Gambling Business Bets on Santa Monica Space

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An online and mobile gaming division of casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp. in Reno, Nev., is preparing a large expansion in Santa Monica.

The gaming division, Caesars Interactive Entertainment Inc., has signed a 22,000-square-foot office lease for the top floor of 2120 Colorado Ave. with landlord Equity Office Management LLC. Terms of the five-year deal were not disclosed but CoStar Group Inc. lists average monthly rents of $4.45 at the building. That would put the lease value at about $5.9 million.

In growing the division, Caesars recently acquired Santa Monica’s Buffalo Studios, the creator of online and mobile bingo game Bingo Blitz. Buffalo occupies about 12,000 square feet among multiple buildings in Santa Monica but will now be consolidated into the new space, which’s big enough to accommodate future growth.

Dave Toomey, principal at Cresa Los Angeles who represented Caesars in the deal, said that the expansion is a welcome sign to the growing Silicon Beach community.

“It’s exciting to have a company like Caesars come into Los Angeles,” Toomey said. “They have deep pockets and capital to grow the business but are looking to grow here in Santa Monica and not in Vegas or somewhere else. So it’s a win for the L.A. tech community.”

The Colorado office space was most recently home to Google Inc., which consolidated its offices into Venice’s Binoculars Building in 2011. Before that, it was home to technology firms such as eCompanies, an incubator that spawned Business.com and LowerMyBills.com.

Caesars plans to move in by the end of the year.

Brian Davies of Cresa Los Angeles also represented Caesars Interactive in the transaction. The landlord was represented in-house by Gail Goldstein, and Scott Rigsby and Jim Jacobsen of Industry Partners, and Randy Starr and Tim Dornan of Avison Young Inc.

Sweet Expansion

Jack’s Wholesale Candy & Toy Co. is getting updated digs.

The company, which has been among the leading American and Mexican candy wholesalers and distributors in downtown Los Angeles for more than 80 years, is building a headquarters at 777 S. Central Ave.

American Construction Management & Engineering Inc., a woman-owned small business based in Pasadena, will build it and South Pasadena’s Cataldo Architects Inc. will design the property.

The new building will have about 40,000 square feet of warehouse space. That will nearly double the amount of space Jack’s has at its current location at 1244 E. Eighth St., near Olympic Boulevard and Central Avenue.

Carol Lefkowitz Jones, chief executive of American, said she hopes the project is a sign of things to come in downtown.

“Since 2008, there has only been a handful of ground-up warehouse construction projects in downtown Los Angeles,” she said in a statement. “We’re hoping this project is an indicator of an uptick in industrial ground-up development. These projects help the overall L.A. economic recovery and create much needed jobs for residents in Southern California.”

Jack’s will move into the expanded building after its scheduled completion early next year.

Storage Sale

A unit of Quixote Studios has bought a 4,000-square-foot former auto repair shop in Hollywood for $3.23 million.

The company, which supplies film and photo production equipment and stages, acquired the property at 6439 Santa Monica Blvd. last week.

The structure was owned by the city of West Hollywood, which had been using the building to store equipment and holiday decorations. West Hollywood officials will now use a location in their city.

Quixote had been searching for additional space to store equipment for its growing production supply and truck rental business. The company chose the property for its size and proximity to Quixote’s headquarters, only two blocks east at 1000 Cahuenga Blvd. It also plans to turn the property into a nighttime parking lot for use by Hollywood theatergoers and visitors, according to Jordan Kitaen, one of the co-founders of Quixote.

The firm owns and leases more than a half-million square feet of space in Los Angeles, including a 120,000-square-foot television production campus near Griffith Park and a 50,000-square-foot film and production campus in West Hollywood.

Avison Young’s Chris Bonbright represented the seller. The buyer was represented internally by Kitaen.


Courting Culver City

Scalable Network Technologies Inc. has moved and expanded into Culver City.

The communications simulation technology company signed a three-year sublease for a 16,000-square-foot portion of the top floor of 600 Corporate Pointe with Investment Technology Group Inc. Terms were not disclosed.

Scalable left its 12,000-square-foot space at Howard Hughes Center in Westchester after its lease expired last month.

Dave Toomey and Brian Davies of Cresa Los Angeles represented the tenant. ITG was represented by Mike Arnold of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.

Staff reporter Jacquelyn Ryan can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.

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