With Randy’s Donuts in its retail space and Amazon.com Inc. in its industrial buildings, Overton Moore Properties’ 60-acre mixed-use development Avion Burbank has created a buzz in media-rich Burbank.
“Of all the projects I’ve done over the 30 years, I’m most proud of this project,” said Timur Tecimer, chief executive officer of Overton Moore Properties.
Created in a joint venture between Overton Moore Properties and Invesco Real Estate, Avion Burbank is a massive mixed-use project that will total 18 buildings once the hotel component is completed. There are six buildings that include 970,000 square feet of industrial space; 15,500 square feet of retail space spread across two buildings; and nine office condo buildings featuring 17 units totaling 142,000 square feet.
The retail element has seven spaces: Jersey Mike’s and Randy’s Donuts already opened in the first quarter. Dog Haus, which will have a biergarten, is about to enter construction.
“We’re being very selective on our retail users who are coming into the project because we really want to create a nice selection,” Tecimer said.
Other than the hotel, which is under construction, the project is complete.
“We sold the hotel pad to Choice Hotels (a Cambria brand) and they’re under construction,” Tecimer said.
The 150-key Choice Hotels Cambria, which will include a rooftop bar, will be completed in the first quarter of 2024.
The industrial portion of Avion Burbank is 100% leased to Amazon, which occupies four buildings; Home Depot, which has an entire building; and Tesla, Volt Lighting and Ferguson, which share a building.
Building during Covid
The trajectory of building the $300-million Avion Burbank preceded the pandemic and unfolded during the Covid period. Overton Moore bought the property from the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority in 2016 for $67 million. The land was once the site of a Lockheed Martin Skunk Works plant.
The project received its approvals from the Burbank City Council in 2019. Construction commenced in early 2020, and the industrial portion completed at the end of 2021. The retail and office components were completed in the second quarter of this year.
Avion Burbank has received LEED Gold certification. Creating an environmentally correct approach. Among the features that led to its LEED Gold certification was that 10% of the complex’s energy is renewable; water efficiency includes treating stormwater and low water-use toilets; indoor/outdoor operable windows; and the installation of 117 electric vehicle chargers.
Overton Moore also gave Metrolink a 60-stall parking lot for the agency’s station that is located across the street.
Office condos
Tecimer is particularly proud of the office condos, which are buildings with individual units that companies can purchase as office space. So far, Overton Moore Properties has sold seven of the 17 condos, which go for $645 to $650 per square foot. Each office condo has its own individual entry and indoor/outdoor patios. The buildings are split in half so that each tenant gets a first and second floor.
“You see this kind of environment in Silicon Valley — having all this indoor/outdoor meeting areas, the volleyball court, the firepit, the dog park, the walking paths, the landscaping,” Tecimer said.
“We designed this to attract entrepreneurs who want to own their space,” he added. “We paid attention to the details. The clear-story glass in the office buildings, the amount of glazing in the office buildings, the landscaping, the maturity of the trees, taking the architectural design of the office and incorporating that on the industrial. You won’t see anything designed like this.”
Muhannad Abdulhamid, principal at ARC Engineering, is moving his firm’s Burbank office to an Avion Burbank condo at 3045 N. Hollywood Way.
“We’re heavily under construction right now,” Abdulhamid said. “We’re planning to move in between Christmas and New Year.”
The move will relocate his office of 36 employees from their present Lake Street address across from Nickelodeon Studios — which his firm designed — to Avion Burbank. ARC Engineering, which has been around since 2005, has been in its present location for 10 years. The relocation will signify an expansion from its current 65,000 square feet to 72,000 square feet at the new building.
“We’re taking one of the larger buildings (at Avion Burbank),” Abdulhamid said. “We wanted a little bit larger space, hopefully through the next decade or so.”
He said the new office came together quickly for ARC Engineering, which has another office in El Segundo.
“We’ve been looking for a while,” Abdulhamid said. “We love the space we’re in right now. But when we found (the Avion Burbank space), we fell in love with it.”
Abdulhamid spoke highly of negotiating the deal with Tecimer and Overton Moore Properties.
“We have great communication,” Abdulhamid said. “We arrived quickly at a deal and they’ve been supportive through the process.”
He is looking forward to the new address’s adjacent amenities.
“We’re also excited to have the new hotel coming up,” Abdulhamid said.” It’ll be great if we have conferences or a holiday party or cocktails, we’re excited about that as well.”
Tecimer elaborated on why he was especially fond of Overton Moore’s Avion Burbank endeavor, likening it to a grand adventure.
“It took us three years to entitle,” Tecimer said. “We had two great architectural firms on the project: Gensler and HPA Architecture. Gensler did the office and retail and HPA did all of the industrial.”
Millie and Severson served as the general contractor on the project, while Venus Engineering did the civil engineering and Ridge Landscape Architects handled the landscaping.