LOS ANGELES-In a monumental lease transaction, Riot Games leased the full Element LA creative office campus, GlobeSt.com reported in an earlier story. Totaling 284,000 square feet, the lease is said to be the largest signed in Southern California in the past five years. With vacancy rates for traditional office space on the Westside significantly higher than creative office vacancy rates, the lease reveals some interesting trends in the office sector. GlobeSt.com sat down with Eric Shelby of Allen Matkins, who represented the landlord Hudson Properties Inc., to discuss the details of the deal and the market.

GlobeSt.com: What does this deal say about the current office market?

Eric Shelby:Here on the Westside in particular, the prior biggest deals had been MGM Studios taking 500,000 square feet at MGM Tower 10 years ago, and that was traditional, class-A+ office space; and, more recently, the CAA deal for around 300,000 square feet—another traditional, class-A office space. Now, you have this deal, which is really interesting. It is night and day from what those older, traditional tenant deals have looked like. Now days, we don't have as many headquarters, at least in those Fortune 100 companies. Where L.A. has always been strong is on the entertainment side of things and now with the burgeoning tech sector. Riot Games really bridges the gap between entertainment and tech, and L.A. really is becoming a destination for those types of companies.

GlobeSt.com: What differences do you see when representing tech companies versus traditional users?

Eric Shelby: These guys in particular were really motivated, from the CEO all the way down to the facilities folks. They were very focused, and because of that, we were able to get this deal documented in record time, really. On the Hudson side as well, the people were all very focused. The two teams started discussing the deal in the beginning of October, and by the beginning of November, they had it signed up. For a deal of this size and complexity, it really was unusually fast. I don't know that is a function of them being a tech company, but it is a function of them being entrepreneurial company that is able to focus on something without a huge layer of bureaucracy that you have to get through. That is one thing that is different with these more non-traditional users.

GlobeSt.com: The trend toward open floor plans and mobile workstations is meant to reduce the amount of necessary space, but this is a large amount of space for the amount of workers. Why is that?

Eric Shelby: I have not seen their plans in terms of what they are going to do, but I do know that one of the buildings—this is a five building campus—is going to be turned into a commissary. They are going to be providing those types of amenities, which will take up a good chuck of that space.

GlobeSt.com: I understand there was some competition for the property. Were all the other potential tenants from creative industries?

Eric Shelby: I think Hudson Properties always envisioned this as a creative-use space, whether it be some type of movie or television production group or other type of tech user. In particular to take advantage of the infrastructure there, which has this classic vaulted ceilings in a big single story building. Those don't really lend themselves to the traditional office build out. In order to expedite the entitlements and to take advantage of what they feel is a big driver of demand in that area, I think Hudson always looked to repurpose that as creative space.

GlobeSt.com: The property will be complete in 2015. Isn't this early for a lease deal?

Eric Shelby: Absolutely. This is a huge homerun for Hudson. It really works out well for them to be able to lease it to one company. When they started developing the project they did not think that [renting to one tenant] was likely to happen given the market. The that they were able to do that all at once and while they are still developing the property, they are way ahead of schedule.

GlobeSt.com: Last thoughts?

Eric Shelby: One other thing that helped on this deal was that they had a good team of counsel at Advisors LLP. Allen Matkins has done dozens and dozens of deals with them, so the level of trust really helped expedite the deal as well.