Hollywood Office Leasing Means Making Space for Influencers

For some Hollywood office tenants, in-house mini studios are becoming the hottest amenity.

Office users in Hollywood are looking to take advantage of the constant stream of celebrities and influencers who come through Los Angeles by building out mini studio spaces for them to film videos and other content, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Athletic apparel brand Puma, cosmetics retailer E.L.F. and Kim Kardashian’s shapewear company Skims are among those who have designed spaces to give public figures a place to share content about their brands.

CIM Group, one of Hollywood’s largest commercial property landlords, said its tenants are ramping up their multimedia efforts with these purpose-built spaces.

In some cases, like the Puma Studio at 6345 Fountain Avenue, studio spaces can be used for other things, like parties and dinners.

“For companies where brand visibility is really important, there is a trend of creating spaces that don’t just function as offices,” Nicole Mihalka, a CBRE broker who arranges entertainment property leases and sales, told the Times, noting they are “smaller stages, closer to green screen than a massive soundstage.”

Skims, valued at $5 billion, boasts more than just offices at its headquarters near Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. The clothing company has meeting rooms, collaboration zones, photo studios, sample libraries, prototype showrooms, an executive lounge and a commissary, according to architecture firm Odaa.

Music streaming giant Spotify recently built a state-of-the-art podcast studio in a CIM office building on Sycamore Avenue. The recording space, known as Spotify Sycamore Studios, is open by invitation only to video creators who are in the Spotify Partner Program as podcasts become more valuable. “These studios give teams room to experiment and keep pushing what’s possible,” Bill Simmons, head of talk strategy at Spotify, said in a statement.

— Chris Malone Méndez