Netflix signs big lease for Hollywood office tower being built on Sunset Boulevard
Video-streaming giant Netflix will dramatically increase its Hollywood footprint by leasing an entire office tower under construction on Sunset Boulevard.
Netflix has agreed to rent Epic, a 13-story office tower being built by Los Angeles landlord Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. across the boulevard from its Sunset Bronson Studios.
Los Gatos-based Netflix also extended its existing leases for two buildings it occupies on the Sunset Bronson lot totaling more than 400,000 square feet. In Epic, which will be completed in January 2020, Netflix will occupy another 328,000 square feet of offices.
The combined leases extend through 2031, said Victor Coleman, chief executive of Hudson Pacific. He declined to reveal the value of the leases.
Netflix’s expansion is part of a Los Angeles-area “land grab,” Coleman said, by rapidly growing entertainment makers. Among them are streaming video competitors Hulu, Amazon and Apple, along with premium cable companies such as HBO, Showtime and Starz.
Content creators need offices like Epic in addition to production space, Coleman said. Epic, at 5901 Sunset Blvd., is being built to appeal to creative companies looking for an urban campus-style environment.
As designed by architecture firm Gensler, Epic will have 25,000 square feet of outdoor space on landscaped terraces overlooking the Hollywood sign. The building will have a vehicle drop-off zone to accommodate ride-sharing services such as Lyft and later autonomous vehicles.
The garage is being built with an eye toward future conversion to other uses when fewer people drive their own cars, Coleman said. It will have flat floors and concrete ceilings that can be easily removed on every other floor to enable other uses such as offices in years ahead.
Hudson Pacific is also building a four-story office building called Harlow on its Sunset Las Palmas Studios lot that will be for rent when it is completed in 2020, and is planning another office and studio building for its Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood.
Twitter: @rogervincent
