Wilshire Associates Signs 10-Year, $44-Million Santa Monica Lease

Wilshire Associates, a provider of investment services for institutional investors, signed one of the largest leases in Santa Monica this year, a 10-year, $44-million transaction that expands its offices at 1299 Ocean Ave. to 75,000 square feet, said brokers who represented Wilshire Associates in lease negotiations.

Wilshire Associates will occupy floors five through eight in the office building, according to brokers Arlene Sommer and Ness Hamaoui of Julien J. Studley Inc., who said they felt fortunate to find adequate space in a market as tight as Santa Monica, where the vacancy rate for top-quality office space is less than 5%. The building is owned by Equity Office Properties, which was represented by Kent Jakobsen of Trammell Crow.

Wilshire Associates, established in 1972, has been in the news because its president, former Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Dennis Tito, has been training in Moscow to accompany a team of cosmonauts into space for a trip of seven to 10 days aboard the space station Mir next year.

According to a recent report in The Times, Tito will be a tourist aboard Mir and will pay about $20 million for the trip.