Talent firm CAA prepares to leave Beverly Hills digs.

Creative Artists Agency is nearing a lease deal that would have the powerful talent agency leave its signature headquarters in Beverly Hills and return to Century City as part of a major new development yet to be built.

The agency, the largest in L.A., has outgrown the 65,000-square-foot I.M. Pei-designed building, owned by a partnership that includes former co-founder Michael Ovitz. CAA also leases 20,000 square feet across the street at 9777 Wilshire Blvd.

"CAA has been quietly looking for space for two years," said a source familiar with the process. "(A deal) is more than in motion."

Holding up an agreement is deliberation among the building's owners over whether to keep or sell the building once CAA moves out, said another source. Besides Ovitz, the partnership includes a number of current CAA executives.

The agency is in discussions with Trammell Crow Co. to take between 150,000 and 180,000 square feet at the 790,000-square-foot office, retail and entertainment complex planned for the ABC Entertainment Center site, sources said. In securing credit-worthy CAA as an anchor tenant, the developer would take a big step toward lining up financing for construction of the $280 million-plus project, dubbed 2000 Avenue of the Stars and owned by JP Morgan Chase & Co.

"They're about to sign a lease with Trammell Crow," said the source, who added that the deal has been in the works for about six months and may involve building signage rights for CAA. "It's a great chance to have an identity in Century City."

CAA officials and Brad Cox, principal at Trammell Crow, declined comment. Ovitz could not be reached.

CAA left its offices at 1888 Century Park East for the Pei building 14 years ago. The building, estimated to cost $25 million, was the first West Coast project that the renowned architect had a hand in designing.

When it opened, L.A. Times architecture critic Leon Whiteson said the three-story building "stands supremely self-assured on the western edge of Beverly Hills, exuding more sheer class than any other structure in the city."

And while he ackaowledged that "its artful geometries and urbane dress are all of a piece, perfect in every detail." Whiteson did not wax wholly enthusiastic.

Writing that the project didn't seem at one with its environment, he said, "It has the air of a man from Manhattan who, hailing a cab on Park Avenue, to his astonishment, ends up at this odd corner of Beverly Hills."

In 1995, CAA was reshaped when Ovitz and co-founders Ron Meyer and Lee Haber, who were among the group of agents that left the William Morris Agency to form CAA in 1975, made their exit.

Ovitz became president of Walt Disney Co. and Meyer president at Universal.

Reports characterizing Ovitz's departure from CAA vary. While some said the parting was civil, an article in Fortune magazine reported that an earlier failed attempt to secure a post at Seagram after it bought MCA resulted in tensions at the agency.

The departures of Ovitz, Meyer and Haber kicked off a number of defections from CAA on the part of both clients and agents. Shortly after Ovitz's rocky 16-month tenure at Disney ended he formed Artists Management Group, and tensions with his former firm grew as he lured several CAA clients to the management firm.

In 2002, Ovitz sold AMG to The Firm and has since been out of the limelight.

Meantime, CAA has grown. The agency, which represents superstars Tom Cruise and Madonna among many others, now has 194 agents and employs 525, both figures higher than the year earlier.

CAA has three years remaining on its lease at 9777 Wilshire Blvd., said Bob Safai, president at Madison Partners, who represented both sides of the deal and who questioned whether the agency would move from its headquarters.

"They have a landmark building," said Safai. "It's going to be a tough move for them."

Still, in leaving, CAA would finally have severed all but the psychic ties to Ovitz.

"That's always going to be Michael Ovitz's building," said Mark Robinson, corporate managing director at Studley. "The new generation running CAA is entitled to want its own footprint."

The relocation of CAA could come as a surprise to the new owners of 9777 Wilshire. The 131,000-square-foot building was just sold by Douglas Emmett to Promenade Gateway LP, a partnership that includes Westside investor Behrouz Soroudi, for nearly $40 million.

Even with a CAA deal, Trammell Crow has hurdles to overcome before breaking ground. It is in litigation with two local homeowners groups over the process behind the city-certified environmental impact report for 2000 Avenue of the Stars.

One homeowners group, Tract 7260, reached a "tentative agreement" to settle with Trammell Crow about three weeks ago, said Frederic D. Woocher, a partner at Strumwasser & Woocher LLP representing the group.

The other, South of Santa Monica Boulevard Homeowners Association, is "in the process of settlement negotiations" with Trammell Crow, said Barbara Broide, the group's secretary.

The project is believed to be at least two years away from completion.