RBM buys film company HQ in Sawtelle for undisclosed price

Whitewater Films has sold its nearly 22,000-square-foot office headquarters in West Los Angeles for an undisclosed price.

The Sawtelle-based entertainment firm sold four parcels at 11264 La Grange Avenue in Sawtelle’s Japantown, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. The buyer was RBM of California, based Downtown.

RBM bought the property a block from Sawtelle Avenue with plans to redevelop it into multifamily housing, either apartments or condominiums. At least four mid-century office buildings would be demolished, according to an overhead photo and public records.

Beverly Grove-based Passman Group represented the film company in the deal.

RBM of California is a unit of Residence Building Management, a Tokyo-based firm with a market valuation of more than $1 billion in commercial, retail and residential real estate.

Among properties that RBM of California owns and oversees is 2999 Overland Avenue, a 45,000-square-foot commercial office in Palms, and 800 Figueroa Street, a 132,000-square-foot commercial office in Downtown Los Angeles, where the U.S. subsidiary is based.

It also owns other properties in Century City, Palms, Miracle Mile, Pico-Robertson, Sawtelle, Sherman Oaks and West Los Angeles.

In October 2020, RBM of California filed plans to build a 109-unit apartment complex at 2107-2121 Westwood Boulevard in West L.A.

Whitewater Films, founded in 2004 by producer/director Rick Rosenthal, had been operating in Sawtelle’s Japantown for 15 years. It produced dozens of films, including “Big in Japan” (2014), “Cartel Land” (2015), “First Girl I Loved” (2016), “A Thousand Junkies” (2017) and “To The End” (2022).

— Dana Bartholomew