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Commercial
Los Angeles

BKNM plans 48K sf office building in Santa Monica

V-shaped offices built from “hybrid massed timber” would rise on triangular lot

BKNM's Ben Van de Bunt with a rendering of plans for the property at 3402 West Pico Boulevard and 2337 Centinela Avenue
BKNM's Ben Van de Bunt with a rendering of plans for the property at 3402 West Pico Boulevard and 2337 Centinela Avenue (ShubinDonaldson, Cypress Creek Renewables)
Rendering of plans for the property at 3402 West Pico Boulevard and 2337 Centinela Avenue
Rendering of plans for the property at 3402 West Pico Boulevard and 2337 Centinela Avenue (ShubinDonaldson)

BKNM aims to build a 47,800-square-foot office building in Santa Monica.

The Santa Monica-based developer led by Ben Vandebunt has filed plans for the two-story offices at 3402 West Pico Boulevard and 2337 Centinela Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The building would replace a parking lot.

The Mid-century modern-style building would lie along the 10 Freeway, next to a three-story, 44,800-square-foot building that once served as headquarters for The Recording Academy that stages the Grammy Awards.

The new V-shaped building, to be called Pico Green, would include a large courtyard with 40 new trees.

The offices, designed by ShubinDonaldson of Culver City, would be built from “hybrid massed timber” and include floor-to-ceiling lattice windows. A three-level underground parking garage would serve 242 cars and 30 bicycles.

“The two-story office building and rectilinear form is appropriate to the existing three-story office building that will remain on the site,” city staff say in a report. “The new roof line generally aligns with the height of the freeway overpass, with the two-story massing sitting below the freeway. 

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The staff report recommends approval of the proposed project.

The 2.2-acre property has had a string of owners, each with a different plan for the triangular site, according to Urbanize.

In 2011, Dallas-based Trammell Crow bought the property from what is now known as The Recording Academy for $10.5 million, with plans to build 260 apartments.

Brentwood-based Hudson Pacific Properties acquired the site in 2014 for $18.5 million, then sold it in 2017 to help pay for its $200 million purchase of Hollywood Center Studios, now Sunset Las Palmas Studios, in Hollywood.

The buyer of the former Grammy building was Cypress Creek Renewables, a solar company led by Matthew McGovern, for $35 million.  The firm set up its headquarters there.

Vandebunt of BKNM, a visiting scholar at USC Marshall School of Business, is a co-owner of Cypress Creek Renewables, plus numerous real estate and startup companies, according to a biography.

— Dana Bartholomew

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