Miracle Mile developer J.H. Snyder Co. has signed its first lease for a creative office campus it is building in Hollywood.
Broad Green Pictures, a film production, financing and distribution company co-founded by billionaire hedge fund manager Gabriel Hammond and his brother Daniel, sealed the deal in early April, signing a 10-year lease for 36,000 square feet at the Hollywood 959 development. The transaction is valued at roughly $11.6 million, according to average asking rates for similar properties in the Hollywood market provided by CoStar Group Inc.
Construction of the $138 million, 245,000-square-foot office plaza, at 959 Seward St., began last March and is expected to be completed this August, said Patrick Church, managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s downtown L.A. office, who, with Anneke Greco, represented Snyder in the deal.
Broad Green will expand from the 10,000 square feet it takes in Hollywood, at nearby Hollywood Center Studios and at several other temporary spaces in the neighborhood. The company needed short-term space to accommodate its rapid expansion, said Patrick Amos of CBRE Group Inc., who represented the producer in the transaction.
In February, Broad Green acquired a 45 percent stake in London’s Mister Smith Entertainment, a licensing and distribution operation, and it will release Ramin Bahrani’s real estate thriller “99 Homes,” starring Andrew Garfield, later this year.
“Hollywood is definitely a market that attracts tenants from within and from the outside,” Church said. “Because of the residential infrastructure, film infrastructure and Metro stations, we’re seeing tenants from all of the surrounding markets look for space in Hollywood, whether they are coming from Mid-Wilshire or West Los Angeles or north from Burbank.”
While Broad Green is the first tenant to sign at the property, Church said he is in multiple negotiations with prospective tenants.
South L.A. Retail Sale
Century City real estate investment firm Optimus Properties has dropped $24.3 million on a South L.A. shopping center it had been eyeing since 2001.
The deal with Regency Centers Corp. for the Juanita Tate Marketplace, a 77,000-square-foot, 6.5-acre shopping center at 944-1040 E. Slauson Ave., was finally able to close after years of litigation over the eminent domain acquisition of the site ended and construction was completed.
Optimus was a development partner in the project, along with local nonprofit Concerned Citizens of Central Los Angeles and CRA/LA, successor to the city’s redevelopment agency. The CRA began assembling the site through eminent domain in 1998, and one of the former owners, recycling and waste management firm Kramer Metals, fought the acquisition for years.
“With all the different pieces of the puzzle … I’m surprised it even got done in 17 years,” said Joseph Shabani, a principal of Optimus.
Construction on the development was completed in May and it is now fully leased. The center consists of a 42,500-square-foot building occupied by grocery store Northgate Gonzalez Market, a 14,576-square-foot building leased by CVS Pharmacy; and two freestanding buildings totaling 20,000 square feet that are occupied by Starbucks, Panda Express, Yogurtland and others.
While it was going through legal tussles, supporters of the development touted it as a solution to a shortage of grocery stores in the area, which was once considered a food desert. There are other supermarkets in the area now, but Shabani said there is none of the same caliber.
“Northgate gave the community the market it deserves with fresh produce and amazing food buffets,” he said. “They looked at it as if they were going into Brentwood rather than South Central.”
North Hollywood Trade
Laramar Group, a Chicago real estate investment and management company, sold a 44-unit apartment complex in North Hollywood to a private buyer for $9.5 million, a premium to the asking price of less than $9 million. The name of the buyer was not available.
The sale of the 46,312-square-foot Class C multifamily building, at 7526 Simpson Ave., marks the first sale of a property Laramar acquired in its recent L.A. investment cycle. Over the last two years, it has spent more than $150 million to purchase 20 buildings totaling 6,500 units.
Matt Levy, Laramar’s vice president of acquisitions, said the firm acquired the property two years ago with the intention of adding value. It upgraded the plumbing system, roofs, flooring and appliances.
“The neighborhood and location are the primary drivers for Laramar’s focused acquisition strategy, concentrating on apartments in the best neighborhoods in Los Angeles,” Levy said. “As Laramar continues to grow in Los Angeles, we will invest in and reposition urban infill buildings located in vibrant, established neighborhoods.”
The buyer was interested in the property because of its proximity to jobs and the repositioning completed by Laramar, said Paul Darrow, associate vice president at Marcus & Millichap, who along with Ron Harris represented Laramar in the sale.
Laramar closed on its most recent acquisition in the area in mid-April, buying a 32-unit Koreatown apartment building at 207 N. Oxford Ave for $3.5 million from David Hay. Brent Sprenkle of Berkadia Real Estate Advisors represented the seller in the deal.
“Rents in Koreatown are headed in a positive direction and this property is well situated in a prime location to capitalize on the favorable market conditions in the area,” Sprenkle said.
DHL Lease
German logistics firm Deutsche Post DHL Group has renewed its commitment to Redondo Beach to the tune of $11.9 million.
The company renewed its lease for 234,858 square feet of industrial space at 4000 Redondo Beach Ave. The six-year lease for space in the 303,744-square-foot building, owned by TPG Capital, is valued at almost $12 million.
DHL shares the Class B industrial building with El Segundo-based power products manufacturer Aura Systems Inc. The cargo carrier will continue to use the facility as an air-freight hub. Roughly 150 DHL employees work at the site.
Todd Taugner, Frank Schulz and David Prior, partners at Torrance’s Klabin Co., represented DHL in the lease.
Staff reporter Hannah Miet can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 228.
