Expansive offices for Apple are rising in Culver City
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At a time when many office developers are on the sidelines because of the soft leasing market, Apple Inc. is well underway on construction of a splashy new office complex of its own on the border of Culver City and Los Angeles.
With excavation for an underground garage completed, construction crews have erected cranes and are building upward on two bronze-colored structures expected to house Apple’s television streaming service and expand its presence in Culver City.
In a sign that competition among streaming entertainment providers will stay heated in the years ahead, Apple announced Friday that it will roughly double its office presence in the Culver City area where Apple TV+ is based.
Apple TV+, launched in 2019, is known for such TV shows as “Severance,” “The Morning Show” and the comedy “Ted Lasso.” In 2022, Apple became the first streamer to win an Academy Award for best picture for family drama “CODA.”
Apple TV+ is so far not profitable for the Cupertino-based company. News site The Information reported this month that Apple TV+ was losing $1 billion annually.
But the work on the new office campus suggests Apple is committed to the prestigious streaming service and the attention it brings to the $3.37-trillion company.
An Apple spokesperson didn’t respond to requests for comment about the project.
Apple announced the office development in 2021, saying it would erect two mid-rise buildings as tall as five stories with a total of more than 550,000 square feet. They will be connected by a shared wall on multiple parcels in Culver City and Los Angeles surrounded by Venice, National and Washington boulevards. The offices will have an interior courtyard and are expected to house up to 2,400 employees.
Culver City has become one of the fastest-growing digital media hubs in Southern California as Amazon, Apple, China-owned TikTok and other firms have expanded into the area. The influx has brought thousands of new jobs into this once sleepy suburb, but also caused some growing pains. Now Culver City officials are considering a tactic that Silicon Valley cities have pursued: raising business taxes to help manage the costs of growth.
The parcels were previously occupied by small retail and light industrial buildings, but the neighborhood near Metro’s E Line station in Culver City has been transformed in recent years with new office, residential and hotel projects.
“Culver City is one of the most vibrant office environments throughout all of Los Angeles,” real estate broker Jeff Pion of CBRE said.
Among the high-profile tech and entertainment businesses located there are Apple, Sony Pictures Studios, Amazon MGM Studios, TikTok Inc., Technicolor and Beats Electronics, a subsidiary of Apple.
Close neighbors of the coming Apple offices include Ivy Station, a $350-million residential, hotel and office complex where the anchor office tenant is HBO.
Next door is the historic Helms Bakery campus, a former bread factory dating to the 1930s that now houses home furnishings and design stores, and restaurants.
Walter N. Marks III, whose family has owned the Helms property for decades, said one of the main appeals of the Apple site is its transit accessibility with the train station and bus service on Venice and Washington boulevards. It’s also close to the 10 Freeway.
Apple has said that it will provide commuting assistance for employees including shuttles and support services for bicyclists.
When the Apple development is finished in about two years, it will add another shot of activity to the neighborhood, Marks said.
“We were an island for a long time,” he said of the Helms Bakery that stopped making bread in 1969. “Obviously, bringing more people here is a good thing.”
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