DreamWorks’ Glendale campus sold to South Korean investors for $290 million
DreamWorks Animation’s luxurious Tuscany-style campus in Glendale has sold for $290 million to a partnership led by South Korean investors.
The animation company, acquired last year by Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal for $3.8 billion, will continue to occupy the 15-acre property dotted with oaks, streams and a koi pond.
The campus was built in 1997 as a showplace for the DreamWorks SKG entertainment empire launched by Hollywood luminaries Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. The property at 1000 Flower St. has five buildings with a combined 460,000 square feet of space, including offices, a fitness center and a commissary.
DreamWorks Animation is responsible for such movie franchises as “Shrek,” “Madagascar,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Kung Fu Panda.” It became a separate company in 2004 led by Katzenberg, but after experiencing several flops, the studio sold the campus in 2015 for $185 million and leased it back.
El Segundo real estate investment trust Griffin Capital Co. bought the property a few months later for $215 million, and sold it Monday for $290 million to an entity of Hana Asset Management and Ocean West Capital Partners.
Hana Asset Management is one of the largest financial groups in South Korea, with $5 billion in assets under management in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Ocean West is a Los Angeles asset manager that invests in offices and apartments.
In July, a group led by Hana Asset Management and Ocean West Capital Partners bought Two Independence Square in Washington, the headquarters of NASA, for $360 million.
The space agency is committed to leasing the nine-story office building near the National Mall through 2028.
DreamWorks’ lease has 16 years remaining, which made the campus desirable to the buyers, said real estate broker Kevin Shannon of Newmark Knight Frank.
“This is another example of Asian capital targeting Los Angeles for direct investment,” said Shannon, who helped arrange the deal. “A single-tenant asset is much harder to come by in Los Angeles compared to San Francisco, Silicon Valley or Seattle.”
Katzenberg, who earned nearly $400 million on the studio sale to Comcast, has since left DreamWorks and started a Beverly Hills investment fund.
Twitter: @rogervincent
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