KPMG moved into a reimagined office space at downtown L.A.’s U.S. Bank Tower last week, becoming the 73-story building’s largest tenant. 

The London-based firm’s Los Angeles-area contingent swapped its 88,000-square-feet workspace at KPMG Center for a “modernized” set-up that reflects its shift to hybrid work, said Michelle Wroan, who leads more than 1,300 employees as managing partner of KPMG’s L.A. operation.

“How we collaborate, how we work together, is different from what it was pre-Covid and (before) advances in technology,” said Wroan, adding that the firm encourages in-person or client-facing work three times a week. “We needed a space that would have more collaboration areas and less dense office space.”

Last August, the firm signed a 12-year lease, one of last year’s largest, for three floors spanning 65,000 square feet at 633 W. Fifth Street. In the following months, it overhauled the rented space to include work rooms, project rooms and three types of cube structures ranging from private to open-concept spaces. 

Technology upgrades that connect employees working from the office and home were key to the rebuild, Wroan said. The costly undertaking drove the firm to consider moving out of its namesake 28-story tower at 550 S. Hope Street. 

“We’d have to have remodeled the whole thing, which was going to be extremely expensive,” she said. “Knowing that we need to do that complete redo and remodel to upgrade the experience gave us the opportunity to look at other buildings, knowing we have to invest a lot of money.”

‘Bullish’ about downtown

Despite years of commercial real estate slump in the neighborhood, KPMG is “bullish” about downtown, Wroan said. The investment that Silverstein Properties Inc., which bought U.S. Bank Tower in 2020, has put into the building drove the firm’s decision to relocate, she said. 

“They invested a significant amount of capital in upgrading that building from just not a technology standpoint, but its look and feel and amenities,” Wroan said.

KPMG remains one of L.A. County’s largest accounting operation, ranking third on the Business Journal’s List of Accounting Firms published in February.

Alongside its rethought downtown digs, KPMG’s fresh office strategy involves an expansion of its local footprint with a new office space in El Segundo serving the South Bay and the city’s westside. 

The firm will occupy 40,000 square feet at the Plaza at Continental Park complex on a 12-year lease in a booming area for the aerospace and defense industry, as well as private equity and venture capital firms. 

“We need to be able to have quick visits to our clients and … meaningful points of impact,” Wroan said. 

Proximity to major clients – including the city of L.A. – is downtown’s draw, too, she said.

“I do think in-person is here to stay, and that does translate to clients and companies and in-person gatherings,” Wroan said. “Being in L.A. allows us that easy, quick access to a lot of what’s going on civically in L.A. and with the companies that reside here … I think that will be a competitive advantage for us.”