CIM Group buys Beverly Hills offices

Los Angeles developer and landlord CIM Group spent $47.8 million for two Beverly Hills office buildings that were once part of the former William Morris Agency headquarters.

CIM Group, which is the largest commercial property owner in Hollywood, bought 150 and 151 S. El Camino Drive.

The three-story buildings with a combined total of more than 116,000 square feet of office space lie on two blocks just south of Wilshire Boulevard and the so-called Golden Triangle heart of downtown Beverly Hills, said broker Bob Safai of Madison Partners.

He represented seller Brickman, a New York real estate investor that had loaned money to the previous owners of the former William Morris campus and ended up taking control of it.

Talent agency William Morris Endeavor, a successor to William Morris, is a tenant at 150 S. El Camino but scheduled to move next year, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group. It is not clear where the world’s largest talent agency will land next.

The building at 151 El Camino was completed in 1951 and is vacant. CIM Group is asking for rent of nearly $4 a square foot per month, real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield said.

CIM Group paid $412 per square foot for the two buildings, a high price by Los Angeles County standards but far below the $783 a foot paid by previous owners Cape Horn Group of Chile and Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas in 2008 for the entire former William Morris campus. The seller was William Morris, which merged with Endeavor in 2009.

The William Morris campus then included 150 S. Rodeo Drive, and Brickman ended up owning all three buildings. Santa Monica real estate investment trust Douglas Emmett Inc. paid Brickman $42 million, or $570 a square foot, for 150 S. Rodeo Drive in April.

CIM Group owns office, retail and residential properties. Among its holdings is the Hollywood & Highland shopping and entertainment complex in Hollywood.

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo: Beverly Hills offices acquired by CIM Group. Credit: Madison Partners 

Consumer Confidential: Google Music, iTunes Match, no-job majors

Here's your West-End-girls Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Google has learned to sing. The searchmeister is entering the online music market with a new service that will let users store songs online and listen to tracks on multiple devices. Google has expanded into music, television and movies to bolster sales of devices running its Android mobile software. The company is also seeking rights for its Google+ social-network users to share music with each other. On the eve of the debut, Google reached an agreement with Sony’s music unit. Universal and EMI have already signed on. Songs will cost 99 cents to $1.29, though Google may offer discounts. (Bloomberg)

-- Not to be outdone, Apple has rolled out a new iTunes Match service. For $24.99, iTunes account holders can store their entire iTunes library, plus songs from their CDs, in the cloud that is the Internet. The library contents are then available to listen to on computers and iOS devices, including iPhones. The program differs from Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player because iTunes Match isn't based on uploading your music then listening to it via a Web-based player that streams your songs. Instead, it determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store, which boasts some 20 million songs. The program automatically adds these songs to iCloud. Songs that aren't in iTunes can be uploaded by the user. (Lifehacker)

-- Not all college majors are created equal -- at least when it comes to giving you a leg up in the job market. College majors with high unemployment rates include a variety of psychology degrees, fine arts and architecture, according to Census statistics. Here are the Top 10 majors (or should that be Bottom 10?) for not getting a job: Clinical psychology (19.5% unemployment rate), miscellaneous fine arts (16.2%), U.S. history (15.1%), library science (15%), military technologies (10.9%), educational psychology (10.9%), architecture (10.6%), industrial and organizational psychology (10.4%), miscellaneous psychology (10.3%), linguistics and comparative literature (10.2%). (MarketWatch)

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Google is launching a new music service to compete with Apple's iTunes. Credit: Ralph Orlowski / Getty Images

 

United Talent Agency leases former Hilton Hotels headquarters

United Talent Agency has agreed to move its headquarters into the former Hilton Hotels headquarters near Beverly Hills City Hall in one of the region’s biggest office leases this year.

The talent agency, one of the world’s largest, signed a long-term agreement to rent 120,000 square feet. New York developer and landlord Tishman Speyer acquired the former Hilton buildings at 9336 and 9346 Civic Center Drive in January and launched a $30-million makeover of the complex built in the 1980s to make it appeal to prosperous tenants.

United Talent will begin its own multimillion-dollar improvements to its space early next year and move 350 employees there by late 2012, the agency said.  Plans by architectural and design firm Rottet Studio include a 150-seat screening room and other amenities.

The complex will be renamed UTA Plaza.

Magazine publisher Playboy Enterprises Inc. announced last week that it will also move into 45,000 square feet in the former Hilton headquarters, which is now nearly fully leased, Tishman Speyer said. Terms of the leases were not disclosed, but the landlord is asking for about $4 per square foot per month for space in the complex, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group.

The talent agency now occupies 80,000 square feet in Wilshire Rodeo Plaza at 9560 Wilshire Blvd., the former headquarters of investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert.

“After 20 great years on Wilshire we are excited to have a new campus that will allow for our continued growth and provide an enhanced environment for our colleagues and clients,” the agency’s board of directors said in a joint statement.

The agency also has an office in New York.

RELATED:

Home prices fall in October as mortgage changes take hold

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Commercial property prices stay flat in October

-- Roger Vincent 

Image: Rendering of UTA Plaza after a planned makeover. Credit: Tishman Speyer

 

Consumer Confidential: Thomas the Tank Engine bought, Harley recall

Here's your maybe-baby Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

—Thomas the Tank Engine, meet Barbie. The company behind everyone's favorite talking train, Hit Entertainment, is being purchased by El Segundo's Mattel for $680 million in cash. Mattel already markets many Thomas & Friends die-cast and plastic toys under a license that extends until 2014. Global sales of those toys are more than $150 million. Mattel says the deal will help combine its own global marketing and distribution capabilities with Hit Entertainment's global programming and licensing expertise. For those without small ones at home, Thomas the Tank Engine is a popular British children's television series that has spawned a variety of tie-ins and toys.

—Wal-Mart has your number ... at least when it comes to prices. The world's largest retailer is announcing a new strategy that it hopes will pull in procrastinators early by giving them a big incentive: a guarantee that they'll get the lowest price no matter when they buy during the holiday season. Wal-Mart says it will be matching prices on many of its products. Shoppers who buy something at a Wal-Mart store between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25, but then find the identical product elsewhere for less, can get a gift card in the amount of the difference. The offer excludes merchandise bought on Wal-Mart's website and some other products, such as groceries.

—Heads up, hog riders: Harley-Davidson is recalling about 308,000 motorcycles to fix a switch problem that can cause failure of the brake lights and possibly even the rear brakes themselves. The company says in documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that brake light switches can be exposed to too much heat from the exhaust system. The heat can cause the brake lights to fail, and the problem also can cause fluid leaks and the loss of rear brakes. The problem affects Touring, CVO Touring and Trike motorcycles from the 2009 through 2012 model years.

— David Lazarus

Photo: Thomas the Tank Engine has a new daddy. Credit: BayBritt Allcroft

Recording Academy, which awards Grammys, sells former headquarters

 The Recording Academy, the organization that hands out the music industry’s annual Grammy Awards, sold its former Santa Monica headquarters to developers.

Developer Trammell Crow Co. and investment firm Westport Capital Partners bought the unoccupied three-story office building at 3402 Pico Blvd. and two adjacent residential parcels, real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis said.

The price was not disclosed, but Westside real estate experts familiar with the property valued the deal at more than $10 million.

Trammell Crow hasn’t decided exactly what to do with the property yet, Senior Managing Director Brad Cox said, but some kind of residential development is likely.

“It’s a great piece of real estate in Santa Monica, where you [ordinarily] can’t find two and half acres of contiguous space,” Cox said.

The 39,128-square-foot office building constructed in 1969 has been vacant since the Recording Academy moved in 2009 to larger quarters in the nearby Lantana office park, which is home to many entertainment industry businesses.

Trammell Crow may refurbish the former Recording Academy building and rent it to a single tenant while building housing alongside. Or the developer may demolish the office and a vacant 11-unit apartment house on one of the adjacent parcels to make way for a new apartment complex.

“We’re looking at a combination of possibilities,” Cox said.

Development would conform with the city’s recent general plan update, he said. The east Santa Monica neighborhood that was formerly an industrial center is in the path of planned light rail service and is gentrifying.

“It’s turning into kind of a hipster location,” Cox said.

ALSO:

Tenants sublet Fox Interactive Media offices at Playa Vista

NBCUniversal to stay and expand in Universal City skyscraper

-- Roger Vincent

Photo: Former Recording Academy headquarters in Santa Monica. Credit: Christina House 

Improv comedy chain sues over plans for rival clubs

 

The company behind the Improv comedy club chain has sued its Internet marketing promoter, accusing him of using the Improv brand’s “good will” to promote his own company and a planned chain of competing clubs.

Improv West Associates alleges in the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court,  that Robert Hartmann used his job as Improv’s marketing officer to promote “independent businesses he was building on the back of the Improv brand.”

Those businesses include a planned chain of comedy clubs called Levity Live, the lawsuit alleged. Hartmann used Improv’s Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote his company, Levity Productions, the lawsuit said.

Hartmann did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Improv brand got its start in 1963 as “The Improvisation” in New York, growing over the ensuing decades into a chain of 23 clubs across the United States, including clubs in Hollywood, Irvine, Brea and Ontario.

Improv West licenses third parties to operate Improv Clubs. Hartmann is a majority owner of a company that operates several Improv clubs, the lawsuit said. In 2003, Improv West hired him to promote Improv clubs on the Internet, the lawsuit said.

Hartmann and Levity created Improv-branded Facebook and Twitter pages without the authorization of Improv West and used those pages to promote other ventures, including Levity Live comedy clubs, the lawsuit alleged.

Hartmann said he wanted to buy out IWA or merge the two businesses, but “had no genuine interest” in doing so, the company said in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

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-- Stuart Pfeifer

Photo: Lakers player Ron Artest at the Improv in Hollywood Credit: Mariah Tauger/Los Angeles Times 

 

MGM Resorts wants to implode unopened hotel at CityCenter

 
Casino company MGM Resorts International apparently knows when to cut its losses.

The company has asked Clark County for permission to demolish the defective Harmon hotel tower on the Las Vegas Strip — without ever opening it.

MGM Resorts said Monday that it wants to implode the stylish blue oval tower because structural defects prevent it from being used, the Associated Press reported. A structural engineer said in a report last month that the building wouldn't hold up in a strong earthquake.

The Harmon is part of CityCenter, an $8.5-billion joint venture development with Dubai World that opened in December 2009. The Harmon, originally planned as a boutique hotel with condominiums run by a nightlife company, faced problems throughout its construction and was topped off at half its intended height because of problems with the spacing reinforcing steel.

MGM Resorts, which owns such Las Vegas properties as Bellagio, MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay, has asked Clark County for permission to implode the Harmon in six months.

The company said it would need four months to clean up afterward, including clearing dust from the Las Vegas Strip, an intersecting street and at least two Las Vegas casinos, the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas next door and Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino across the street.

More from the Associated Press:

The alternative, MGM Resorts spokesman Gordon Absher said, would be to conduct even more tests for 18 months to come up with a proper design to fix the tower, then another two to three years to rebuild the hotel.

"We have been assured by demolition experts that a properly executed implosion will not pose health or safety problems for residents, visitors and adjacent businesses," Absher said.

MGM Resorts and main contractor Tutor Perini Corp. are in litigation over the construction bills, with Perini arguing the design was structurally sound. Perini officials say MGM Resorts' structural report from an independent engineer was a tactic aimed to bolster its legal battle.

Clark county requested a plan from MGM Resorts last month after the engineer found that the building was not only unusable, but a public safety hazard.

A county spokesman acknowledged that MGM Resorts' plan was received and said county officials were reviewing it, but declined further comment.

The back and forth between MGM Resorts and Clark County building officials is separate from the litigation between the company and Perini, but a judge's order for MGM Resorts to hold off on any plans for the building would have to be lifted for the implosion to take place.

RELATED: 

Vegas is gambling on CityCenter

The Strip's CityCenter hotels up the ante

A close-up look at Las Vegas' CityCenter

-- Stuart Pfeifer

Photo: The unopened Harmon hotel tower, to the right of the neighboring Cosmopolitan hotel. Credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times 

Hugh Hefner's son-in-law accused of insider trading [Updated]

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's son-in-law has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of using inside information to gain profits and avoid losses totaling more than $100,000 in trades of Playboy stock.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Illinois, the SEC said that William Marovitz sold shares of Playboy between 2004 and 2009 ahead of public announcements related to Iconix’s potential acquisition of Playboy and Playboy negative earnings announcements.

Marovitz, 66, of Chicago has been married to former Playboy Enterprises Inc. chief Christie Hefner since 1995. Christie Hefner, 58, was chief executive of Playboy from 1988 to 2009.

In one trade highlighted in the lawsuit, Marovitz purchased shares of Playboy on Nov. 10, 2009, using inside information obtained from his wife, two days before a public announcement that Playboy was in talks to be acquired by Iconix. Playboy stock increased by 42% that day.

Playboy and Marovitz were not immediately available for a comment.

The lawsuit seeks the return of Marovitz’s "ill-gotten gains," plus civil penalties.

[Updated, 12:55 p.m., Aug. 3: The SEC said in news release that Marovitz, without admitting or denying guilt, has agreed to pay $168,352 in restitution, interest and penalties in a settlement with the SEC. The settlement is subject to approval by the court.]

From the lawsuit:

Marovitz bought and sold shares of Playboy in his own brokerage accounts between 2004 and 2009 ahead of public news announcements related to Iconix’s potential acquisition of Playboy, Playboy’s negative earnings announcements and Playboy’s offering of stock. As a result of his misuse of confidential information about Playboy, Marovitz gained profits and avoided losses totaling $100,952.40.

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Playboy said to be in takeover talks

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Consumer Confidential: Playboy going private, U.S. goes to China, workers go job hunting

-- Stuart Pfeifer 

Photo: Hugh Hefner. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

 

Consumer Confidential: Bye-bye, Borders; back-to-school shopping

Here's your can't-help-falling-in-love Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Hasta la vista, Borders. The once-mighty bookstore chain is liquidating its 399 stores nationwide, including huge sales at its 18 remaining stores in Southern California. Books, DVDs and furniture valued at more than $700 million will be discounted up to 40% starting today. The sales are expected to wrap up in September. Up to 10,700 employees nationwide, including 524 in SoCal, will lose their jobs after the liquidation. Still up in the air is a possible sale of up to 35 locations to an Alabama company. The liquidation plan was approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge in New York on Thursday. Borders' closing will be a boon to rival Barnes & Noble -- until it too starts feeling the heat.

--The economy may be rough, but we're not skimping on our kids. Back-to-school spending is expected to increase 3.8% over last year, according to the retail analyzer ShopperTrak. But ShopperTrak, which tallies the number of visitors to 25,000 stores nationwide, hedged a little on its figures: If Congress and the president can't solve the debt-ceiling puzzle, Americans might become skittish about spending an extra few bucks on jeans and backpacks. Back-to-school sales often act as a crystal ball for holiday retail trends, so analysts will be watching closely. For its part, the National Retail Federation expects flat to modest retail sales growth for the season, the second-biggest consumer spending period, after the winter holidays.

--Speaking of kid-related consumption, it's not cheap being a Harry Potter fan. People who bought all seven hardcover books, attended all eight movies in their first run, and purchased every DVD paid an average total of $401.08, according to estimates. Followers will be forking over an additional $20 to $30 for the DVD or Blu-ray of the final flick several months from now. No wonder Harry's creator, author J.K. Rowling, is now one of the wealthiest people in Britain, with a net worth estimated at $1 billion. Not bad for a Muggle.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: It hasn't been cheap knowing these three for so long. Credit: Ho / Reuters

 

Consumer Confidential: Netflix price hike, AT&T-backed Kindle, Chrysler Ram recall

Here's your way-we-were Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Netflix is a very cool service. It's also now a more expensive service -- and many of its 23 million customers aren't happy. Netflix is raising its prices by as much as 60% for those who want to rent DVDs by mail and watch video on the Internet. The company is separating the two options so that subscribers who want both will have to buy separate plans totaling at least $16 per month. Netflix had been bundling both options in a single package, available for as low as $10 per month. New subscribers will have to pay the new prices immediately. The changes take effect Sept. 1 for Netflix's current customers. Netflix isn't changing the $8 monthly price for an Internet streaming-only option. Subscribers rankled by the latest price increase are venting their outrage in comments on Netflix's blog as well as its Facebook page, where there are about 17,000 comments, mostly negative.

-- If you don't mind ads with your literature, Amazon has a new deal for you. The online retailer says it's struck a sponsorship deal with AT&T to sell a less expensive version of its Kindle 3G digital reader. The Kindle 3G, which allows users to buy electronic books without having to subscribe to a wireless network, costs $189. The AT&T sponsored device, which will include built-in ads on its screensavers, will cost $139. Amazon in April introduced built-in advertising from companies such as General Motors' Buick, Procter & Gamble's Olay and Visa on a different version of the Kindle, which competes with devices such as Barnes & Noble's Nook and Apple's iPad tablet. I'm thinking it's nice that prices for these gadgets are coming down, but one reason I enjoy books is because they allow me to escape the commercial clutter of everyday life.

-- Chrysler Ram pickup trucks have a reputation for being tough. But maybe not tough enough. Chrysler is recalling more than 242,000 Ram trucks because of a problem in the steering system. The recall affects certain Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickups from the 2008 to 2011 model years. The Ram is Chrysler's best-selling vehicle. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a part near the left wheel can fracture and cause loss of steering control, leading to crashes. The problem happens mainly at low speeds when drivers are making tight turns. Chrysler says only a few minor crashes and one minor injury have been reported. Chrysler dealers will inspect the trucks and fix the defect for free if necessary.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Netflix is charging more for both DVD rentals and online streaming. Credit: Paul Sakuma /Associated Press

 

Consumer Confidential: Vacations in peril, Verizon data caps, obesity crisis solved

Here's your caught-in-a-trap Tuesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Summertime, and the livin' is easy. Or not. A new survey finds that 45% of company workers and self-employed folk intend to cancel or reduce their vacation plans if the economy doesn't improve. According to the survey by Harris Interactive, younger workers are more skittish about their vacations, with 52% of adults age 18 to 34 saying they'd scotch their vacation plans if the economy worsens. That compares with 44% of people age 35 to 44, and 42% of workers age 45 to 54. Just over one-third of people age 55 or more would change or cancel their trip. One other tidbit: People in the West and South are more apt to change or cancel plans given the economy. Considering California's sky-high unemployment rate, that's not so surprising.

 --If you're a Verizon wireless customer, get ready for some new rate plans with monthly usage caps. Verizon hasn't said what its plans will look like. But because AT&T introduced capped data plans a year ago and T-Mobile USA eliminated its unlimited data plan in May, this is well-trod ground. The new Verizon plans will most likely apply only to new customers or people trading up to smart phones. They could also apply to smart-phone users buying new phones. The tricky thing about capped data plans is that few people have a clue how much data they really use, so they don't know much to sign up for. Verizon now charges $30 a month for an unlimited smart-phone data plan. If figuring out your usage is too much of a hassle, Sprint Nextel still offers unlimited data for $30 monthly.

--From the Sounds About Right file: A new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina finds that a key reason for the obesity epidemic may be that we're eating a lot more. "First, the food industry started 'super sizing' our portions, then snacking occasions increased and we were convinced we needed to drink constantly to be hydrated," said Barry Popkin, the study's senior author. Despite the "duh" factor here, the study is apparently the first to examine the combined contribution of changes in three key factors: portion sizes, food energy density and eating frequency. It found that the average daily total energy intake, measured in calories, increased from about 1,803 in 1977–78 to 2,374 in 2003–06, an increase of 570. Increases in the number of eating occasions and portion sizes of foods and beverages over the last 30 years accounted for most of the increase. The solution? Eat less. You heard it here first.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: There may be less of this sort of thing if the economy worsens. Credit: Amanda Jones