Disney proposes office tower for Burbank studio lot.

Continuing to expand its real estate empire, Wait Disney Co. has submitted plans to the city of Burbank for a new 10-story office tower on its studio lot facing the Ventura (134) Freeway.

Original plans for the building contained a logo for the ABC television network, which Disney acquired in 1996. That prompted speculation among some entertainment analysts that Disney might be planning to move some network operations from New York or Hollywood to Burbank.

But the logo was subsequently removed from the architectural drawings, and Disney officials say them are no plans to move ABC operations to the Disney lot.

"They just grabbed a logo, and that was one of the many logos that Disney has the rights to," said Disney spokesman Ken Green. "Then there was the fear of misleading people with the logo on the building, so we pulled it down and replaced it with something else.

"There's never been any discussion on any moving by ABC," Green said. "It's not in the works."

Another Disney official said the ABC logo would have been on the building simply to display one of the company's biggest brand names. The Disney name is already prominent on its animation studio, a striking building also visible from the Ventura Freeway.

The new building, which must be approved by city planning officials, is planned for the Disney lot at the corner of Riverside Drive and Buena Vista Street. It is part of a larger master plan for development of the Disney lot that has already been approved by the Burbank City Council.

Under master plan guidelines, the new building can contain between 300,000 and 400,000 square feet of office space and will be about 10 stories high.

If all goes according to schedule, plans for the new building could be finalized in the months ahead, paving the way for a ground breaking sometime next year, said Timur Galen, senior vice president and general manager of Walt Disney Imagineering.

"Tenancy of the building is not determined yet," Galen said. "We're constructing additional office space. We're going to expand throughout the Valley. We need more space of all kinds."

Indeed, the new building is just one of several major real estate projects on Disney's plate in recent months, as the space-starved studio looks for places to house its growing work force.

In June Disney purchased the 2 million-square-foot Grand Central Business Centre in Glendale for $140 million, which has been home to Disney's Imagineering theme park division since the unit's inception more than 30 years ago.

Disney has also been mentioned as a leading candidate in occupying some or all of a proposed 650,000-square-foot office campus in North Burbank being developed M. David Paul and Associates.

M. David Paul just purchased the 10-acre parcel where the campus would be built from the City of Burbank for $5.4 million, paving the way for construction to begin in the months ahead.

The first stage of the campus will be a five-story, 200,000-square-foot building, with construction expected to begin by year end and a completion date in the fourth quarter of 1998, said M. David Paul project manager Jeff Worthe.

M. David Paul is currently talking with several potential tenants about renting the space and expects to sign a lease with one or more in the next two months, he added. Worthe declined to name any specific parties in negotiations, though sources familiar with the project said Disney is one of those parties.

Santa Monica-based M. David Paul has already renovated a 200,000-square-foot building formerly owned by Lockheed Martin Corp. on a site adjacent to the newly acquired 10 acres. Disney is the sole occupant of the office building and is said to be very pleased with M. David Paul's development and management of the site, according to a real estate source familiar with the project.