Wedbush Leaving DTLA, Taking 80% Less Space In Pasadena

Wedbush Securities has occupied the Downtown LA building with its name on it since 2001. Now, it's leaving that tower behind for a smaller space in more suburban Pasadena. 

The new offices are "meant to accommodate employees who now work remotely much of the time," according to the Los Angeles Times. The financial services firm's lease expires in 2025, at which time the move will officially begin. 

"The pandemic and Covid created a different kind of office for us," Wedbush President Gary Wedbush told the Times.

Most of the firm's workers are now required to be in-office only a third of the week and the new office, on Pasadena's Lake Avenue, will offer shared space instead of assigned desks, according to the Times.

Lake Avenue is a main commercial street in Pasadena and offers a bevy of amenities, which include numerous restaurants from casual to high-end and neighborhood retail such as gyms, Wedbush noted. 

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but at approximately 20K SF, the new office will be a fraction of the 100K SF Wedbush occupied in Downtown. 

The continued process of right-sizing office space to meet the fluctuating space demands that hybrid work brings has been particularly visible in Downtown. CBRE's third-quarter report found overall vacancy Downtown is more than 30%, or "triple the amount considered to be a healthy balance between tenant and landlord interests," according to the Times. 

While downtown was "fantastic" for the years that Wedbush was based there, the firm's president told the LA Times that “[t]here are places like Pasadena that seem to have recovered more fully from the pandemic than downtown Los Angeles has," and that speedier recovery factored into the decision-making process as well.