Cushman Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the world's second-largest real estate services company, said an investment group controlled by Italy's Agnelli family bought a majority stake in the company for $563 million. The family's Ifil Group will acquire a 67.5% stake, New York-based Cushman and Turin, Italy-based Ifil said. Ifil will replace Rockefeller Group International Inc. as the controlling shareholder. Cushman employees will retain a 32.5% stake.

Office vacancy in Los Angeles County decreased in the fourth quarter in the first year-over-year drop since the economic boom year of 2006. The drop in vacancy to 18.4% was barely measurable at less than half of 1 percentage point, but it's a further sign that the office rental market has reached an even keel and is poised for modest improvement, industry observers said. "We are at the point where we want to be. We are stabilized and going in the right direction," said Joe Vargas, regional manager of real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

Cushman & Wakefield Inc. plans to form alliances with independent real estate companies to build its business in Southern California and the U.S. Southeast. Cushman, the second-largest U.S. commercial real estate broker, is allying with Commercial San Diego; Commercial Carolina, which has offices in North and South Carolina; and Commercial Jacksonville, in Florida, each a former Cushman office. The other members of the alliance are Commercial Tennessee, with offices in Memphis, Little Rock, Ark.

Britain's largest independent television production company, All3Media, will consolidate its Southern California studios in Westchester. The company behind such shows as "Undercover Boss" and "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" has agreed to rent two floors in a Howard Hughes Center office building near the 405 Freeway and Sepulveda Boulevard, real estate broker Jacob Bobek of Cushman & Wakefield said. The lease for 51,000 square feet of space is valued at $16 million, Bobek said. All3Media's five Los Angeles-area studios are now in separate locations in Culver City and on the Westside, and the consolidation will reduce their total rented space about 20%. More than half of All3Media's revenue comes from international operations, and the U.S. is its fastest-growing market, according to British industry website Broadcast.

Fenton Cross, manager of Cushman & Wakefield's appraisal division in the Western region, Los Angeles, has been named a senior vice president.

Scott Perley has been named vice president, branch manager of the Newport Beach office of Cushman & Wakefield of California Inc., which offers real estate brokerage, financial services and appraisal services. Perley fills a vacancy created last January by the appointment of Chuck Hunt to director, Southwestern Industrial/Technology Group. Before joining Cushman & Wakefield, Perley was resident manager of the Santa Ana office of Coldwell Banker.

Satellite broadcaster DirecTV Group Inc. has agreed to double the size of its El Segundo headquarters in a lease valued at more than $300 million. DirecTV, which beams television service to more than 19 million subscribers, will rent 630,000 square feet in three buildings on East Imperial Highway near Los Angeles International Airport, landlord Kilroy Realty Corp. said Wednesday. The broadcaster said it expects to expand into a total of up to 720,000 square feet over the course of the nearly 16-year agreement.

Jacques Y. d'Arlin, an investor, has purchased four lots totaling 46,200 square feet and zoned R-5, at 10804-20 Wilshire Blvd. from Eastern Global Corp. for $5.8 million. The lots presently contain three apartment houses and a motel. D'Arlin was represented by Cushman & Wakefield and Eastern Global by Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate Services.

Scientific Atlanta Inc. has purchased a 7-acre site in Pardee Construction Co.'s Sabre Springs Business Park, San Diego, for $2,587,000. Coldwell Banker represented the seller, and Cushman & Wakefield represented the buyer. The buyer plans to build a $10-million, 108,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on the site.

The three-story Gucci building on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills has been sold for more than $40 million to Festival Cos. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. At more than $3,000 per square foot, the price was one of the highest ever paid for a multistory building on Rodeo Drive, said Steve Algermissen of Cushman & Wakefield, who represented seller Friedman Equities. Roger Vincent

Acclaimed and sometimes controversial Los Angeles artist Paul McCarthy and his son Damon will move their base to a new location on the Eastside following the purchase of a 1970s-era industrial building. Damon McCarthy bought the 150,000-square-foot building at 4540 Worth St. from Trammell Crow Co. for nearly $9 million, he said. “I make big, crazy art pieces for famous artists, especially my dad,” McCarthy said. His 67-year-old father is known for his provocative performance art and large-scale sculpture that often skewers the excesses of American culture.

Renters ruled the roost again in the third quarter as Southern California's office market remained flat even though some employers are expanding again. The bright spot in Los Angeles County continued to be the neighborhoods of Santa Monica, Venice and Playa Vista, where growing technology and entertainment companies are snapping up space, undeterred by rising rents. As one travels east, though, the picture grows more spotty for landlords. "It's like a wave heading out from Santa Monica," broker Josh Wrobel said.

Newport Beach real estate investment management firm Buchanan Street Partners bought a Rancho Cucamonga office building for $10.6 million. Buchanan bought a 75,000-square-foot building in HavenPark, a master-planned office campus, from Dallas-based Thackeray Partners. The three-story building at 9680 Haven Ave. was completed in 2007 during the last real estate boom and is 89% leased. “We are pleased to acquire this building at a significant discount to replacement costs,” said Kimberly Stevenson, a Buchanan vice president.

Calabasas technology company Ixia will expand its headquarters after signing a new lease worth about $26 million. Ixia, which provides wireless network tests, agreed to expand its offices to 110,000 square feet from 83,000 square feet in a 10-year deal at Corporate Center Calabasas, said David Binswanger, executive vice president of landlord Lincoln Property Co. The lease renewal and expansion were welcome because the economic downturn hit...

Asia - most notably Beijing - is experiencing a boom in office rents fueled by rising demand and increasingly limited supply, a real estate brokerage said. Rents for prime office space in Beijing rose 75% last year to $130 per square foot per year, the highest increase of any city in the world in 2011, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Hong Kong remains the most expensive city for office space in terms of total occupancy costs at $244 per square foot, followed by London's West End at $239 a square foot and Tokyo at $197 a square foot.

New industrial real estate leases signed in 2011 returned to levels not seen since prior to the recession of 2008-09, according to year-end statistics for the nation's industrial market compiled by a real estate brokerage. More than 306 million square feet of new leases were completed last year, up 14% from 2010, and the highest level of activity since 2007, Cushman & Wakefield said. Of the 33 U.S. industrial markets tracked by the brokerage, 22 reported an increase in new leasing activity, with Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, northern and central New Jersey, Houston and California's Inland Empire among the markets with the most significant increases.

South Park Associates, developer of the $65-million, 20-story International Tower office and retail complex under construction at Figueroa and 9th streets, has appointed Cushman & Wakefield as exclusive leasing agent. When completed next spring, the tower will contain 400,000 square feet of leasable space. In addition, Cushman will direct leasing for 11,000 square feet of retail space fronting the entire base of the adjoining parking structure.

Sullivan, Workman & Dee, a Los Angeles-based law firm, has signed a 10-year lease for the penthouse of the Guardian Bank Building at 800 S. Figueroa St. and plans to occupy the 10,685 square feet of office space on the 12th floor in mid-January. Charles Dunn Co. represented the law firm in the lease transaction, valued at more than $2 million. Cushman & Wakefield represented the building owner, Bob Blumen.

Satellite broadcaster DirecTV Group Inc. has agreed to double the size of its El Segundo headquarters in a lease valued at more than $300 million. DirecTV, which beams television service to more than 19 million subscribers, will rent 630,000 square feet in three buildings on East Imperial Highway near Los Angeles International Airport, landlord Kilroy Realty Corp. said Wednesday. The broadcaster said it expects to expand into a total of up to 720,000 square feet over the course of the nearly 16-year agreement.