Penske Media Corp. Takes 125K SF At McCarthy Cook's Lumen West LA

The parent company of The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone inked a 125K SF lease in a freshly completed West Los Angeles office building in a move that will expand the media company’s office footprint.

The lease is for 12 years, according to Commercial Observer, which first reported the deal. 

The new office, in McCarthy Cook’s Lumen West LA on Olympic Boulevard, is about a mile away from Penske’s old headquarters. A move-in date and other terms of the deal are unclear. Representatives for McCarthy Cook and Penske Media Corp. didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. 

McCarthy Cook completed Lumen in late 2022. The Sawtelle building offers sports courts, 15K SF of restaurant space and 1.5 acres of private outdoor event space. Penske Media plans to outfit its new home with a ground-floor screening room and on-site production facilities other tenants can use, CO reported. 

Penske Media joins another media tenant in the 550K SF office building: The production company Fifth Season signed a 65K SF, long-term lease at Lumen in March. 

Penske Media Corp. will leave a 70K SF office at 11175 Santa Monica Blvd., where its lease was scheduled to expire this fall, CoStar previously reported.

The building has long been identifiable by the giant “Variety” sign on its exterior, but it sold in March to a business entity connected to personal injury attorney Kourosh Danesh Moghadam, who plans to use the building for his firm, leasing out any space beyond what he needs, according to CoStar.

In the area on Olympic where Lumen West LA is, the average market rent for office space is $53.56 per SF, quite a bit higher than the greater LA average of $41.93 per SF, CoStar reported in August. At that time, the building was 23.8% vacant.