Room & Board is the first retail tenant to sign onto this mixed-use project, which is being developed by Rush Pacifica, a San Diego-based company. The home furnishing retailer, which will occupy 17,000 sf on the ground floor and 23,000 sf on the second floor of the project, is slated to open in early 2010. Myron Sokolsky of the West Los Angeles office of Grubb & Ellis represented Room & Board, with the property owner represented by Christine Deschaine, a principal with Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura.

According to Sokolsky, Room & Board is looking for locations such as Plaza at Culver Studios that are unique. Sokolsky and Serge Vishmid, also with Grubb & Ellis in West Los Angeles, office, are working with Room & Board to identify locations for new stores in a handful of key markets across the US, including Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, Austin, Miami, Ann Arbor and Atlanta.

The Plaza at Culver Studios is an 118,500-sf, three-story mixed-use retail and office building that is scheduled to commence construction this summer as the last phase of a 10-year, 11.5-acre redevelopment program called the Town Plaza/Screenland. It is in the heart of Culver City and adjacent to three landmarks such as the Culver Studios Mansion that was used in the filming of "Gone with the Wind", the Culver Hotel to the west and the newly renovated Kirk Douglas Theatre.

The project will be part of a 2.5-block pedestrian promenade called the Town Plaza that is near retail, restaurants, art galleries and offices. Michael Arnold of Newmark Knight Frank represents the developer for the office portion of the project.

Room & Board has eight showrooms located in Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Orange County and San Francisco. The cities targeted for expansion are locations where Room & Board already has a significant built-in customer base through its catalog and website businesses.