Glendale corridor lures Burbank tenants; Spelling adds HQ space.

Aggressive dealmaking along downtown Glendale's "Central/Brand Corridor" skyline recently netted a pair of corporate relocations from the "tight" Burbank office market.

Imperial Thrift & Loan Association -- a $500 million-in-assets, nine-branch institution -- leased about 23,500 square feet for 12 years at Allstate Insurance Co.'s 700 N. Central tower. The formal relocation date is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 1, noted Gary Brent, the Imperial senior vice president who heads the in-house relocation team.

The deal valued at about $7 million gives the institution -- a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan's Lake Co. Ltd. -- about 6,000 square feet of ground-floor branch space, with the balance on the eight-story tower's sixth floor.

It also gives Imperial building-top signage visible to both eastbound and westbound traffic on the nearby Ventura (134) Freeway. The retail branch's higher profile at the freeway-front building was an important factor in the decision to move Imperial's 65 headquarters/main branch employees to downtown Glendale, Brent noted.

They will relocate from the thrift and loan's current headquarters at Burbank Executive Plaza, 300 E. Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank's downtown area. The institution has about two years remaining on its lease of 15,000 square feet there. Imperial has retained Donna Altounian, Rob Erickson and Mark Evanov of Ramsey Shilling Co., who lease the building for the owner partnership, to sublease the to-be-vacated space.

Richard Abbitt, formerly of Beitler Commercial Realty Services and now with Cushman Realty Corp., represented Imperial in the negotiations. CB Commercial Real Estate Group's Bill Boyd and Carlton Maese negotiated on Allstate's behalf.

Another Burbank-based firm headed for a downtown Glendale highrise is ASI Market Research Inc., a firm that specializes in monitoring the public's perception of television shows and motion pictures.

ASI executives were happy with their offices at the 2600 W. Olive Ave. building in Burbank's "Media District," but retained Cushman & Wakefield Inc.'s Drew Planting and Brad Feld to find more affordable quality space, Feld noted. After a search spanning from the Mid-Wilshire district throughout the San Fernando Valley -- and including a half-dozen Glendale properties -- ASI opted for never-occupied space at the Glendale City Center development.

"I think it's the best building in Glendale," Feld said of the three-year-old, 18-story Homart Development Co./CB Commercial Realty Advisors development. His client is taking the entire 17th floor -- which includes about 21,000 "rentable" square feet of space -- for five years.

The ASI brain trust wanted and got "an aggressive deal," and will finance the office's build-out internally, Feld continued. CB's Bill Boyd and Doug Marlow negotiated the deal, valued at approximately $2.5 million, for the developers.

C&W's Planting and Feld also just closed a significant expansion of media giant Spelling Entertainment Inc.'s offices in the Miracle Mile district's Wilshire Courtyard complex.

Since initially relocating from Hollywood to the Courtyard's east tower in 1990, Spelling's operations have gradually expanded to about 40,000 square feet of California Federal Bank sublease space. A just-closed expansion deal covers another approximately 31,000 square feet -- including fifth-floor executive and legal department offices CalFed is relocating to the second floor -- Feld noted.

Spelling's entire sublease of CalFed space at the Courtyard east tower -- a total of about 71,000 square feet -- is set to expire in six years, Feld continued. The dynamic producer of "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place" also leases about 10,000 square feet across Wilshire at Museum Square, and subleases another 6,000 square feet of Courtyard ground-floor space from another tenant on a month-to-month basis, the broker explained.

McDonnell Douglas Corp. will consolidate some of its Long Beach-based operations through an extended and expanded lease at the Airport One building, 4403 Donald Douglas Dr. The aerospace/defense giant, which had been leasing about a third of the 88,000-square-foot office building, leased the entire property for two years -- with renewal options -- and will move employees from several other South Bay locations.

The property is owned by Kearny Real Estate Co. LP, which is affiliated with the Morgan Stanley & Co.-backed real estate investment fund that purchased a huge pool of Bank of America's non-performing real estate assets about a year ago. Kearny's Teresa Mathew negotiated the deal in-house, while CB's Bill Peters represented the tenant.

Recent Business Journal stories about Commercial Real Estate Systems, the Culver City-based venture developing the CityVision electronic office-property database, have apparently generated calls at Westwood-based tenant rep brokerage Commercial Real Estate Services, often referred to as "CRES." The latter is alive and well and hasn't changed ownership.