Playboy Plus Entertainment Inc. has signed a long-term lease for two floors at Burbank’s Empire Center, bringing 250 jobs into the city that bills itself as the “Media Capital of the World.” Playboy Plus is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Manwin, a provider of adult content across multiple platforms. Manwin operates the television, radio and digital assets of Beverly Hills-based Playboy Enterprises Inc. Playboy TV, Playboy Radio, as well as digital media operations, will occupy the sixth and seventh floors at 2300 W. Empire Ave., said spokeswoman Kate Miller of Manwin. The move is expected to take place by the end of the year. The 102,000-square-foot lease is good news for the Burbank office market and 2300 Empire Center, which has struggled to attract tenants since the building was finished in 2009, said Brad Feld, a partner with Los Angeles-based Madison Partners. “It shores up a significant vacancy that the Burbank office market has had for many years,” said Feld, a Burbank office specialist. “(The deal) gets that building out of trouble.” Burbank’s office market had a vacancy rate of 14.9 percent in the first quarter, up from 14.2 percent during the prior quarter, according to Colliers International. The city’s office market remains the healthiest in the Tri-Cities region, which also includes Glendale and Pasadena. Although Miller didn’t disclose the terms of the lease, brokers familiar with the deal put the lease term at 10 years. “We are the media capital of the world so we do attract all forms” of entertainment businesses, said Mary Hamzoian, Burbank’s economic development manager. “From an economic development standpoint, it is great. They are filling up the space and they are bringing more jobs.” The 250 employees will be relocating from various U.S. offices, though most will come from Playboy Enterprises’ Glassell Park location on Media Center Drive, Miller said. Playboy is vacating that office as part of its consolidation into its new Beverly Hills headquarters. Last fall, Manwin and Playboy announced that the Luxembourg firm would manage Playboy’s online branded assets and was licensed to run Playboy TV worldwide. As part of the deal, Manwin acquired Playboy’s non-branded adult TV and online assets and many Playboy workers became employees of Manwin’s Playboy Plus subsidiary, Miller said. Most of the workers moving to Burbank are former Playboy employees, she added. Senior Vice President Patrick Church and Vice President Anneke Greco of CBRE Group Inc. represented the building’s owner, Walton Street Capital. Church declined to comment. According to CoStar Group Inc., there are two floors —totaling 102,000 square feet — still vacant at the seven-floor tower. Other tenants at 2300 W. Empire Ave. include Modern VideoFilm Inc. and Cast & Crew Entertainment Services.
