Braude Center brings uplift to Van Nuys City Hall area.

THE Braude Center in Van Nuys opened for business last year--but it made history well before that.

That's because it was built as a result of the first-ever public-private partnership involving construction of a building in the city of Los Angeles. The City contracted Wodland Hills-based Voit Development Cos. to take the building from drawing board to concrete, said Voit's vice president Tim Regan.

The talks behind the building's construction were something like this, Regan said: The city leased the land to Voit for 30 years, Voit designed and built it, then leased it back to the city. The city, however, immediately exercised a one-time option to buy the building, which it has already done--for $31.5 million.

Braude Center has been noted by architecture professionals, highlighted by an award from the American Institute of Architects.

Sitting amid Van Nuys Boulevard storefronts with worn-out signs, the building has a Mediterranean style look, which reinforces the history of the area's Monterey feel, and has subtle details that incorporate it well with the City Hall next door, Regan said.

It is a state-of-the-art facility, is energy-efficient--in Regan's words, a "Class A" office building.

"The city has moved from Class C to Class A," he said, referring to a number of offices which will relocate to Braude from all over the Valley.

Among the tenants are Councilmember Tony Cardenas' office, and the fire departments, among other city offices in the Valley.

In addition to government offices, the 142,000-square-foot building has room for about seven retail talents, such as sandwich and coffee shops, Regan said.

"We have proposals on all of the space, and will finalize leases in the next three to four months," Regan said.

He believes Braude will please all parties involved.

"It was a great partnership for the city, fantastic that (we) delivered a building ahead of schedule and under budget," Regan said.

MOST NOTEWORTHY ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 

The Marvin Braude San Fernando Valley Constituent Service Center, Van Nuys

Developer: Robert D. Voit President, CEO Tim Regan Vice President, Development and Acquisitions Voit Development Cos.. Woodland Hills

Architects: John Parezo Principal John Thomas Principal John Grounds Senior Project Architect Ware Malcomb, Woodland Hills

LARGEST SUBLEASE DEAL

Transaction: 2380, 2400 Conejo Spectrum Drive

Brokers: Tony Principe, Executive Vice President Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services, Westlake Village Seth Dudley, Executive Vice President, Branch Manager David R. Gordon, Executive Managing Director Studley, Los Angeles

THE Conejo Valley real estate community collectively thank biotech giant Amgen Corp. for single-handedly helping to boost the region's occupancy roll. And, to think, all Amgen did was sublease a building.

It wasn't just any building, however, as the Conejo Spectrum, which Amgen subleased from Intel Corp. for an undisclosed price, is a two-building colossus of 200,000 square feet.

It had been empty since Intel shut down its subsidiary Xircom.

Amgen signed an eight-and a-half-year sublease from Intel, and that move has started a chain reaction of sorts, for the better,

"It has positively affected the market as a lot of landlords were suppressing rent because of this block of space,, said Tony Principe of Westeord Commercial Real Fatate Services of Westlake Village, who represented the Intel along with Cornish and Carey, a Santa Clara company,

"Now that the space is gone, the market has become much healthier and Vacancy has dropped a bit.