Developed on the former back lot of the film studio 20th Century Fox, Century City’s first building was opened in 1963. Since then, it has become one of West Los Angeles‘ most prominent employment centers, with such notable tenants as Fox Studios, Fox Home Entertainment, ICM Partners, Creative Artists Agency, and Miramax.

These days, the area has become home to so much more than TV and movie sets. Century City’s proximity to Santa Monica, Culver City, and Beverly Hills makes it a hot bed for retail, office, and entertainment companies looking to center themselves in a booming urban area.

Century City Office Space – Lease Data & Trends

Leasing activity for 2018 is on pace to outshine last year’s activity of 12 million square feet, with 6.6 million square feet already leased in Greater Los Angeles for the first half of the year. West LA alone led the way with 1.6 million square feet.

Over half of the 2.0 million square feet of major office projects under construction in Los Angeles are in West LA. The area continues to command the highest per-square-foot pricing, best demonstrated with the sale of 331 N. Maple Drive in Beverly Hills for an astounding $925 per square foot.

In Century City, office space in a Class A building is rented at approximately $4.50 per sq. ft. per month, and Class B space averages around $2.70 per square foot per month.

Spotify landed the largest deal of the quarter for 109,706 sq. ft., moving from West Hollywood to At Mateo in the Arts District, one of the country’s most talked about, imaginative urban neighborhoods. Arup, an independent engineering firm originally from Playa Vista, signed for 66,201 sq. ft. at Wilshire Grand Center in the Financial District.

What Our Brokers Say about Century City Office Space

While the Bay Area is known for Silicon Valley’s inventive workforce and high real estate prices, Silicon Beach (Playa Vista, Playa Del Rey, Westchester, Santa Monica, and Venice) has successfully emerged as an increasingly prominent zone on the tech scene.

Major technology companies have opened offices in the region, including Google, Yahoo!, BuzzFeed, Facebook, YouTube, Salesforce, and Electronic Arts. Traditional tech companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google are continuing to expand their regional presence while steadily broadening their offerings with various forms of content creation.

New entrants to the shared workspace industry are targeting the entertainment- and tech-dense submarkets of Westside and Hollywood. Working Well Win, a group that offers flexible, collaborative co-working spaces, is expected to take over the top two floors at the former Barnes & Noble on Third Street in Santa Monica. Serendipity Labs, a New York-based network of workplaces, provides memberships that include full- and part-time coworking spaces, private offices, workstations, and team rooms. The company recently established its first Los Angeles location, signing for 36,000 square feet in Hollywood.

WeWork remains at the forefront of the co-working phenomenon, establishing its LA footprint to add to its 15 locations throughout the market. Across the region, the industry continues to rapidly develop and now encompasses 3.2 million sq. ft of office space.

Overall corporate growth has expanded significantly over the last 12 months, with West LA adding 63,900 jobs (an 1.4% annual growth). The professional and business services industries added 17,300 jobs while the educational and health services sector increased by 16,200 jobs. Unemployment is expected to slowly decline over the next two years, reaching 4.1% in 2019. At that time, Century City and its surrounding area should start to reach full employment, following in the state of California’s footsteps.

This uptick in employment will mean big things for commercial real estate. At the end of 2017, new inventory throughout Greater Los Angeles caused a year-over-year increase from 14.5% to 15.4% in overall vacancy, a change of 90 basis points (bps). Transamerica contributed to this rise by vacating 150,000 sq. ft. at 1150 S. Olive Street in South Park, which gave vacancy rates a 7.9% surge in the submarket to reach 20.4%.

As construction completions reached their apex in 2017 and the pipeline continues to shrink, supply should be more constrained, allowing occupancies to take hold and prosper.

Get to Know Century City

Businesses headquartered in Century City attract candidates of various professional backgrounds. It’s considered the heart of the Westside, and with the critical Purple Line rail extension coming soon, the downtown area will finally be within easier reach for thousands of residents. Avoiding awful crosstown traffic will allow prospects to see what the area has to offer, while business owners the opportunity to create next-level office spaces for employees and clients alike.

Revamped centers like Westfield Century City feature 1.3 million sq. ft. of retail space, with must-visit destinations like Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Eataly. Haircare manufacturer John Paul Mitchell Systems is also headquartered in Century City, along with American luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises. Constellation Place (formerly the MGM Tower), is home to the headquarters of global investment bank Houlihan Lokey, talent agency ICM Partners, and International Lease Finance Corporation.