. The law firm, with additional offices in New York, concentrates on business reorganization and bankruptcy matters, and also intellectual property issues.


Manufacturer’s Life was represented internally by Peter Jones and the law firm was represented by CB Richard Ellis Inc.’s Clay Hammerstein and Stephen Bay.



Orange County News


Stadium Gateway, a six-story office building next to Angel Stadium of Anaheim, is being sold for $71 million to Macquarie Office Trust, a unit of Australia’s Macquarie Bank Ltd., according to the company.


The seller, Principal Real Estate Investors, an investment adviser and affiliate of Iowa’s Principal Financial Group Inc., had purchased the property for $52.5 million.


The 273,000-square-foot building, built in 2001, is full, according to Macquarie. The main tenant is New Horizons Worldwide Inc., an operator of computer training schools.


Larger Class-A office buildings have been selling for a premium lately. Investors see limited future competition, since it costs more to put up an office building these days and housing developers are buying commercial sites.


On the homebuilding front, Miami-based Lennar Corp. has started construction on Central Park West in Irvine. Lennar is developing the property with spinoff LNR Property Corp. and Highgate Holdings, an Irving, Texas-based real estate investor.



*Staff reporter Andy Fixmer can be reached by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 263, or by e-mail at

[email protected]

. Orange County Business Journal staff reporter Matthew Padilla contributed to this column.

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