Several teams vying for 'NBC Plaza' site.

BURBANK - Frantic media/entertainment industry growth has tightened the Burbank area's office market so much that several development teams are vying for the site approved for the city's biggest commercial highrise project.

Two particular heavyweights - Maguire Thomas Partners and Walt Disney Co. - are said to be seriously negotiating separately with representatives of the Bank of New York Co. Inc. subsidiary that owns most of the property once slated for NBC's West Coast administrative headquarters.

Roy Disney's Shamrock Holdings and commercial developers J.H. Snyder Co. and M. David Paul & Associates are among the other parties that have also made offers for the bulk of the site entitled for two highrise towers featuring 715,000 square feet of space, sources confirmed.

All the interest comes barely three years after Bank of New York took back 83 percent of the property adjacent to NBC's studio complex from another would-be development team - no less than NBC itself and local real estate guru John Cushman.

In that mid-recession era, the Cushman-NBC venture simply couldn't secure construction financing for the project dubbed "NBC Plaza" despite NBC's commitment to lease 100,000 square feet for 15 years.

Cushman had also negotiated options to purchase the two Olive Avenue hotels making up the other 17 percent of the triangular 4.36-acre site - bounded by Olive, California Street and the Ventura (134) Freeway - for which the Cushman-NBC team secured rights to develop the NBC Plaza project.

Planning questions

A new team would likewise have to control the hotel properties in order to assume the existing entitlements - which run for another half-decade. Or a developer could submit a downsized plan for the Bank of New York property alone.

But that appears to be a less desirable option considering the additional time and expense, not to mention that the hotels are sited at the "front door" of the existing development plan, as one source described it.

That appears to put the hotel owners in a desirable position, considering how "hot" the market has become since tight capital markets idled the Cushman-led team in the early 1990s.

Babu Patel, owner of the Bahia hotel, said it makes most sense to develop the entire property along the lines Cushman had envisioned, and that he'd be interested in cooperating with a buyer. However, he hasn't yet heard from the bank, the city or any prospective developers.

Ishver Patel, owner of the Starlight hotel and no relation to the neighboring hotel's owner, wouldn't say whether he'd heard from prospective buyers or even is interested in selling.

NBC now says it has no interest in developing or leasing offices slated for the freeway-front site in the heart Of Burbank's Media District redevelopment area. But seemingly insatiable demand from Disney, Warner Bros. and other media operations has rendered the Media District office market ultra-tight.

Moving out

The rapidly expanding tenant base has forced big space-users to take offices in nearby cities - at the expense of Burbank's tax coffers. Developers have suddenly shown so much interest in the site, a new development team could take title within weeks, according to attorney Dick Volpert, one of Bank of New York's local point men negotiating with interested buyers.

Burbank officials are weary of watching big employers send jobs outside the city's borders due to the severe business-space shortage, noted Jim O'Neil, special assistant to Burbank's community development director. They want to see the project go ahead as soon as possible, he said.

"I think the entire project would be leased three times over" if it was up and operating today, O'Neill said.

Indeed, the situation seems to have spawned something of a race to develop the next big "Class A" office complex in the greater Burbank vicinity. And two players pursuing the NBC-adjacent site are among those already preparing to get nearby competing projects under way.

Partner Tim Walker of downtown L.A.-based Maguire Thomas said he hopes his firm will be the winning bidder on the NBC Plaza property, which he described as "the welcoming gateway to the City of Burbank.

"The bank is evaluating (offers) and hasn't told us we're not" a top contender, "so we just don't know at this moment," Walker added.

In partnership with Bank of America, Maguire Thomas is planning a second tower at the Glendale Center project where Disney and Turner Feature Animation recently committed to nearly 225,000 square feet within the existing to-be-renovated office building at 611 N. Brand Blvd.

Maguire Thomas is also the lead developer of the massive Playa Vista planned community near Marina del Rey, where the powerful new Dream Works SKG entertainment group has tentatively committed to co-developing the first phase - including DreamWorks' headquarters studio campus.

Another contender

And the Santa Monica-based David Paul group is now renovating a 200,000-square-foot former Lockheed Martin Corp. "Skunk Works" office building in the Media District North area near the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena airport. That entire office facility was pre-leased to Disney.

The developer has also been pursuing plans, on 10 adjacent city-owned acres, for a 500,000-square-foot entertainment-oriented business campus. Citing confidentiality agreements, a David Paul executive declined comment on the NBC Plaza site.

A spokesman for Disney - which has put a formidable development organization together - declined to comment on "speculation" about the fast-growing company's activities.

O'Neill and Volpert declined to identify any parties that have expressed interest in the former NBC Plaza site. But Volpert, a partner with downtown L.A.'s Munger Tolles & Olson, confirmed that his client has received at least five "real" offers from reputable and capable development teams.

He said Bank of New York is in serious discussions with two - one of which hasn't yet made a formal offer - but stressed that no letter of intent has yet been signed.

Executives of two prominent development teams - Miracle Mile-based J.H. Snyder and a partnership including Burbank-based Shamrock and downtown L.A.-based CommonWealth Partners - each said they've put strong plans together and made serious offers but now assume other parties have taken lead positions.