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UPDATES Ari Gets His Way And New WME Architect
UPDATES William Morris Agency Sells Beverly Hills Buildings For Big Bucks
First I reported that Ari Emanuel rejected the global architecture firm Gensler which the William Morris Agency originally hired to develop its new headquarters. Now, I can confirm all that chatter: WME Entertainment won’t move into the building at all because The Gersh Agency in July left Canon Drive and moved into 9465 Wilshire Blvd. 
That’s just 50 ft away from the site of the new WME headquarters in a 6-story “green” building going up at 231-265 N. Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. The two agencies would have shared valet parking services and a parking lot. God forbid! So WME decided that was a lease dealbreaker. (Both the new Gersh digs, and the new WME digs, are buildings owned by the same company, George Comfort and Sons.) Not to worry: WME won’t be homeless. I’m told that WME will move entirely into the Endeavor headquarters at 9601 Wilshire Blvd and find space in their familiar Beverly Hills building to expand, if necessary.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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It’s for important news updates like this that I read Deadline Hollywood.
WMA’ers…Welcome to the house that AE built.
“Lando: Lord Vader, what about Leia and the Wookiee?
Darth Vader: They must never again leave this city.
Lando: [outraged] That was *never* a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!
Darth Vader: Perhaps you think you’re being treated unfairly?
Lando: [after a pause] No.
Darth Vader: Good. It would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
Lando: [to himself] This deal is getting worse all the time…”
http://www.wizards.com/starwars/images/darth_lando_boba.jpg
God forbid some Gersh assistant in a old Explorer drive right over Ari’s Tesla.
Every day that goes by this is less and less a merger, and more a takeover. You gotta figure when Ari gets home every night he laughs his ass off.
How long before they just call WME… Endeavor.
This has got to be one of the stranger stories I’ve heard. Is it genuinely too uncomfortable for agents to cross swords in parking lots, or is WME suggesting they’re too mighty to share a boutique agency’s real estate? Lord knows they must wait at the same valet stations at every breakfast, lunch, drinks and dinner.
This was planned all along. Creepy…
Does anyone know the math behind the “merger”? Who got what dough? Where’s the debt? What’s the balance sheet of the new company look like? I’m curious and thought Nikki would have that but haven’t seen it. Btw I love the Lord Vader color. Perfection. I guess we know why Ari is being for Halloween.
good question…nikki do some digging..
What’s the over-under on Ari changing the name back to Endeavor Agency?
Signed,
An ex-wma’er
So, how many millions of dollars were spent by Jim and Irv to build their palatial offices? How many assistants and agents were not given bonus as a result. Just another chapter in the on-going saga of how they destroyed the company. Now, William Morris owns NO real estate and has nothing to show for the sale of their buildings. Are they going to rename the street?
Can’t wait to see the litigation over this!
They’re locked into their lease on the new building. Claiming Gersh is a direct compeitor is a loophole that they are trying to slip through to avoid the deal. It must be a really expensive lease if it’s cheaper to take on such an expensive lawsuit. Add the builders to the list of people who continue to get screwed so Wiatt, Wirtschafter and Weintraub could line their pockets.
laughs his ass off until he realizes he’s saddled with william morris.
Where’s the NY office going? Has Ari managed to rent a hot dog cart for us to work out of yet?
What is a “green” building? To Hollywood leftists really buy into this crap? A “green” building. Really? Um it’s snowing in Montana, and Chicago is about to get snow on Monday. More proof global warming is a cult, it’s the new religion of you looney leftists.
Spoken like a proud teabag, indeed. FYI, ‘green’ buildings are intended to have a minimal environmental impact (as opposed to an arbitrary/malevolent one) as well as increase functionality and advance form.
That said… wow. As far as your snowing in Montana and Chicago theory, it’s just so… wow. You see, there’s this thing called the sun (bright, hot thing in the sky during the day). Then there’s this thing around the earth (what you’re standing on) called an atmosphere (that protects us from the sun). When we fuck up the atmosphere, the temperature of what is called air (what you breathe) rises from the heat. Warmer air retains more moisture than cooler air and thus increases what is called precipitation (your “snow” and other fun things like rain, hail, hurricanes, and tsunamis). So when your glorious early snow melts earlier because of rising spring temperatures and rain, it causes record amounts of snow-melt that, with the rain, floods the ENTIRE midwest. Or did you forget about the Cedar, Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers flooding last year, leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced between from ILLINOIS to MONTANA. There was more than $15 billion of agricultural and property losses and dozens lost their lives. In January 2009, floods in the Northwest caused $125 million of damage, evacuations of more than 30,000 people, and shutdown all major roads and rails. March brought record-high levels to the Red River bordering North Dakota and Minnesota, following an unusually precipitous fall and winter. Fargo, North Dakota narrowly averted a major disaster through a massive effort to build temporary sandbag levees and to evacuate thousands of people. (Yippie, early snow!)
In closing, on behalf of humanity… you shouldn’t reproduce. And if you already have, you owe it to your offspring to get your science from somewhere other than the narcissistic voices in your head that affirm you know better than anyone else, despite all evidence to the contrary.
PS-If Beverly Hills wanted to be more green, its citizens and commuters could start by not having their sedans and SUVs washed every other day, but who am I kidding?
Lighten up, Francis.
Spoken like a proud person who has way too much time on his or her hands. I envy you, really.
Were there special incentives given to this project by the City of Beverly Hills, in the name of keeping William Morris inside city limits in a brand new showplace? If so, this seems like one of the most massive bait-and-switch operations ever: get the city to allow a massive new structure in the business district, on the grounds that it is the only way to keep WM in town, then once it’s built, pull out. Would the city have approved this size of building, in this location, if it weren’t tied to Morris?
Endeavor’s 9601 bldg is decorated like a gay man’s spaceship.
lmfao
“The horror! The horror!”
If Ari Emmanuel accomplishes anything, maybe he can improve the attitude of WME staffers across the board. The snotty little assistants answering the phones might be a good start. If he realized how many deals get killed over an arrogant admin’s refusal to take a decent message or disconnect the line before someone finished speaking…this might perturb him a little more than office space…
I’ve always found them to be courteous and my calls are always returned promptly.
you’re an idiot.
hey “deal maker” you are an ass. I would pay to watch you answer the phones, take messages, schedule meetings, take notes, create booking slips, memorize everyone’s name, get a max of 4 hours of sleep a night, read thousands of scripts and have drinks every single night. Then while being yelled at by three agents at once, some asshole who thinks he is a deal maker calls, and wants to ramble on about their script, or their client. Guess what dude, you are not the center of the universe.
They are probably snotty to you because they know you’re a douche bag.
it is surprising how city of industry office park that ‘was to be’ now ‘lawsuit to be’ william morris headquarters is looking – lots of boring blue gensler glass squares yuck. but ari won’t last long in that old white marble la sports club with the snack bar out front and the drippy waterfall sweat smell inside. hello pacific design center brand new red building and client meetings at the ivy (with the aftermeetings at the abbey).
Nikki, you’re just scratching the surface on this one…how about the WMA shareholders, with $25M of our equity invested in this (another dud in a long line of dud investments – Agency 3.0 anyone) by Irv? The coming shareholder suit is going to be a doozy.
Additionally, it comes as no surprise that Ari & Co. would find a loophole such as this to wriggle out of the deal for the new lease; however, it’s laughable that he now considers Gersh a ‘competitor’ after his inaugural WME speech in which he stood up in front of the entire company saying, “we have no competitors, not even CAA…We’re now in a different business than those assholes.”
On the one hand, it’s too bad that Comfort & Sons operate in good faith, and now both their business and the City of Beverly Hills are saddled with this white elephant; yet on the other hand, I can’t think of a more perfect monument to the greed, hubris, and poor aesthetic taste of Irving J. Weintraub.
All this WME Gersh talk just makes me laugh. You are not in the agency business if your office is not in Century City. Let Ari toil in his little castle and let Gersh develop clients for us to poach. The business of Hollywood has moved West.
@ A Little Truth
“You are not in the agency business if your office is not in Century City. ” This made me laugh. Can you explain this one a little more for me? Just because CAA and the “all powerful” ICM moved to Century City, does that really affect the industry? All agents need is a phone, and in addition, Beverly Hills is centrally located if you want a meeting. Century City is also what, an only a 10 minute drive away? Big difference… Lastly, if WME isn’t in the agency business, what business is it in? Geez, talk about drinking the company cool aid. I guess you work for CAA or ICM. Who gives a shit where the office is located.
…CAA no doubt, they use brainwashing over there. Bwaaaahahahaha
Difficult to think this loophole (shared parking) will hold any water. Comfort & Sons run a well managed real estate company. Or manybe WME didn’t read the whole lease contract, just the first 10 pages and the last 10.
good one.
I wish they would also go back to the old logo. Maybe XXX inside of a circle?
Money problems?
Yes.
That is not right and it is dumb.