HBO Has Lease Deal in Santa Monica
Cable television giant HBO has agreed to lease 110,000 square feet in a Santa Monica office complex where it will move its West Coast headquarters next year.
The 15-year agreement at Colorado Center is valued at about $100 million, said John Miller, senior managing director of Tishman Speyer, the landlord of the complex formerly known as MGM Plaza.
HBO will move 350 employees from Century City to Santa Monica in June. The six-building, 15-acre property, which dates to the 1970s, is undergoing a $17-million makeover expected to be completed in the spring.
Tishman Speyer bought the property from Los Angeles real estate developer Robert Maguire in May 2000. The new owners suffered a setback later that year when anchor tenant MGM agreed to move most of its offices to a high-rise being constructed in Century City.
The HBO deal would make the 1-million-square-foot office complex 80% leased, Miller said. Other tenants include Symantec Corp., CBS Entertainment, drug company Pfizer Inc. and advertising firm Rubin Postaer.
The makeover designed by architecture firm Gensler is intended to transform a stark concrete locale into a lush corporate campus and public park. Renovation plans include new entryways, with water features off Colorado Avenue and the planting of shade trees, shrubs and grasses.
HBO plans to use Colorado Center’s three-acre public space for its Screen on the Green movie series, which has shown classic films to outdoor audiences in such cities as New York, Atlanta, and Washington.
Tishman Speyer, an international company founded in 1978 by New York real estate figures Robert Tishman and Jerry Speyer, oversees a portfolio valued at about $10 billion. Among its properties are Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Center in New York and Sony Center in Berlin. It recently purchased Tower Burbank, a 32-story office building in Burbank.
