Forget residential.

While a number of Hollywood buildings are being converted into condominiums, CIM Group Inc. has shifted its attention to building high-end office space.

The group is close to a deal to buy the 75,000-square-foot Security Pacific building at the northeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga Avenue from the Bolour Trust for $16 million, or $213 a foot. Michel Bolour declined to comment on the transaction.

Hollywood-based CIM Group plans to extensively renovate and reposition the 83-year-old building and recruit a restaurant or shop to take over the large ground-floor space. "This could be a very high-end office building for small businesses," said Shaul Kuba, a CIM Group principal. "We want to try to get the small business that wants to be in Hollywood and not just use Hollywood for cheap space."

The Security Pacific building, located at 6381 Hollywood Blvd., brings to four the number of significant office buildings CIM Group owns in Hollywood.

CIM Group has some experience with repositioning older Hollywood office buildings. One of the company's first projects in Hollywood was remodeling and renovating the Woolworth building at 6410 Hollywood Blvd., which the company sold four years ago.

Since then, CIM Group purchased the TV Guide building at 6922 Hollywood Blvd., which it remodeled and repositioned, the Stephen J. Cannell building at 7080 Hollywood Blvd., which is 100 percent leased, and an office building at 1800 Highland Ave., that's in the midst of an extensive remodeling.

CIM Group is also working with the Community Redevelopment Agency on a new office building near Highland and Hawthorne avenues.

"We are making a huge bet on Hollywood office space," Kuba said.

It's a bet that could pay off. Due to residential conversions, Hollywood's office space has been shrinking. That has pushed up rents and suppressed vacancy rates.

Hollywood's office vacancy rate is near single digits and rents have gone up 4 percent in the last year, according to Grubb & Ellis Co. With no new office space expected to come onto the market in the next five years, rents and occupancy levels could continue to rise.

"The market itself hasn't seen any growth in the last 30 years," Kuba said, "and businesses coming back to Hollywood are having trouble finding good quality space."