Ares Management is moving its marbles down the block in Century City.
The Los Angeles-based investment management firm has signed a 12-year lease at 1800 Avenue of the Stars, Bloomberg reported. The deal includes naming rights to the building.
The lease includes 206,000 square feet in a pair of 59-year-old office towers owned by Anderson Holdings, now conducting a $100 million renovation.
Ares, currently based on the 12th floor at 2000 Avenue of the Stars, plans to relocate in June 2024.
The move by the publicly traded company comes as the Los Angeles office market faces a record vacancy rate of 23 percent in the fourth quarter, from 20 percent a year earlier, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.
Tenants increasingly want higher-quality offices to woo workers.
“It’s easy to be negative about office,” William Anderson, CEO of Anderson Holdings, told Bloomberg. “But this is a perfect example that if you’ve got the right location and make the right upgrades, you can be a success.”
Ares, an alternative investment manager with $341 billion of assets as of Sept. 30, declined to comment.
The largest lease in Century City was signed for 400,000 square feet by Creative Artists Agency to move into a new building under construction at 1950 Avenue of the Stars, said Matt Lavin, president of Anderson Real Estate, the property unit for Anderson Holdings. Its lease starts in 2026, after its pending merger with one-time rival talent agency ICM Partners.
Los Angeles has long been a hub for finance, home to giants such as Oaktree Capital Management and Capital Group.
Yet the city and California have faced criticism for high costs and homelessness, with investors such as Doubleline Capital’s Jeffrey Gundlach repeatedly threatening to leave.
Canyon Partners, a hedge fund firm that also has offices at 2000 Avenue of the Stars, moved its headquarters to Dallas during the pandemic. Companies such as Charles Schwab, Tesla, Oracle and CBRE Group have also moved in recent years from California to Texas.
— Dana Bartholomew
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