South Korean Gaming Company Signs Lease For Space In DTLA
The South Korean company behind the popular Lineage 2: Revolution mobile game has signed a lease to occupy 14K SF of office space at the Onni Group’s 600 Wilshire building in downtown Los Angeles.
South Korean gaming company Netmarble Corp. will occupy part of the 11th floor of the property at 600 Wilshire Blvd. in downtown, according to Cresa Los Angeles, which negotiated the lease. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We look forward to moving to the heart of downtown Los Angeles and contributing to the technology innovation that has given rise to the resurgence of Downtown as a creative and technology hub,” Netmarble U.S. General Manager Chul Min Sim said in a news release.
A major gaming company is a major get for downtown landlords. Many gaming companies have set up headquarters in West Los Angeles, Burbank or Playa Vista, but Netmarble’s move could open it up for more gaming and tech companies to head to downtown Los Angeles, Cushman & Wakefield officials said.
“The importance of this move cannot be overstated and, I think, alludes to a larger paradigm shift in the mindset of tech companies who are increasingly looking to plant their flag in DTLA’s flourishing urban landscape,” wrote Cushman & Wakefield’s Andrew Tashjian, the leasing agent for 600 Wilshire, in an email to Bisnow.
“It’s huge,” he wrote. “It’s momentum building. It’s indicative of a trend that we’ve been tracking for years, but it’s finally coming to a tipping point and very soon you’re going to see more and more of these sort of momentous moves to the central city.”
Netmarble is one of the fastest-growing mobile game companies worldwide. The company raised $2.3B in South Korea’s second-largest stock offering in April 2017 and its multiplayer online role playing game Lineage 2: Revolution generated $924M in revenue in the first 11 months of its global release in 2017.
Cresa officials said Netmarble’s move is part of the company’s expansion on the West Coast.
The company will be relocating from its U.S. home in Buena Park to downtown Los Angeles sometime in mid-2018.
Cresa Los Angeles’ Greg Lovett and Steve Seinfeld represented Netmarble in the lease transaction. Cushman & Wakefield’s Tashjian represented the landlord.
