Biotech Company Joins Move to Marina del Rey
Biotech company Impath has agreed to lease all of a 70,000-square-foot building in Marina del Rey, an increasingly popular office location.
Impath, which is based in New York and specializes in cancer research, plans to move its local operation this summer to the two-story building at 5300 McConnell Ave. that was formerly occupied by an affiliate of Citicorp, said Steve Solomon and Craig Meyer, the Seeley Co. brokers who negotiated the transaction for landlord Legacy Partners.
Impath has for about six years occupied about 35,000 square feet in a building at Pacific Concourse, which is just southeast of Los Angeles International Airport. The 10-year lease with Legacy, which just bought the McConnell Avenue property from Citicorp, is valued at about $23 million.
With the lease, Impath becomes the latest of several growth-minded technology or media companies to lease space on the Westside, where prices are relatively high and vacancies low.
Among recent lease deals in the area, Internet service provider PSINet has leased a 50,000-square-foot building at Marina Business Center, 4505 Glencoe Ave., from Speiker Properties. Brokers Brian Luft and Matt Ceragioli of NAI Capital Commercial represented the tenant in the 10-year, $8-million deal.
The Direct Partners unit of advertising giant Omnicom Group is expanding from Santa Monica to a 111,450-square-foot Marina facility. Telecommunications firm Corvis Corp. has leased an entire 36,000-square-foot building in Marina del Rey, and video publishing software firm Digital Lava and online sales consultant 3Dshopping.com each recently leased about 25,000 square feet of space there too.
The Marina office vacancy rate has fallen below 8%, according to Maryland-based real estate researcher CoStar Group Inc. In September, by comparison, the vacancy rate stood at 14%. When the rate is less than 10%, a market is generally considered tight enough to justify new construction.
East of the Marina, Spanish-language television network Univision Communications has committed to lease all of a 159,000-square-foot custom-built office and broadcast-center building that will rise at the Howard Hughes Center. And law firm Fulwider Patton Lee & Utecht, which specializes in intellectual-property law and counts a number of technology companies among its clients, is relocating from Westwoood to nearly 50,000 square feet in another building under construction at the Hughes Center.
In West L.A., Internet retailer EToys has committed to lease the 151,000-square-foot second phase of Kilroy Realty’s Westside Media Center under construction along Olympic Boulevard at Bundy Drive. And in eastern Santa Monica, Internet consulting firm USWeb/CKS is planning to move into the former Candle Corp. offices at the Water Garden complex.
Impath, which was represented by CB Richard Ellis, had considered leasing what could have been a custom-developed office within Legacy’s Wateridge Park complex in the nearby Fox Hills district. But the McConnell building, which includes a fiber-optic communications network, won out.
