Crown Realty Sells BET Building

BURBANK, CA-Crown Realty & Development of Irvine, Calif. has sold the 27,000-sf western headquarters office of the Black Entertainment Television network to Menlo Trust for $5.65 million in what Crown describes as its repositioning of the asset as part of the revitalization of downtown Burbank.

The office building, at 811 San Fernando Blvd., is 100% occupied by BET, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly held Viacom.The property was under performing when Crown bought it in 1997, according to Robert Flaxman, president and CEO of Crown, who said the building nonetheless occupied a good location that was one of the reasons Crown acquired it. Crown renovated the entire building after securing a long-term lease commitment from Black Entertainment Television for the entire facility.

Crown redeveloped the property as part of a larger development called the Gateway at Burbank, a project that also includes a Crown-owned, Ralphs-anchored retail center, a Sav-On drugs and Hollywood Video-anchored center developed by the Irvine-based company. The developer worked closely with the Burbank Redevelopment Agency on both projects.

Crown was represented in the sale of the BET building by Donald Emas and Kevin Boeve of Marcus & Millichap. Menlo Trust was represented by Cray Carlson, also of Marcus & Millichap.

Privately held Crown was founded in 1994 and focuses on value-added development, redevelopment and management of real estate. The company and its affiliates own a portfolio of properties valued at more than $400 million and focus on assets in Southern California. The portfolio includes more than 2 million sf of office development projects in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The company maintains management offices in Irvine, Beverly Hills and West Los Angeles.