Universal City Building Signs Up Two Tenants

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Two lease deals have been done at the 3330 Cahuenga Blvd. West office building in Universal City.

The Class A property is owned by office property owner Glenborough Realty Trust Inc., which was acquired by Morgan Stanley Real Estate in November 2006.

In January, Glenborough agreed to five-year leases with Panasonic Corp. and Imagination International Corp. With the deals, the building is now 100 percent occupied.

The five-story building doesn’t really fall into one Los Angeles submarket; it straddles North Hollywood, the Burbank Media District and Universal City all hot areas for office space.

In the $4.2 million Imagination deal, the tenant signed a lease for 21,038 square feet the entire fifth floor of the building. The video game maker had been subleasing space on that floor for 18 months and when another tenant moved out Imagination made a push for the entire floor. The company will move into its new digs in about two months.

“They are doing some extensive tenant improvement work,” said Nico Vilgiate of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. who represented the landlord in the deal.

Panasonic’s $2.5 million deal for ground-floor space was a renewal of 10,904 square feet. The company uses the space for offices and a portion for entertainment business services. Panasonic also has building-top signage at the property.

The rental rates for the leases were not disclosed.

John Murray of CB Richard Ellis also represented Glenborough. Studley Inc.’s Craig Jablin and Liron Nelik represented Imagination, and Newmark Knight Frank’s Myron Galchutt and Jeff Foster represented Panasonic.


Hawaiian Gardens Deal

The building and land that houses a Food 4 Less store in Hawaiian Gardens has changed hands in a $14 million all-cash deal.

Park City Main Street Mall LLC, the entity of an unnamed L.A.-area family trust, purchased the 58,944-square-foot store and 4.9-acre property Jan. 31 on a 1031 tax-deferred exchange basis from local real estate developer Decron Properties Corp.

Kroger Co., which owns Food 4 Less, is locked into a lease at the 12254 Carson St. property until 2021.

Dixie Walker, the Grubb & Ellis Co. broker who represented the seller, said that despite the slow real estate market, 1031 exchange deals are getting done at a healthy rate.

Peter Spragg of Grubb & Ellis also represented the seller and Fouy Ly of Sperry Van Ness represented the buyer.


Credit Crunch Woes

CBRE Realty Finance Inc., an affiliate of Los Angeles-based global real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis Group, has written down $19.2 million of loans it is owed by a New York City real estate developer.

The March 13 write-down of loans made to developer Harry Macklowe is another sign of the deepening credit crunch and slumping real estate market. Macklowe owed $82.8 million to CBRE Realty Finance, a Hartford, Conn.-based commercial lending company.

The two loans were made in the second quarter of 2007, according to a company spokesperson who would not discuss the status of the loans.

However, in a conference call with investors earlier this month, Kenneth Witkin, chief executive of CBRE Realty Finance, said that about 94 percent of the company’s $95 million of “nonperforming” assets is attributable to the two Macklowe loans.

“We believe that by taking reserves on these assets, we are taking the appropriate action to protect the integrity of the company,” said Witkin during the call.

Macklowe has been highly leveraged since last year when he borrowed $7 billion to buy New York City properties from Equity Office Properties Trust. CBRE Realty Finance was one of the lenders that made the purchase possible. According to industry reports, Macklowe hasn’t been able to refinance the costly short-term loans he got for the Equity Office purchase.


Staff reporter Daniel Miller can be reached at

[email protected]

or (323) 549-5225, ext. 263.

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