Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay could bring more food and cooking cred to Los Angeles’ burgeoning Arts District.
HexClad, a Ramsay-backed cookware company known for its high-end products, has signed new leases totaling nearly 39,000 square feet in the Arts District, CoStar reported. The Los Angeles-based company subleased 28,860 square feet of offices at 555 Mateo Street and an additional 9,768 square feet of warehouse space directly to the south.
The company’s headquarters and all of its operations will be concentrated within a few blocks in the Arts District with the move.
The grab for more space comes after HexClad received a $100 million investment from Studio Ramsay Global, a joint venture between Ramsay and Fox Entertainment and Ramsay. The British chef is no stranger to being a brand ambassador, especially for HexClad, as he uses the company’s hybrid stainless steel-nonstick cookware in his online cooking videos.
HexClad “outgrew a converted warehouse east of downtown,” Nathan Pellow, senior executive vice president at Colliers who represented the tenant in the transactions, said in a statement.
“[The company was] drawn to the uniqueness of the space, along with access to the nearby amenities and available studio space in the immediate area to film content,” Pellow added.
Prior to planting a flag in the Arts District, the cookware brand was looking at sites in Hollywood and Culver City.
Since its founding in 2016, HexClad has attracted customers through its direct-to-consumer sales model fueled by viral marketing and commercials in this year’s Super Bowl. Its expanding product lineup now includes branded cutlery, aprons and kitchen tools in addition to pots and pans.
The 555 Mateo complex, known as At Mateo, spans 192,000 square feet of creative offices owned by ASB Capital Management. Tenants include Spotify, the University of Southern California Roski School of Art and Design and Kong Studios. The property is fully leased with asking rents of $57 per square foot, a marked upgrade from the downtown L.A. average of $36, according to CoStar data.
Downtown Los Angeles’ office vacancy climbed up to 29 percent in the last quarter, according to Colliers’ Q2 report on the area. The report pegged overall asking lease rates in downtown at $3.83 per square foot. — Chris Malone Méndez
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