Shift to Filmland Center : MGM/UA Vacates Historic Lot in Culver City

After 68 years at its Culver City studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has moved to the new Filmland Corporate Center nearby as the historic MGM lot is turned over to its new owner, Lorimar-Telepictures.

About 150 employees of MGM/UA Communications, as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s parent firm is now known, began moving Friday from the Irving Thalberg building, which has served as MGM’s headquarters since 1938, to Filmland across the street. The first wave of employees, including administrative, legal, production and programming departments, will occupy the entire third floor of the newly opened center.

As part of a 15-year, $100-million lease agreement, MGM/UA will rent four additional floors for 350 other employees who will move in March, 1987. When it completes the move, the company will occupy nearly half of Filmland’s 360,000 square feet of office space.

MGM/UA issued no official statement about the shift, which came as anxious Lorimar officials were eager to start a renovation of the Thalberg building for their own executives. Some MGM/UA executives said they regret leaving the historic, 44-acre studio but are resigned to it.

“I grew up in this business. MGM has always been the place to be. But to have a studio is a luxury that we really don’t require anymore,” said Alan Ladd Jr., chairman and chief executive of MGM Pictures.

The move will free MGM/UA from the studio’s expensive overhead, he said. Also, writers, producers and other MGM/UA employees will consolidated in one location from offices scattered across the studios and in other places. About 200 to 300 janitors and other workers are losing their jobs as a result of MGM’s move.

“Naturally, I’m moving out with the greatest of sadness, but it’s the best for the company and I’m looking toward the future,” said Frank Davis, executive vice president for motion picture affairs, who has worked in the same office in the Thalberg building since 1966.

The MGM/UA lease agreement was a major victory for Bruce Mallen, builder of the $85-million Filmland building and head of Culver City-based Filmcorp Group. Mallen, who built the eight-story, red-and-pink-granite structure to serve as a center for the entertainment industry, was counting on MGM/UA to fill much of the building and to attract others tenants.

Mallen said that with MGM/UA’s and other lease agreements already signed, Filmland’s occupancy rate stands at 80%, and he expects it to reach 90% “within the next few weeks.” Other tenants include the Motion Picture Export Assn., the American Film Marketing Assn., the American Film Institute Alumni & Writers Workshop and the Assn. of Film Commissioners Headquarters Library.

The building will allow MGM/UA and independent producers to make deals and discuss projects in offices close to production facilities in the Lorimar lot and the Laird International Studios a few blocks away, Mallen said.

Part of Filmland’s success in drawing MGM/UA, Mallen said, was due to the building’s interior design, which he described as a “luxury hotel without rooms (and with) a full range of amenities.” The interior consists of tiered floors with a glass atrium ceiling. The building has six movie screening rooms and will soon open two restaurants, a bar, a disco, a fitness studio and a savings bank.