Belying the fact that Los Angeles is the de facto entertainment capital of the U.S., content creators, like Netflix, were behind some of the biggest office lease deals signed in 2018 in the city. Indeed, Netflix (NFLX) scored two of the city’s biggest five leases of the year, based on statistics provided by Cushman & Wakefield (CWK), previous Commercial Observer coverage and additional research. Yet, so did NFL Media.
Streaming giant Netflix signed on for a staggering 355,000 square feet at Kilroy Realty Corporation’s Academy on Vine project in Hollywood in November. Netflix will be taking the entire office portion at the mixed-use project spread across three buildings at 1341 Vine Street, which is currently under construction. The content provider plans to move in within phases once the project is completed in 2020.
A month prior, Netflix agreed to lease the entire 328,000-square-foot, 13-story EPIC building on Sunset Boulevard, owned by Hudson Pacific Properties, with a move-in date of 2020, when that project is also completed. The company also signed a coterminous lease extension for 325,757 square feet of office space at ICON, marking the third-largest office deal of the year, and 91,953 square feet at CUE, both also Hudson Pacific Properties located on the Sunset Bronson Studios lot, across from EPIC.
Don’t count out the “old-school” entertainment creators, however. In May, Warner Bros. renewed its massive 456,000-square-foot lease at Studio Plaza, a Douglas Emmett-owned office building in the Burbank Media District, adjacent to WB’s Studio lot, per The Real Deal.
Facebook, meanwhile, took approximately 260,000 square feet of office space at 12105 and 12126 West Waterfront in Playa Vista in a lease signed on Nov. 1, per CO. With the lease, Facebook will be taking nearly 60 percent of the 425,300-square-foot campus. Other tenants at the campus, designed by Gensler and Michael Maltzan, include Loyola Marymount University,which leased 50,000 square feet for its School of Film and Television early last year.
Meanwhile, NFL Media announced plans to move from its current space in Culver City to a 200,000-square-foot facility in the L.A. Stadium and Entertainment District at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, as TRD reported. The sports media giant will be joining the Rams and Chargers at the 298-acre development, set to open in 2020.
The company will house its NFL Network, NFL.com, NFL app and NFL RedZone operations, as well as outdoor studio space at the Inglewood-based complex. The property will also include 3,000 residential units, 400,000 square feet of retail and 25 acres of park space.
The news came just a few months after NFL Media extended its lease for
170,000 square feet across two Hudson Pacific Properties-owned buildings at 10950 and 10900 Washington Boulevard in Culver City.