Ad agency Innocean USA, which creates advertising for Hyundai and others, has agreed to move its U.S. headquarters to El Segundo in one of the largest leases of the year in the South Bay.
Seoul-based Innocean will rent 100,000 square feet in a former airplane manufacturing plant that has been converted to offices and now houses well-known businesses such as L’Oréal cosmetics and Beyond, which makes plant protein meat substitutes.
Innocean USA is the U.S. arm of Innocean Worldwide, a global marketing and communications network founded by Hyundai Motor Group that also serves non-automotive clients.
Innocean’s offices have been in Huntington Beach since 2009 and the agency needs more space, Chief Executive Steve Jun said.
Nearly 600 of its employees are now spread among multiple buildings. They will be under one roof at 888 Douglas St. near Los Angeles International Airport by the summer of 2027.
The building to be occupied by Innocean was completed in 1930 as a bus manufacturing plant for Pickwick Stage Co., a California operator that became part of Greyhound Lines.
It was later used for making airplanes, including World War II dive bombers produced by Douglas Aircraft Co.
The former manufacturing plant has 50-foot ceilings with sawtooth skylights and an airy, industrial sensibility that makes it the kind of offbeat office environment long sought by companies in creative fields and now also popular with mainstream firms.
Landlord Hackman Capital Partners acquired the property from Northrup Grumman nearly a decade ago and spent more than $100 million upgrading it.
The property, which is also near the Los Angeles Times building, has attracted headquarters operations of multiple firms, said Mike Racine of Hackman Capital. It is also home to Cosm, an immersive technology and media company. Hermeus, a hypersonic aircraft company, will also relocate its headquarters there, Racine said.
Varda Space Industries, a microgravity-enabled life sciences company that processes materials in orbit and returns them to Earth, also occupies offices there.
Innocean will use its space as a production facility to make commercials and other content, President Leslie Barrett said. The roll-up doors will allow cars to be driven inside and a wall of high-resolution LED panels will project backgrounds in real-time 3-D environments.
“It looks like you’re shooting live,” Barrett said, “and really cuts down on costs and turnaround time.”
Amenities for employees will include a cafe, library and music room as well and private spaces such as mothers’ rooms and prayer and meditation rooms, she said.
Another addition will be pets, which aren’t allowed in the current offices, Barrett said. “We plan to be able to bring dogs to work.”
