Within West Hollywood’s Pacific Design Center, Red Building has achieved full price recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and had an eventful 2025 with 140,000 square feet of leases secured.
Accompanying Blue Whale and Green Building which were first built in 1988, Red Building emerged in 2012 as the final piece to the 1.6 million-square-foot creative office complex. The 400,000-square-foot building was designed by Cesar Pelli, a legendary architect who died in 2019, and built by Cohen Brothers Realty Corp. which operates the building currently.
Leading up to the pandemic, Marc Horowitz, executive vice president and national director of leasing, said Red Building was at the height of its asking rent prices, at $6.25 per square foot. After the pandemic, prices dropped to between $5.50 and $5.75 before eventually climbing up. Currently, prices are back to that previous peak of $6.25.
“We weren’t horribly affected by the pandemic with tenants making a mass exodus or leaving the building,” Horowitz said. “What we did have to do was work with the tenants who said they were going through a rough patch… We had to take a haircut on the price.”
Overall, the West Hollywood office submarket now has asking rent prices above pre-pandemic levels. Data from Kidder Mathews shows prices at $4.62 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to $4.83 in same quarter in 2025. Most neighboring submarkets can’t say the same. Rents for Park Mile, Miracle Mile, Hollywood and downtown are still below pre-pandemic levels, though Mid-Wilshire joins West Hollywood in exceeding 2019 prices.
State of leases
With 140,000 square feet of leases executed in 2025, Red Building is nearly 90% occupied, Horowitz said, adding that there are an additional 50,000 square feet of leases in the works. Once those deals close, occupancy will rise to 95%.
The building’s leasing activity included renewals, expansions and signing on new tenants.
One of Red Building’s existing tenants doubled down on its office footprint. Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole, an entertainment law firm in West Hollywood, opted to expand its previous 10,500-square-foot lease and will now occupy more than 19,000 square feet of space.
“We are pleased that this successful, high-end, existing tenant is prospering and expanding at PDC’s Red Building, which continues to outpace the market in robust leasing activity,” Horowitz said. “This commitment is further testament to the long-term success of this accomplished law firm’s reputation and choice of locations in Southern California.”
Another renewal came from Grindr, whose headquarters are in Red Building. Grindr had been taking up a whole floor and then leased about half of it to women’s fashion entity, Princess Polly. Once Grindr’s lease came up, they renewed the portion they’d been occupying, which came out to be 14,286 square feet, and Princess Polly signed on for the part they had been subleasing, which was 11,500 square feet.
Horowitz pointed to Red Building’s central location, aesthetic and amenities – such as a full gym with personal training offerings, a movie theater and a conference center – as reasons for tenant attraction and retention.
“When you walk into the Red Building, it’s an absolute statement – every floor is a showpiece,” Horowitz said. “It’s a place that people want to be and if they get there, it’s a heck of a good look for their company.”
