Online Media Firm Clicks With Hollywood Center

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Buzzfeed, a New York media and entertainment company, has moved some of its employees into the Sunset Media Center in Hollywood as it expands its L.A. team.

Robert Caviola, a managing director in the downtown L.A. office of Savills Studley who represented Buzzfeed in the transaction, said the firm is taking 22,000 square feet of office space at the center, at 6255 W. Sunset Blvd., but would not comment on terms of the lease.

West L.A. real estate company Kilroy Realty Corp. bought the Sunset Media Center for $76 million in 2012, and David Simon, its executive vice president, said the length of Buzzfeed’s lease is five years or less.

Monthly asking rents at the building are $4.05 a square foot, according to data provided by CoStar Group Inc., valuing the deal at more than $1 million a year.

Kilroy renovated the 321,883-square-foot, 22-story Class A office building in 2014 to fit the needs of technology and entertainment companies, Simon said.

Buzzfeed has two other offices in Los Angeles, including space in Kilroy’s 475,000-square-foot creative mixed-used office campus on De Longpre Avenue across from the ArcLight Cinema complex.

Buzzfeed takes 40,000 square feet at that campus for its video department, dubbed Buzzfeed Motion Pictures, Caviola said.

The company’s editorial office is on 7323 Beverly Blvd. in L.A.’s Fairfax District.

The Sunset Media Center lease may only be temporary, sources said, as Buzzfeed is in the market for a much larger space that could consolidate its three local offices. Sources in the real estate industry said one potential location that would meet that space requirement, about 200,000 square feet, is the 300,000-square-foot former Ford Motor Factory Building, which San Francisco real estate firm Shorenstein Properties purchased last year for $37 million. Shorenstein is converting the building, at 2060 E. Seventh St. in downtown L.A.’s Arts District, into creative office space and expects it to be completed next year.

Caviola, who is also representing Buzzfeed in its search for a larger space, declined to comment on the hunt.

Noteworthy

L.A. real estate development and property management firm DealPoint Merrill and Boston real estate franchisor Sperry Van Ness International Corp. have partnered to form a private equity investment platform, SVN DealPoint Merrill Realty Partners. The platform plans to acquire $100 million in multifamily, retail and self-storage properties in its first year, said David Frank, chief executive of DealPoint Merrill. … Brentwood real estate investment trust Rexford Industrial Realty Inc. has acquired three infill properties in Los Angeles, one in the City of Industry and two in Lynwood, for a total of $29 million. On May 15, Rexford bought a two-building portfolio totaling 164,662 square feet at 2588-2605 Industry Way for $22 million, or $134 a square foot. It also purchased a 51,823-square-foot industrial facility at 425 S. Hacienda Blvd. for $7 million, or $135 a square foot. …Following up on last week’s report that the four-acre site of the Beverly Hills Country Club traded hands, CoStar data now show that a partnership formed by Chicago investor Singerman Real Estate and Boulder, Colo., hospitality development firm Meriwether Cos. paid $24 million for the tennis and swim venue at 3084 Motor Ave. in Cheviot Hills.

Moving Matters

Tom Bohlinger has joined Chicago real estate giant Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s capital markets practice as an executive vice president in its downtown L.A. office. Bohlinger will work with Managing Director Michael Zietsman and the investment sales team on office and portfolio sales. … Coldwell Banker Commercial Alliance has hired Matthew Renshaw and Mark O’Brien as managing principals responsible for the expansion of the firm’s new downtown L.A. office. Renshaw and O’Brien joined from CBRE Group Inc.’s downtown office, where they were also partners focused on leasing and sales in the area. … Stephanie Skrbin has joined Avison Young as a principal at its downtown L.A. office, partnering with Principal Derrick Moore to develop the firm’s institutional retail leasing and investment practice in Southern California. Skrbin joined from Lee & Associates’s L.A. North/Ventura office, where she was a principal handling investment sales, landlord and tenant representation, and asset management.

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

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