Dan Lin has “lego” of his Hollywood office space for $5.1 million.
The “Lego Movie” and “Gangster Squad” producer sold his 6,000-square-foot creative office building to movie ad agency Motive Creative for about $850 per square foot, sources told The Real Deal.
The sale price is the highest per square foot ever recorded on Seward Street in the Hollywood Media District, Avison Young’s Aaron Wilder told TRD. Wilder represented Lin, while Figure 8 Realty’s Nick Fichera brokered the deal on behalf of the buyer. Fichera could not be reached for comment.
Lin acquired the property at 755 Seward Street, which has an open floor plan and a kitchen, for $4 million in September of 2015.
Wilder first said that Lin had gotten a discounted price because the space used to house a chrome plating facility and was temporarily flagged by the Department of Toxic Substances Control. However, he contacted TRD later on to say that his initial comments were inaccurate, and that in fact the site had traded for market rate and had been remediated prior to Lin going into escrow.
Lin’s company, Lin Pictures, outgrew the space shortly after its purchase, so Lin had been leasing it to Legend 3D, a 3D film conversion company. As of July, Lin Pictures operated out of a 15,450-square-foot space nearby, at 729 Seward Street.
The rise in the value of 755 Seward can also be attributed to the growing cachet of the submarket, thanks to big newcomers like Netflix and Viacom, Wilder said.
“On one hand, creative and tech companies are being priced out of Santa Monica,” he said. “But on the other, there’s been a resurgence in Hollywood. There’s a real center of gravity here again.”
Motive Creative will probably build out the space inside without making many changes to its exterior, Wilder added.