Electronics giant Belkin inks deal for new HQ

Lease at 555 Aviation in El Segundo is roughly half size of current Playa Vista space

A rendering of 555 Aviation Boulevard with Belkin CEO Chet Pipkin and Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer (Lake Tahoe Community College, 555 Aviation and Getty)
A rendering of 555 Aviation Boulevard with Belkin executive chairman Chet Pipkin and Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer (Lake Tahoe Community College, 555 Aviation and Getty)

Consumer electronics giant Belkin International inked a lease with Tishman Speyer to shift its headquarters to El Segundo.

UPDATED, 5:50 p.m. March 12: The company will occupy roughly 65,000 square feet at 555 Aviation Boulevard, representatives for the company said. Belkin intends to leave its current HQ at The Campus at Playa Vista for the new location in the fourth quarter. The company’s new deal is for roughly half the square footage of its 150,000 square feet at the Heitman-owned Playa Vista property.

Belkin shifted to remote working last year, as many companies were forced to do. And like many companies, it is shrinking its office footprint.

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“The traditional ways organizations operated yesterday simply may not work in the new normal of today or tomorrow,” Chief Executive Steve Malony said, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Office vacancy across Los Angeles has been steadily rising since the pandemic hit.

Belkin joins advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi at the 260,000-square-foot El Segundo creative office. The ad agency leases 80,000 square feet there.
Tishman bought 555 Aviation in 2015 for $45 million, and renovated the complex when longtime tenant Xerox moved out two years later.
Tishman secured a $125 million refinancing in October, with the debt provided by Royal Bank of Canada. [LABJ] — Dennis Lynch 

This story was updated with square footage figures from Belkin and an update to Pipkin’s position with the firm.