Orion Pictures’ Lease Called the Biggest

Orion Pictures (“Hannah and Her Sisters,” “Desperately Seeking Susan”) signed what is believed to be the biggest office lease in Century City’s history in December, but the answer to “How big is biggest?” hasn’t been publicized until now.

The 15-year lease for 80,000 square feet on six floors of the 1888 Century Park East building is valued at nearly $29 million.

But here’s the clincher: A bigger office deal is expected to be signed in Century City soon. More on that later. . . .

The biggest Century City office lease before Orion’s was one at $22 million, signed by Sitmar Cruises in 1985. That was for corporate-headquarters space in the Century City North building, owned by an affiliate of JMB Realty.

An affiliate of JMB and Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. jointly own the 1888 Century Park East building, where New York-based Orion plans to move its West Coast operations from several locations, including 1875 Century Park East, in April.

That’s when the sign on the 1888 Century Park East building will change from “Tiger International” to “Orion.” Tiger International, a holding company that owns Flying Tigers, will remain a tenant, but the sign change was part of the transaction that made Orion the building’s major lessee with a private, 100-seat screening room besides offices and computer space.

Tom Walas and Russ Parker represented the landlord, by the way, and Les Small (That’s his name!) of Cushman & Wakefield represented Orion.

TV interviewer Barbara Walters and her husband, Merv Adelson, chairman of Lorimar-Telepictures (TV’s “Dallas”) have listed their Malibu-area home for $1.95 million.

The couple, married last May, have a magnificent home in Bel-Air and another in Manhattan, so decided--since they also spend a lot of time at La Costa Country Club--that they just weren’t spending enough time in Malibu, despite their 180-degree ocean view.

That’s the word from David Leanse of Douglas Properties, who is marketing the Carbon Beach property.

Speaking of Malibu, Tom Voiss, executive producer with Columbia Pictures, has listed his Peruvian Paso Horse Ranch--a whopping 87 acres--in the area for $8.25 million, also with Douglas Properties, this time with Christina Anne Paradise.

The ranch comes with a five-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath house, fenced pastures, horse track, koi ponds and waterfalls. Voiss is moving to Ojai.

Fess Parker’s dream-of-a-decade finally came true the other day when he and his wife, Marcella, became the first guests of his $60-million, Red Lion Resort in Santa Barbara.

Parker, who starred in TV’s “Davy Crockett” and “Daniel Boone,” fought for years to get his 360-room hotel built along the ocean, directly across the street from Santa Barbara’s main beach.

It’s open and functioning and it’s all expected to be completed by March 1. Room rates are $95 a night until April, when they’ll be raised to $135-$165.

Oops--the 0s apparently were in the wrong place in the sale mentioned last week of the Kirkeby Estate in Malibu. Thought the documentary transfer stamps showed that it went for $2,003,000, but Mike Silverman, who represented the buyer--that wealthy bachelor, Silicon-Valley entrepreneur W. Jerry Sanders III--said, “He got a deal, but not as good a deal as you reported. It went for $2.3 million.”

The asking price, when it went on the market about a year ago, was $9 million.

Novelist Herman Wouk lost his own battle to get a variance to build a kosher-kitchen addition to his Palm Springs home when the Palm Springs Planning Commission nixed the idea, saying the project would exceed a setback.

Roger Hardy, who writes a real estate newsletter, clued us in, adding that Wouk’s house, built in the ‘30s or earlier, of canyon rock, was owned at one time by actor Robert Wagner and actress Natalie Wood.