Brokered by Legacy: "ARUP Signs Largest Lease Transaction in Downtown LA This Year"

In the largest corporate relocation in downtown Los Angeles this year, engineering services firm ARUP is moving from its office in Playa Vista to occupy three floors in the new 73-story Wilshire Grand Center.

ARUP has signed a 15-year, $57M lease with owner and developer Korean Air and parent company Hanjin International to occupy 66K SF and includes digital sign rights, according to Colliers International. Colliers’ Nathan Pellow and Terence Kirk, along with LegacyNY partners, Ken Fishel and Jessica Jaber, represented ARUP. Cushman & Wakefield’s John C. Cushman III, Steve Marcussen and Dillon Moscone represented the landlord, according to CoStar. The relocation to a larger office will allow ARUP to expand its workforce from 300 employees to 400 full-time workers. “With the increasing presence of downtown Los Angeles in terms of our clients, our collaborators and our potential staff, the move from the Westside made perfect sense,” ARUP principal and Los Angeles Office Group leader Jim Quiter said in a news release.

“The move downtown places us in the center of the marketplace, which allows us to attract a more diverse staff, and to have a greater impact on our industry, our city, and the issues they face,” Quiter said. The move highlights a growing trend among companies relocating to downtown Los Angeles. Adidas and Spotify are among the companies that have made commitments to move to the burgeoning downtown area. “We evaluated numerous alternatives both on the Westside and downtown over a period of 18 months,” Pellow, an executive vice president with Collier’s downtown office, said in a news release. “Downtown just made the most sense for ARUP in terms of accessibility in every sense of the word — commuting options, affordable residential housing, and dozens of onsite and offsite amenities within walking distance.” The $1.5B Wilshire Grand Center opened last year.