Former 'Tishman' building gets one new tenant, retains another.

The Westwood office tower historically known as the "Tishman" building is getting a new "signage" tenant -- fast-growing Philips Interactive Media of America.

And within a week of signing the "compact disc-interactive" software producer to an 83,000-square-foot lease, the asset manager of the once-troubled tower at 10960 Wilshire Blvd. also retained an important 60,000-square-foot tenant -- advertising agency BBDO Worldwide Inc.

Amid the still-struggling local commercial real estate environment, the Philips deal is the second major Westwood-area relocation coup engineered during the last nine months by the "managing agent" of the 10960 tower and its "sister" highrise.

The 24-story, 1971-vintage 10960 high-rise's building-top "Tishman" sign had signified the headquarters of the property's former management/leasing agent, Tishman West Cos. That firm, now known as Allegiance Realty Group, moved to the nearby "Landmark I" tower about three weeks ago.

The deal bringing the Philips group from another nearby highrise and two smaller buildings includes immediate prominent signage on the 10960 tower's east and west sides -- and the possibility of even higher-profile north and south side signage. The lease's expanded signage clause kicks in if Philips Interactive expands into another 12,000 square feet, noted Philips' real estate broker, Roy Longman of Grubb & Ellis Co.

Local operatives of Houston-based Hines Interests Limited Partnership are now managing extensive renovations of the 10960 building and a "sister" highrise at 10880 Wilshire on behalf of property owner Swiss Bank. The bank took the towers back from partnerships affiliated with troubled Chicago investor/syndicator VMS Realty.

About nine months ago, Hines negotiated the deal bringing investment house Oppenheimer & Co. -- and its building-top sign -- from still another Westwood highrise to the 10880 building. Oppenheimer's sign will replace the "MAXXAM" sign previously identifying that tower's historic anchor tenant.

Now Philips Interactive gets the 10960 signage by virtue of its lease of the former Tishman/Allegiance space on the seventh floor, along with the sixth and eighth floors and half of the fifth. The 83,000 square feet of to-be-renovated offices will house the primary North American production, sales, administrative and customer services operations of Netherlands-based Philips Electronics N.V.'s growing interactive media unit.

Philips Interactive has been leasing two floors at the Westwood Gateway highrise complex and two nearby "stand-alone" buildings, explained Longman, who negotiated the relocation deal along with Alan Alterman, Philips' national real estate director.

With leases at the two smaller buildings scheduled to expire at the end of 1994, Philips began "testing the water" last summer to determine whether a consolidation would make financial and logistical sense if the firm exercised a "buyout" of its lease at the Gateway complex, Longman continued.

While the Philips team narrowed its search down to a dozen facilities and eventually to a "short list" of four finalists, the growing firm's space requirement expanded from about 45,000 or 50,000 square feet to more than 80,000, Longman noted. Nearly half the space will be devoted to production studio facilities -- a use not typically employed at highrise office buildings -- the broker added.

Longman and the Hines executives who negotiated the relocation deal -- Todd Later and Doug Holte -- wouldn't reveal financial details. Nor would they specify the lease's term other than at "less than 10 years." But Longman said the landlord team offered a "healthy" interior build-out allowance and a "generous" rental rate reflecting continued generally soft demand for Westside office space.

The "more than 10-year" deal retaining Omnicon Group Inc. subsidiary BBDO at the 10960 tower likewise reflects "price-driven" dealmaking, but also illustrates the landlord team's ability to combine the "non-conventional" space a creative agency prefers with "highrise views," Later noted.

BBDO's operations will shift floors as its offices are renovated to the agency's specifications, added the Hines agent, who again teamed up with Holte in negotiating the BBDO deal.

Howard Wendy of New York brokerage Edward S. Gordon Co. and Omnicon Director of Real Estate Jeffrey A. Resnick negotiated for BBDO.