Red hot Disney gobbles up Glendale office space.

Red hot Disney gobbles up Glendale office space

Walt Disney Imagineering, the Walt Disney Co. subsidiary that designs and builds theme park rides, is quietly exploding in Glendale.

Disney officials refused to disclose details last week about the company's dramatic expansion in Glendale. But real estate sources reported the Imagineering subsidiary has been significantly increasing its space in Glendale's Grand Central Business Center, where its headquarters are located. The subsidiary has also just signed a $10 million long-term lease for nearly 100,000 square feet in the new building still under construction at 800 N. Brand Blvd.

Most of Disney Imagineering's expansion is being fueled by Eurodisneyland, the massive theme park Disney is building just outside Paris, industry sources said.

That park is scheduled to open in 1992, and Disney's Glendale subsidiary has been in high gear, designing and building attractions for the new park, industry sources said.

Disney Imagineering has also been keeping busy designing and building new attractions for Disney's fast-growing domestic theme parks in Anaheim and Orlando, Fla.

Last year, Disney opened its $500 million Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in Orlando. And in Anaheim, the company has introduced several attractions, such as Splash Mountain, Star Tours and Captain Eo.

Disney Imagineering's staff would really explode if Disney goes through with its tentative plans to build a new theme park on vacant land adjacent to Anaheim's Disneyland, or with its tentative plan to build a $1 billion water-oriented theme park in Long Beach.

Disney Imagineering, as of last week, had leased about 600,000 square feet in the 1.8 million-square-foot Grand Central Business Park, which is bounded by San Fernando Road on the east, the Golden State (5) Freeway on the west, Sonora Avenue on the north and the Los Angeles River on the south.

The Disney subsidiary wanted to expand even further in the Grand Central park, industry sources said, but no more space was available. So Imagineering execs had to look elsewhere.

They finally decided, just this month, on space in the new 500,000-square-foot office building that Lincoln Property Co. is developing at 800 N. Brand Blvd.

Half the new building, which is slated to open Sept. 1, will be occupied by the Carnation Co. (The dairy concern also has an equity stake in the new building.)

Disney Imagineering's deal at 800 N. Brand involves a $10 million, five-year sublease for 97,963 square feet.

The brokerage firm representing Disney Imagineering in the deal was Prudential Stevenson Commercial Real Estate.

Glendale Federal Bank, the sublessor, was represented by Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate Services.

Glenfed had originally leased the high-profile space in March of 1988, but later decided against moving in when the savings-and-loan debacle began getting ugly.

Glenfed has now decided to remain in the building it owns nearby, at 700 N. Brand Blvd., and at another location on the 400 block of Brand.

Meanwhile, Disney Imagineering is getting ready to move its ever-larger creative staff into the new building at 800 N. Brand, and is said to be looking for even more space in the near future.

"If you've got (available space) within a few miles of their existing facilities, Disney Imagineering is interested in looking at it," exclaimed one Glendale broker, who wished to remain unnamed.

Most of Disney Imagineering's recent expansion has been in office space needed to house the subsidiary's engineers and creative staff members. But every once in a while the company makes an unusual request for industrial space to build mock-up versions of new theme park rides.

"They called me a while back and said they needed to lease a 5,000-square-foot building with a 50-foot (high) clearance for a year," lamented one frustrated broker. "That doesn't exist in L.A., except maybe at some airplane hangar in Palmdale."