A state Department of Motor Vehicles branch will open in Granada Hills, where the agency signed a five-year lease for about 35,000 square feet at a shopping center. The 16201 San Fernando Mission Blvd. office will open in the 98,000-square-foot Granada Hills Plaza, which is occupied by a collection of small tenants. The office is taking the space of the plaza’s former anchor, an Albertson’s grocery that closed more than a year ago. Cody Chiarella, senior associate at the Universal City office of CBRE Group Inc., who represented the DMV, said the location was not unusual for the agency. “They get the big parking and ease of access,” he said Financial details of the lease were not made available. Chiarella said the agency was looking at various places in north Los Angeles County, including in the Santa Clarita Valley. The closest DMV office is on Vanowen Street in Van Nuys. The lease, signed this month, will begin in the fourth quarter. An opening date for the office was not immediately available. Justin Larson, an associate with the Universal City of CBRE, also represented the DMV. The landlord, Gelb Enterprises, of Encino, was represented by the L.A. office of Wilson Commercial Real Estate Inc.
