UTA Nears Deal to Move to New Beverly Hills Headquarters (Exclusive)

United Talent Agency is in negotiations to secure a 15-year lease for roughly 135,000 square feet of new headquarters office space at 9336 and 9346 Civic Center Drive in Beverly Hills, according to real estate sources. The deal is expected to close by the end of the month.

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The value of the lease is not known. It is not clear when UTA would relocate from its existing headquarters at 9560 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills -- the agency is said to have at least a handful of years remaining on its current lease.

UTA declined to comment.

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The Civic Center Drive property, which is owned by New York-based developer Tishman Speyer, is undergoing extensive renovations; it was previously the headquarters of Hilton Hotels.

In March, The Hollywood Reporter reported that UTA was in the market for 100,000 square feet and had toured the soon-to-be-completed Red Building at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The agency currently leases about 99,000 square feet at the Wilshire Boulevard property.

The deal would be a coup for the city of Beverly Hills, which has sought to retain both UTA and fellow talent agency WME since CAA and ICM decamped for Century City in the past decade.

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The move would give UTA significantly more space than it currently has and much more square footage than it was looking for this spring. In August, UTA said it would open a New York office this month.

The agency would have a notable neighbor at the Civic Center Drive property: Playboy Enterprises Inc., which said Monday that it had agreed to lease 45,000 square feet there.

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The property is just east of Beverly Hills City Hall and is located in a formerly industrial section of the city that officials have been promoting as an entertainment business district. It is also adjacent to the Live Nation headquarters building at 9348 Civic Center Drive. That property was formerly co-owned by onetime CAA topper Michael Ovitz and partners, who sold to Tishman Speyer for $20 million earlier this year. 

Tishman Speyer declined to comment.

Email: Daniel.Miller@THR.com
Twitter: @DanielNMiller