Like father, like son: David Ellison considers Nashville alongside Austin as future home for Paramount

Paramount CEO David Elliso n may be following his billionaire father to Music City.

The media company, which is pursuing a hotly debated $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, is searching for office space in Nashville as it considers leaving Hollywood, Politico reported.

An anonymous source told the outlet that Paramount is looking for 400,000 square feet of office space it could occupy in the next two or three years. The source also said the city's office market doesn't currently have a vacancy that fits the bill, but the studio is also considering a built-to-suit office option.

It's also been reported that the younger Ellison also is looking at Austin as a future home for Paramount. The company appears to have zeroed in on the Bluebonnet Business Center, one of two available vacant spaces over 400,000 square feet in the city, according to the New York Post.

If the options sound familiar, it's because Ellison's dad, Larry, has made similar moves pertaining to the headquarters of his firm, Oracle.

Larry Ellison shifted the company's home from California to Austin in 2020. Four years later, he announced long-term plans to pick up and move Oracle to Nashville. While Austin remains the company's operational home, its new campus in Nashville is expected to open in 2031.

But moving a software company out of Northern California didn't spark the same fireworks as the process of moving a film studio out of Southern California. Rumors have swirled that the threat to ditch Hollywood has more to do with the fact that California is one of the 12 states that sued Paramount over the potential merger than any real plans to leave.

In any case, tf threats to leave are real and Paramount wins the court case, Ellison will find more film industry infrastructure in Austin, which is home to major production facilities such as Austin Studios and Robert Rodriguez' Troublemaker Studios, compared to Nashville's music-industry base and heritage.

FBI opens investigation into Jon Venetos and Lurin Capital

The financial unraveling of Dallas-based multifamily syndication firm Lurin Capital has caught the attention of federal law enforcement . An email sent from the FBI's Dallas Division to an investor who shared it with The Real Deal revealed that the agency has opened an investigation into Venetos, Lurin Capital and associated entities. We also obtained a public link to an FBI form titled "Lurin Investigation Questionnaire" seeking information from "possible victim" investors.

News of the probe follows months of fraud claims by Lurin's lenders and former employees. For example, in a default lawsuit, Keybank accused Venetos of transferring $25,000 from his accounts with the bank to a personal account. Meanwhile, former employees accused the firm of lying about renovations completed at its properties and stealing employees' 401(k) contributions after the firm stopped being eligible to offer employee savings plans.