Clarion Unveils New Playa Project
Yet another big project (and tenant) is making its way to Playa Vista. Clarion Partners this week unveiled its plans for i/o at Playa Vista Campus.
The former Latitude 34 office complex in Playa Vista is being developed into a six-story, 301k SF complex, which the company said is the first Class-A development in LA to undergo a redevelopment on this scale. The complex has been vacant since opening in 2011, but Clarion has landed a major tenant to fill some space: Group M, one of the world's largest advertising media companies, is taking 49k SF and relocating from Santa Monica.
The Gensler-designed project will include breaking apart and reconfiguring the complex to satisfy creative-space demands. Clarion VP Khalid Rashid says large-scale, corporate environments are not sufficiently attractive to today's creative office tenant. Lincoln Property Co and LA Realty Partners will handle leasing for the two-building complex at 12130 and 12180 Millennium Dr. The i/o (which stands for "interaction/optimized") project will also include creating floor-to-ceiling glass expanses and all-new balconies with big views, breaking through the façade on upper levels to create pop-out balconies and more.
Bringing Group M from SaMo is a trend we've seen recently with the Google Earthquake and even talks of Microsoft, Yahoo and more Silicon Beach staples leaving for other submarkets. Santa Monica is fighting back with big leases of its own, including Uber and WeWork, which each took about 40k SF this month.
