Leases

Circuit City Stores Inc. said it planned to break the leases for almost all the 155 stores it was closing this month. The Richmond, Va., company was scheduled to auction the leases today as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings. But too few bids came in to hold the auction, a spokesman said. The company had hoped to sell the leases to reduce its costs, help it get financing and aid its restructuring, it said in court documents.

Known for the great variety of the roles he plays, Leonardo DiCaprio now is trying his hand at Malibu beach house landlord. He has listed this Cape Cod-inspired home for $75,000 a month for a long-term tenant or $150,000 a month for leases of less than six months. His Malibu Colony compound was recently remodeled and features a four-bedroom main house on the ocean side, a two-bedroom guest house and a detached loft with gym. There is a beach-front deck, a fire pit, gardens and lawn on the less-than-half-acre lot. DiCaprio, 37, whose blockbuster hits include "Titanic" (1997)

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

Citing a state investigation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum's top executive, City Councilman and stadium Commissioner Bernard C. Parks demanded Friday that a Monday vote on surrendering stewardship of the venue to USC be canceled. Parks also asked the Los Angeles County district attorney's office to investigate Coliseum Interim General Manager John Sandbrook, who recently became the subject of an inquiry by state ethics officials. They are looking into allegations that the executive illegally sought a job with USC while he was representing the public interest in lease negotiations with the private university.

Retail giant Target Corp. is heading to downtown Los Angeles, part of a growing trend of big-box retailers taking advantage of a beaten-down urban real estate market. The 7+Fig mall downtown ? which has been without an anchor tenant since Macy's left early last year ? will get the new Target, which will be smaller than most and carry a different merchandise mix, with a heavy emphasis on food and household basics. "It's really about trying to magnify the relationship that we have had with those urban central core guests," said John Griffith, executive vice president of property development at Target.

As warehouses go, there are few like Skechers USA Inc.'s new 1.82-million-square-foot distribution center. This warehouse is so big that it takes half a minute to drive from one end to the other at 60 miles per hour. The setup is so advanced that human hands will hardly touch the cargo as it is unpacked, categorized, stacked and prepared for delivery. The building is so green that it uses prevailing winds for ventilation instead of air conditioning. For its new North American operations warehouse, the nation's No. 2 footwear company chose the Inland Empire's Moreno Valley.

A Corona del Mar podiatrist is struggling to get his foot in the door at a prestigious medical building complex in Newport Beach, complaining that the landlord is discriminating against his profession. Ivar Roth, 36, describes himself as "very conservative" and said he fits right into the traditional Newport Beach physician community. "I follow the rules," he said. "I don't make trouble."

Saudi Arabian businessmen and arms brokers with close ties to the royal family head a group of Middle Eastern investors who secretly acquired a major stake in leases on public land in Marina del Rey, The Times has learned.

Share Our Selves will be allowed to keep its dental clinic at the Rea Community Center at least until next January while the rest of the organization relocates, according to an agreement reached with the City Council this week. "That was a crucial point with us," said Jean Forbath, founder and executive director of SOS, which provides emergency food, clothing and financial assistance to about 5,000 Orange County families.

Los Angeles Community College District trustees agreed Wednesday to lease part of the historic Van de Kamp's Bakery property to a charter high school, amid protests that officials broke a promise by dropping plans for a satellite campus at the site. The Glassell Park property, the subject of a ferocious preservationist fight a decade ago, underwent a $50-million to $60-million rehabilitation that saved the bakery's landmark 16th century Dutch town house facade in preparation for a campus.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND : A professional football team once leased a quarterback to another team. Strange trades have long been a part of professional sports history. Heck, just recently in Sports Legends Revealed I've featured a quarterback that the New York Giants acquired an entire franchise just to add to their team and a trade by the San Diego Padres where they dealt a player for a pair of treadmills . However, I don't believe I have ever encountered a trade like the one the Houston Oilers and the Denver Broncos made in 1964 where the Broncos traded a player to lease a quarterback from the Oilers!

A court ruling has invalidated the lease of a high-performing charter school in Glassell Park, threatening it with closure when the school year ends in June. The Alliance Environmental Science and Technology School, whose students have some of the highest test scores in the Los Angeles Unified School District, will lose its campus under a ruling last week by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones. Her ruling came in a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Community College District filed by a coalition of community groups over the college district's compliance with environmental laws.

CBRE Group Inc., the world's largest commercial real estate brokerage, turned a profit in the first quarter as U.S. property sales took off. The Los Angeles firm said Tuesday that income from arranging transactions to buy or rent space in offices, warehouses and other commercial properties helped revenue increase 14% from a year earlier to $1.35 billion. Growth was driven primarily by activity in the United States as leasing transactions fell off in Europe and sales slid in Asian markets.

Troubled insurance giant American International Group Inc. filed a lawsuit against the former head of its aircraft leasing business, Steven Udvar-Hazy, contending the Los Angeles billionaire stole company secrets, wooed away customers and pilfered business deals after he started a competing firm in 2010. The New York insurance company and its Century City unit, International Lease Finance Corp., or ILFC, filed suit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The 33-page complaint listed the defendants as Udvar-Hazy, his current company, Air Lease Corp., and 30 employees who left ILFC to work with him. AIG asserted in the lawsuit that the defendants collectively connected 16 flash drives to ILFC computers and downloaded nearly 13,000 ILFC files, which included price data concerning the value of aircraft fleets, past contracts, letters of intent and statements of work.

Information technology firm Hewlett-PackardCo.renewed its lease of an entire building in El Segundo, real estate brokers said. The 47,576-square-foot building at 621 Hawaii St. is the regional office of Palo Alto computer maker Hewlett-Packard, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle. The landlord is Asset Management Consultants Inc. of Mission Hills. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but experts familiar with the South Bay real estate market valued it at about $6 million.

After months of secret negotiations that drew fire from open-government advocates, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission unveiled a proposed lease Tuesday that would surrender public control of the historic stadium to USC. The move comes as the taxpayer-owned venue's finances continue to deteriorate. In the 12 months ending in February, the Coliseum Commission has lost about $1.4 million, according to its financial statements. The losses came despite new business the stadium and the companion Sports Arena attracted, such as temporarily hosting UCLA basketball.

After three years of decline in the office leasing business, the worst is over, landlords and brokers said. Companies that hunkered down during the economic slump may not be doing much hiring yet, but many were confident enough about their futures to sign office leases in the first quarter, brokers said. In addition, attractive rental terms spurred deals across Southern California. "The general feeling is that we have arrived at a plateau and things have become more predictable," said broker Mark Sullivan of Studley.

Actor George Hamilton has leased out his Wilshire Corridor condo at $5,500 a month. The contemporary unit has city and ocean views, two balconies, two bedrooms and three bathrooms. There is close to 1,900 square feet of living space. The building, constructed in 1982, has a pool, a gym and valet parking. Hamilton, 72, starred in "Love at First Bite" (1979) and "Zorro, the Gay Blade" (1981), among other films in his nearly six-decade acting career. Public records show the actor bought the condo in 2008 for $1.1 million.

Question: I own two houses on the same street. I live in one and rent out the other. The tenants in the rental house have seven months left on their lease. I would like to move my wife's mother into the rental house so she can move out of my house. Will I be able to do that? Answer: A lease is an agreement that is binding on all parties to it, tenant and landlord. Some leases have "escape clauses" that allow either party to cancel upon giving notice, typically 30 days. If the lease agreement you used for this rental does not include an escape clause, you have no general right to unilaterally cancel the lease.

"Two and a Half Men" star Ashton Kutcher has bought a home in the heart of the Hollywood Hills for an undisclosed amount. The house had most recently been listed at $10.8 million. The modern-style house, completed in 2007, has views of the Hollywood Reservoir and the Hollywood sign. Kutcher had been leasing the property when reports surfaced that Justin Bieber had toured the house and might be an interested buyer. It can be weeks or months before the sale price appears in public records.