Nearly a dozen new tenants have moved into the 16-acre Westside development. Three others--high-end furnishing retailer Beacon Hill, outdoor and garden furniture boutique Janus et Cie and kitchen-and-bath designers Euroconcepts--have expanded their existing space over the past few months.

In a complicated sale that involved a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, an East Coast group that includes Charles S. Cohen of New York and the Cheslock Bakker Opportunity Fund acquired the 1.2-million-sf furniture and design showroom project last year in a deal valued at about $157 million. The group also pledged to spend tens of millions to renovate the development, nicknamed "the blue whale" for the mammoth blue building that anchors the complex.

About $40 million alone is being spent to convert some of the showroom space into 212,000 sf of class A creative office space targeted at the entertainment and Internet industries. Elevators are being added and the lobby redesigned.