Silicon Segundo
And now, the stirring conclusion of the “Next Big Thing.” In Part 1 and Part 2, we told you about several of El Segundo’s dramatic makeovers. One of the coolest is a boutique office project called “elevon.” Which is why we’re holding our Bisnow El Segundo summit there on the morning of Dec. 11. Put on your Millennial skinny jeans and please join us.
El Segundo does not want to be considered a mere extension of Silicon Beach, but its own booming new creative area. Nowhere is that ethos as tangible is at 46-acre Campus El Segundo at Nash and Mariposa, half a mile east of Sepulveda. Phase one, completed in ’07, way ahead of the latest creative curve, was called “The Edge”: 14 individual buildings, now 100% sold, leased, and occupied (and none re-sold).
Phase 2, pictured here as it will deliver in mid-2015, is called “elevon.” Pilots know that noun as a key control element of a plane’s wing. For owners Continental Development and Mar Ventures, it’s a metaphor for small high-growth companies taking control of their destinies by owning their own buildings in a densely designed, highly collaborative neighborhood with other creatives—and boasting its own amenity infrastructure.
Elevon will be 15 individual buildings, ranging from 2k to 28k SF, plus two more with 13,500 feet for retail. There will be a gastropub, sit-down fish market, and of course no chains. Four freestanding office buildings and four condo units are already in escrow.
Our tour guide, Bob Healey of CBRE, points out to us the makings of office patios, roll-up doors and operable windows, concrete floors, “fluid” indoor/outdoor environments, 100Gbps fiber-ready telecom, pedestrian circulation paths, with a one acre park in the middle with “drought tolerant” landscaping.
The 210k SF was designed by Steven Ehrlich and Ware Malcolmb on land acquired about a year ago from Thomas Properties. 10 acres have been sold to Taiwanese airline EVA Air for their US operations, and, as reported by the LA Times this spring, the Lakers are in contract to purchase land to develop a new, state-of-the-art training facility, corporate HQ, and home for their D-League affiliate, the D-Fenders.
Just 2.5 acres remain for sale.
Behind those surfer shades, Bob Healey led us in to see elevon’s co-developer.
SVP Bill Messori grew up in Philly, Rome and Argentina, went to USC, managed a 55M SF real estate portfolio for Hughes Electronics, built 20 custom homes in South Bay, and for the last 14 years, with his international tastes and experience, has helped run Mar Ventures with president Allan Mackenzie. He sees elevon’s “lifestyle” theme as not only building upon what’s been such a success at The Edge, but as representing the fundamental cultural shift of a new generation.
Senior project coordinator Laura Mayer says buyers are invited to touch and feel the product in advance, and get involved refining it during construction.
A last submarket of El Segundo, Smoky Hollow, has seen huge appreciation of its small ex-industrial buildings west of Sepulveda, between Grand and El Segundo Blvd. This "Grand Kansas" building was a ground-up development by Mar Ventures, purposefully mimicking the features of older buildings like wood bow trusses on the second floor and 100-year-old recycled brick on the facade. Buyers included Griffin Capital and AtGames, and in turn Griffin leased about 9k SF to MacCosmetics. The 1.5 acre project was leased out 100% shortly after completion.
CenterCal Properties paid $150 a foot two and a half years ago, and after putting in around $100 a foot in improvements, might be able to re-sell for as much as $450 a foot, Bob says.
Numerous smaller scale projects there have had great success, both conversions and ground-up.
In the so-called Douglas/Utah tract, NSB is converting 180k feet of low-rise into a creative campus. And Frank Gehry is rumored to be designing something across the street. So come join the crowd on Dec. 11 at our Bisnow El Segundo summit, see and hear much more, and (perhaps) feel young again.
