To lease up this building, how they sliced it mattered. (Commercial Real Estate - Best...

LATE in 2001, officials at Arden Realty Inc. found themselves with a vacant building on their hands.

Wells Fargo, the only tenant at the building at 26610 Agoura Rd., a part of the Calabasas Tech Center, was moving out, leaving the entire building vacant.

The office market

Worse yet, the former tenant left behind a 12,000-square-foot bank vault fortified with concrete 18 inches thick. The cost to remove it would be exorbitant.

But one year later, Arden's Eric Paul Hasserjian, first vice president for the company's North Los Angeles region, and Gary Cohen, portfolio leasing manager, along with their team of listing brokers from Grubb & Ellis -- Jim Liudvall, senior vice president, and senior associates Sam Monempour and Daniel Sanchez -- have filled all but one office space in the building.

Part of Arden's success can be attributed to the attractive lease rates the company is able to offer because it has owned the building since 1995 and has already recouped much of its acquisition cost.

Arden's lease deals for the building range from $1.40 per square foot to $1.58 per square foot triple net.

But the other reason Arden was able to lease most of the building so quickly is the company's flexibility, those involved say.

Faced with an empty building, most landlords set up a limited group of options for their leasing brokers. For instance, they might direct the brokers to either find a single tenant for the whole building or split the space into, say, five offices.

Arden officials gave no such marching orders. They were willing to revise their plans again and again.

"We worked with our brokers trying to build around their tenants," Hasserjian said.

As brokers brought potential tenants, the Arden officials re-drew their plans to accommodate the changing needs. And as each new deal was signed, they revised the plans for the balance of the building, Hasserjian said.

"That's the good thing about Arden," said Monempour. "They are that flexible, so when we had all these different tenants come in, they were willing to accommodate them."

As for the vault, the team initially planned to offer a tenant the option of constructing a conference room around it. But one tenant, JDI Technologies Inc., suggested building the entranceway around the vault. A double-door entry was constructed, and now visitors to JDI walk through the vault to get to the company's offices.

"That was a huge component," Hasserjian said. "We saved $70,000 to $80,000.

The tenant roster includes: JDI Technologies Inc., Intel, Buxbaum Group, Patrick Marketing Group and Optical Physics.

RELATED ARTICLE: MOST DRAMATIC LEASING TURNAROUND

Property: Calabasas Tech Center Landlord

Eric Paul Hasserjian

First Vice President,

North Los Angeles

Arden Realty Inc.,

Gary Cohen

Portfolio Leasing

Manager

Arden Realty Inc.,

Los Angeles

Brokers

Jim Lindvall, Sam Monempour, Daniel Sanchez

Grubb & Ellis