Forever 21 moving HQ to DTLA, Roku expands in Santa Monica, and more

Adidas isn't the only apparel brand that will be setting up shop at the restored California Market Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

CoStar reports that Forever 21 will relocate its corporate headquarters to the landmark office complex in the Fashion District, which consists of 1.8 million square feet of space across a trio of 13-story buildings at the intersection of 9th and Main Streets. Although the exact size of the Forever 21 lease has not been revealed, the retailer was reportedly seeking roughly 150,000 square feet of space.

The Forever 21 lease, combined with 107,000 square feet of space recently snatched up by Adidas, accounts for more than 250,000 square feet of the complex.

California Market Center, owned by Brookfield Properties, recently concluded a multi-year makeover valued at roughly $250 million.

Prior to declaring bankruptcy in 2019, Forever 21's headquarters and distribution operations were housed out of the same property in Lincoln Heights.

On the opposite side of town, the Los Angeles Times reports that the Roku Channel has leased more than 72,000 square feet of office space at the Colorado Center in Santa Monica, citing L.A. Realty Partners.

Roku Channel, a subsidiary of the San Jose-based company best known for supplying streaming hardware, employs more than 200 in the Los Angeles area, as of 2021.

Here's what we're reading this week:

Review: Wilshire Boulevard Temple’s new event space is daring — and trapped inside its own head "Is there a compound word that describes the feeling of alienation induced by really wanting to embrace a new piece of architecture but being viscerally unable to do so? A disarchpointment? A designchantment? A stuporstructure? Because I could really use a word to describe my feelings toward the first major building in Los Angeles by the international design studio Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)." (LA Times)

Your boss wants you back in the office despite COVID. Here’s why "In a sign that leaders still put a priority on togetherness, office leasing in Los Angeles County finished the year in positive territory after falling during most of the pandemic." (LA Times)

World’s Largest Wildlife Crossing Is Finally Underway in Los Angeles "The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, proposed for the Route 101 freeway on the western side of Los Angeles County, will allow mountain lions to easily cross eight lanes of traffic, substantially expanding their habitat. As of this week, the funding has been secured for the $87 million crossing including a final $10 million allocated by Governor Gavin Newsom’s new budget. The project will break ground this spring, and when completed sometime in 2023, the nearly one-acre bridge will be the largest of its kind anywhere in the world and the most ambitious in such a densely (human-)populated region." (Curbed)

Architecture Firm Jerde’s New CEO Talks Growth "Downtown-based design and architecture firm Jerde Partnership Inc. has a new chief executive who plans to further its growth trajectory. Peter Priebe, the former chief operating officer at Irvine-based WATG Holdings Inc., took the helm from Paul Martinkovic, who retired after more than three decades at the firm." (LA Business Journal)

Officials want sped-up timeline for rail line that would connect Artesia to Downtown LA "Metro noted that rising costs have set the project back. In 2015 dollars, it projected that building the Santa Ana Branch to connect with the C Line (Green) would have cost $1 billion, and connecting that section to Downtown would cost another $3 billion. A projection for the cost to connect Artesia to Union Station is now over $8.5 billion, according to Metro." (Long Beach Post)

L.A. Hospital Nurses Say There Isn’t Enough Staff To Adequately Care For Patients "The short term future is bleak for beleaguered hospital staff. More than 4,100 patients are currently hospitalized in L.A. County with COVID-19. State models predict that by Jan. 20, the number will surpass 8,300 — more than double what we’re seeing now." (LAist)

Metro to temporarily suspend North Hollywood bike share to replace bike fleet beginning Jan. 17 (The Source)

Newsom’s latest housing fix: More Californians living downtown "The $2 billion [to incentivize housing development closer to city centers] includes $500 million in grants for nonprofit and for-profit developers or local governments to construct more units on existing, but underused, urban land close to city amenities and transportation, and $300 million for sustainable projects in areas friendly to walking, biking and near public transit. Newsom also wants to direct hundreds of millions of dollars toward using excess state-owned land for affordable development and easing the cost burden of converting existing structures into residential spaces in downtown areas." (LA Times)