Landlord Case Study | 12541 Beatrice Street

The Setting

Gehry Studios partnered with NSB to acquire and transform an 80,000 rsf concrete industrial building into a new multi-tenant creative campus for Frank Gehry in the Airport Marina Industrial Park, now known as Playa Vista.

Assignment

The Frank Gehry designed redevelopment resulted in a 90,000 rsf campus, half occupied by Gehry Studios and the remaining built as a warm shell spec suite for lease. Prior to forming rsfLA, Michael Preiss worked as an agent for The Klabin Company, a highly respected commercial real estate agency. Michael was awarded the listing by NSB to lead the lease up of the vacant spec space.

Strategy & Results

In 2003 Playa Vista had yet to emerge as the creative tech and entertainment center it is today. Most of the building stock was industrial with a significant amount of vacant land. The story of the area’s inevitable transformation had to be written and conveyed. Gehry Studios was instrumental in creating a buzz, both through reputation, and with cutting edge modeling and marketing tools. Guided tours of Gehry Studios for prospective tenants and corporate real estate decision makers generated activity and eyeballs on the space. Proposals from Nike, advertising agencies, and tech companies followed, with the space ultimately leasing to Chiat/Day TBWA , where they housed the team responsible for the Apple account.