The American Musical and Dramatic Academy has signed a 12-year lease valued at more than $13 million for an entire 1928 Hollywood apartment building that was recently renovated.
The school, which also has a campus in New York City where it was founded, will use the building at 6400 Franklin Ave. as a dormitory for 150 students. It also leased the adjacent parking lot, and will take occupancy of the property in August.
The transaction with landlord Capital Foresight, a local real estate firm, closed in May. Capital has owned the five-story building for about three years and over the last two has gradually emptied it of tenants. The restoration updated all operating systems, added WiFi access and upgraded finishes.
“They did an unbelievable restoration, as good as I’ve ever seen in my career,” said Chris Bonbright of Ramsey-Shilling Commercial Real Estate Services Inc., who represented both sides of the transaction.
Six months ago, Bonbright and two of his associates were hired by Capital to sell the building and two adjacent parcels at 6406 Franklin and 6420 Franklin. But the drama school was in the market for space and “it was a match made in heaven,” Bonbright said. The property is one block from the school’s Hollywood campus at 6305 Yucca St. Students will move into the building in September.
The school had been directing students to rental options such as nearby Oakwood apartments and “weren’t capitalizing on that revenue,” he said. “None of their competition has anything like this. It will just define them.”
The two adjacent development parcels are still for sale and total about 34,000 square feet.
John Tronson and David Landau of Ramsey-Shilling also represented both sides of the transaction.
Fox Hills Deal
PriceGrabber.com LLC, an online shopping site, is relocating its headquarters from Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood to the Wateridge Office Park in Fox Hills.
The company, a unit of Irish financial information giant Experian Group Ltd., signed a 45,059-square-foot sublease from BAE Systems at 5140 and 5150 Goldleaf Circle. The 62-month deal, which closed in June, is worth roughly $7 million, according to sources familiar with the deal.
Dave Toomey of CresaPartners, who represented PriceGrabber, said that his client is saving about $3 million by moving to Fox Hills instead of taking new space on the Westside. PriceGrabber is currently at 10940 Wilshire Blvd.
“It’s built, furnished and wired in a configuration that is very similar to how they would have designed it for themselves,” he said. “The rent and parking are a fraction of what they’d pay on the Westside.”
Some tenants are looking to leave the costly Westside submarket, where some landlords are continuing to raise rents in places despite the slow economy.
Toomey said that PriceGrabber also liked this space because it was all situated on the second floor of the five-story building.
“PriceGrabber strongly preferred to be on one floor,” he said.
Brian Davies of CresaPartners also represented the tenant, and Jerry Porter and Matthew Miller of CresaPartners represented the sublessor. The landlord is Muller Co., a Laguna Hills real estate investment and development firm.
Santa Monica Lease
Zillion TV, a technology company that designs software for downloading media, has signed two leases for office space at 1522-24 Second St. in Santa Monica.
In the first deal with landlord 1522-24 2nd Street LLC, a partnership of unnamed local real estate investors, the company signed for 6,859 square feet. The three-year lease is valued at $1.2 million and closed in May.
In the second transaction, which closed in June, the company signed a two-year lease for 6,307 square feet valued at $700,000.
“At first they didn’t think they’d need the entire space but their use grew so we structured a deal that worked for both sites,” said Beau Rawi, associate at brokerage Madison Partners, who represented Zillion TV. He declined to disclose the lease rates.
The mixed-use property includes two three-story buildings connected by a bow truss. One of the buildings has some residential space that Rawi said Zillion would retain for commercial use.
“They really fell in love with the building,” Rawi said. “It was more of the creative feel they were attracted to.”
Chris Houge and Andrew Jennison of Madison partners represented the landlord.
Staff reporter Daniel Miller can be reached at
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