Santa Monica’s reputation makeover – Robert Khodadadian

When Megan Watson, who runs development in Los Angeles for Grubb Properties, started planning an apartment project in Santa Monica, she prepared for a challenging road ahead. The city had a history of giving developers a hard time.

Grubb first applied for a 60-unit building at 700 Santa Monica Boulevard in August 2022 and resubmitted its application for 99 units in July, after the city of Santa Monica signaled that it was making changes — it wanted to start taking developers’ concerns and zoning issues seriously and get more housing built. 

In eight months, Grubb got the green light to build an eight-story building with 89 market-rate apartments and 10 affordable units.

“This was probably our fastest entitlement that we experienced in the state,” Watson said. Eight months would have been a speedy timeframe for any California city, she added. Approvals sometimes take up to two years if there are appeals involved.

But it wasn’t just the city’s speed that impressed Watson — it was how Santa Monica was now talking about building housing. She sat in on a number of City Council meetings, where planners and council members “recognized that the best way” to meet state housing goals was to allow for density. 

What Watson experienced turned out to be a wholesale shift in how Santa Monica approaches new development. In February, a month before Grubb scored its approval, Gov. Gavin Newsom designated Santa Monica a “pro-housing community,” citing the city’s efforts and progress made through an affordable housing program. 

Grubb’s approval appeared to indicate that the designation meant something real, an important change at a time when politicians and developers around the country are aching for opportunities to build and wondering how to change local hearts and minds around new projects.

This may be a surprise to anyone who has been trying to build in the city of Santa Monica over the last few decades, as shown by baffled reactions to the pro-housing designation on social media.

In 2016, for instance, voters were presented with a ballot measure that would have required citywide votes to construct buildings taller than two stories. A sizable minority — 44 percent — of voters were in support, though the measure failed to pass.

“Santa Monica has been well-known as a place that is not friendly to housing development or really any kind of new development,” said Adam Deermount, a West Coast-based portfolio manager at lender Nikols Mortgage Fund. “It tends to be very NIMBY-dominated.”

“If you were to ask a group of 100 developers familiar with development in Southern California to name three development-friendly cities in Southern California, I don’t think any of them would mention Santa Monica,” he added.

The shift to encouraging housing development did not come out of nowhere. 

“If you were to ask a group of 100 developers familiar with development in Southern California to name three development-friendly cities in Southern California, I don’t think any of them would mention Santa Monica.”
Adam Deermount, Nikols Mortgage Fund

The city had to learn the hard way: After failing to get a state-approved housing plan together by October 2022, it faced a deluge of builder’s remedy projects, which threatened to add more than 4,000 units to the city’s housing stock. Builder’s remedy serves essentially as a penalty for cities that do not get state-mandated housing plans in order by a certain deadline. 

“It scared a lot of people into realizing that this wasn’t a game with no consequences,” Santa Monica City Council member Jesse Zwick said of the builder’s remedy projects. ”If the city continued to sort of thumb its nose at the state, there would be a real loss of local control over our zoning code.” 

Santa Monica has been making gradual progress, city data shows, though actual development has been uneven. Out of around 9,300 housing units proposed since 2010, about 3,000 have been approved.

The number of units built in Santa Monica shrank last year, though the proportion of affordable housing increased. 

In 2023, 331 units were completed, including 148 affordable units, compared to 539 total units a year before with 92 affordable units, according to city housing data.

And developers want to make their mark on the oceanfront city — for example, Tishman Speyer, the New York-based development giant, filed plans to build 620 units across three acres in Downtown Santa Monica in early 2022. Tweaking city code may make it easier for these players to do so. 

Moment of reckoning 

In 2021, the state tasked Santa Monica, like every other California city, with planning for new homes. For Santa Monica, that meant adding roughly 1,000 units a year by 2029 — which Zwick called “ambitious.”

With Santa Monica’s “reputation of being hostile to business interests in general, and perhaps those seeking to create more homes in particular,” this would be tough, Zwick said. 

There were also real penalties for cities that didn’t make adequate plans, Zwick added.

Santa Monica failed to get its housing plan approved by the state by October 2022, leaving it open to builder’s remedy projects. By May 2023, 16 had been filed. 

The city reacted fast. By streamlining certain housing approvals and incentivizing building housing on parking lots in residential zones, it got its housing plan approved by the state, closing the window for builder’s remedy projects. The City Council approved a more comprehensive rezoning that allowed taller mixed-use buildings along its commercial corridors. The approval process was no longer discretionary, but by right as long as the zoning allowed for it. 

“There’s no discretionary process whereby people like me can either say yes or no, based on their own personal lives — and that provides a lot of certainty to [developers] hoping to operate and invest in Santa Monica,” Zwick said. “As a council member, I don’t want to be voting yes or no on individual projects.” 

It wasn’t just the builder’s remedy and state pressure fueling the City Council’s appetite for reform. A slump in tourism and the growth of e-commerce and working from home have all had a negative impact on Santa Monica’s budget, according to Zwick.

For the city, it’s become more important to win over businesses and investors and “make it easier on people seeking to put their money in Santa Monica,” he added. 

Rewarding intent

Housing advocates describe the pro-housing designation Santa Monica received as part of a high-level, forward-looking reward system for the cities complying with the state’s housing law. 

The program, which first appeared in California’s 2019 budget, allowed  the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development to label cities as “pro-housing” starting in July 2021, according to a report from the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

Alex Ramiller, who co-wrote the report, described the program as “a proverbial carrot — the state’s way of encouraging local jurisdictions to go out on their own and to do things that are good in terms of promoting housing production.”

“It scared a lot of people into realizing that this wasn’t a game with no consequences.”

Santa Monica City Councilman Jesse Zwick on builder’s remedy

But because the program is so new, Ramiller and other Berkeley researchers found it difficult to quantify the impact of the pro-housing designation. Did the label actually mean the city had added more housing? 

“The pro-housing designation program is more about intention and future housing production rather than about past or present production,” Ramiller said. “So it’s not intended to necessarily be a backwards-looking measure.”

While the designation does open doors to funding, for Santa Monica, the stamp of approval seems to be more about reputation. The city has only applied for $1 million in emergency rental assistance through the prohousing program, but is “continuing to monitor other available potential funding opportunities,” according to the city spokesperson.

“I’m encouraged by it,” said Sonja Trauss, who founded nonprofit Yes In My Backyard, which advocates for housing development. “Like any government program, it’s not perfect, but I think there’s a lot of potential there.”

Final hurdles

Santa Monica still has obstacles when it comes to proving it’s truly interested in building more housing. 

In November 2022, Santa Monica’s residents — notably not the City Council — voted for Measure GS, which provided for a 5 percent transfer tax on property sales of $8 million or more, with funds going to homelessness prevention, affordable housing and schools. 

The real estate industry argued that the tax has crippled sales and new development, in similar fashion to Measure ULA in the city of Los Angeles.

“The mansion tax was not Santa Monica’s finest moment, from a housing production standpoint,” said Dave Rand, a land use attorney and partner at Rand Paster Nelson, who has worked on about 50 cases involving projects in the city. “But they have built a number of other things that are significant in the way of moving housing forward.”

An initiative to exclude multifamily sales from the tax could appear on Santa Monica ballots in November. 

Within city government itself, “you have decision-makers who are very pro-housing,” Rand said. 

Still, the city has more perceptions to change, Zwick said.

“I’ve talked to people from small contractors to big developers who tell me, ‘Oh, I did a project in Santa Monica once and I’ll never do one again,’” Zwick said. “I think that is changing in terms of the climate we’re creating. But there is still a matter of getting that message out.”

The post Santa Monica’s reputation makeover appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Affordable Housing, Builder’s Remedy, Development, Multifamily, Santa Monica 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Chris Cortazzo on how he became the biggest broker in Malibu – Robert Khodadadian

Driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, it’s hard to miss Chris Cortazzo’s name. 

The Compass broker is on the majority of listings in the affluent beachside enclave, whether the homes are up for rent or sale. The median listing price for a home in Malibu was $6 million in March 2024, according to Realtor.com. 

“I’m the luckiest human to have such control of this market,” said Cortazzo, as he sat down at Soho House’s Malibu outpost on a Wednesday afternoon in April. 

Cortazzo has been working the Malibu market for nearly three decades, closing more than $8 billion in sales over the course of his career. 

He dresses the part, understated and beachy — a blue linen shirt and sunglasses — but still emblematic of the wealth that Malibu is home to. After lunch, he drove off in a Rolls- Royce SUV.

TRD chatted with Cortazzo about growing up in Malibu, selling his first home (to Richard Gere) and the frenzy of the 2020-2021 market.

Malibu has had a lot of ups and downs. In 2018, the Woolsey Fire burned down more than 1,600 homes across Malibu. Then the luxury market rebounded in a big way.

We got wiped out by that fire. I was running around everywhere, putting out fires for every needy family. I only lost one property in the fire. My ranch unfortunately burned down. Did you ever watch “Lord of the Rings”? It was like The Shire. The Chumash Indians lived there. I had 28 acres. 

I’m rebuilding that back again. In the process, I was able to buy 200 acres behind me, with my own waterfall. I own the whole valley. 

And then Covid hit.

I thought, “Oh, my god, here we go.” The whole western side of Malibu is gone. I can’t believe we’re getting hit again. And then it turned. Everyone discovered Malibu, and I sold over $1 billion that year. It was crazy. It was like 12-, 14-hour days. I had 20 to 24 escrows at a time, continuously. I was just closing, opening. I’m really organized. I’m so precise and very hands on. I talk to my clients all the time, I give feedback. Even though I might not be on an inspection, I know all the inspection reports. I’m very type A. 

You grew up in Malibu.

I had this fairy-tale life. I actually bought the home next door to my parents and said, “I will see you all every day.” My dad left his body over 16 years ago, but he was a firefighter. My backyard was the beach. I was then a beach lifeguard and then became a model in my early 20s. I traveled the world — I was in Europe for two years, Australia for two years. I got engaged with a beautiful Australian girl. A whole fairy tale. 

But then I made a seismic shift and went in a different direction. I met Herb Ritts. In 1992, he was the most famous photographer in the world. His best friend was Richard Gere, who was married to Cindy Crawford, and the four of us traveled the world. 

How did you get into real estate?

At the end of that relationship, I wanted my own identity and got my real estate license. My first sale was to Richard Gere, in Paradise Cove. It was a $5 million sale, which today is probably $100 million. My first listing was from my first massage client — I was also a massage therapist. He gave me an $8 million listing. Massive sale, massive listing, and I was 28. 

I can’t imagine it was easy.

In 2000, I had seven escrows in January. I thought, “This is my year, this is amazing.” Most people would probably do, Eat, Pray, Love, and say, “This is not my thing.” But I think so much in life is about attitude and how you can handle disappointment. 

A lot of your listings are rentals, which pick up in the summer. What has the luxury rental market been like over the past year?

Last year was challenging, because our weather was so choppy. But we’re seeing a lot more activity this year. After Covid, everyone wanted to go to Europe. But I think everyone got it out of their system and they want to come back. We’re getting really busy. Once people experience Malibu and what it has to offer, they always end up buying. It’s a one, two punch.

Are you still in the house you bought, the one next to your parents?

Well, I tore it down. It’s my office now. I love real estate. I own a lot of property around the world. I own nine properties in Malibu. I’ve really stretched myself financially on every purchase, but every purchase has turned out to be so amazing. I believe in the Malibu market, massively. 

Besides property, is there something you spend money on?

It used to be a CD. I didn’t have a lot of money 29 years ago. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t buy an iced latte for $10 and just say I can’t believe I could afford it. I appreciate everything. I’m literally the same guy with my massage table. I haven’t changed. I feel poor every day. I’m not kidding you. I feel poor. I race out, gravel flying in the air out of my driveway to try to make money every day. I’m very humble. You never feel like you really have it.

The post Chris Cortazzo on how he became the biggest broker in Malibu appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Malibu, Malibu Real Estate, Residential Brokerage 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Malibu agrees to get housing plan in order, but still vulnerable to builder’s remedy – Robert Khodadadian

The affluent coastal city of Malibu, known for celebrity beach homes and a challenging climate for new development, has agreed to get its housing plans in order. 

Malibu’s settlement with the state will “enable the city to reach compliance with the state’s Housing Element Law,” which requires California cities plan for the development of new housing through 2029, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.

But, until the state determines Malibu has “adopted a substantially compliant” housing plan, developers can still file projects under the provision of builder’s remedy.

Under the deal, the city agreed to adopt a housing plan by September 23, which would allow for development of 79 housing units, including 47 affordable and low-income housing units.

While the number of units mentioned in the settlement represents just about 1 percent of Malibu’s total housing units, according to U.S. Census data, experts say the move symbolizes the state is being more proactive in enforcing housing laws.

“79 units isn’t going to solve the crisis, but the symbolism is tremendous,” said Dave Rand, a land use attorney at Rand Paster Nelson. “The symbolism is that no jurisdiction, no matter how wealthy, no matter how historically resistant to housing, no jurisdiction is immune from ous state housing laws.”

Malibu “may not deny certain low-, very low-, and moderate-income housing development projects based on the City’s current, outdated general plan and zoning code,” the state offices said in their statement. In other words, the city has to approve certain affordable projects, regardless of zoning. 

“Our housing laws are not optional; they apply to all cities and counties in California,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta in the statement. “When local jurisdictions like Malibu do their part and allow more homes to be constructed, all Californians benefit.”

Malibu, an exclusive enclave of around 11,000 residents, is the latest jurisdiction to face the wrath of the state in cracking down on housing compliance across the state, in an effort to meet their housing goals and address the ongoing housing crisis.  

Still, some housing advocates saw the settlement with Malibu as the state allowing the city to save its reputation and described it as a “bad actor” when it came to showing commitment to housing development over the years.

“If HCD and the attorney general want to let them walk back some of the nonsense and try to save some face, I understand that,” said Leora Tanjuatco Ross, a director at housing advocate and nonprofit YIMBY Action. 

While Gov. Newsom and the attorney general said the city worked with the state “in good faith” to figure out a way to come into compliance, after receiving a violation notice from the state, Tanjuatco Ross rebuked that notion. 

Malibu “struggling to allow less than 100 units of housing to be built has nothing to do with ‘good faith’,” Tanjuatco Ross said. 

While nobody expects citywide change overnight, Malibu’s decision to settle is a notable shift towards being more pro-housing development, according to observers of the city’s politics. Overcoming environmental constraints, transit issues and other challenges will be instrumental to enabling affordable housing in the city.

“Malibu has done literally nothing when it comes to the issue of producing housing or affordable housing,” Rand said, noting he’s already started bringing up the settlement with clients over the weekend.

“It’s harder now for the city to turn around to an applicant with the right property and say ‘we’re not interested in anything here and we’re going to deny a project every step of the way’.”

The post Malibu agrees to get housing plan in order, but still vulnerable to builder’s remedy appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Affordable Housing 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

99 Cents closures to open 3.8M sf of retail opportunities in SoCal  – Robert Khodadadian

The pending closure of 99 Cents Only Stores will leave a 3.8 million-square-foot hole in Southern California. The good news for landlords: the gap may be easy to fill.

The Commerce-based discount chain, which filed for bankruptcy early this month and announced it would close all 371 stores, leaves  a legacy of opportunities for future tenants, Bisnow reported, citing local real estate brokers.

“Over the past five years, there’s just been a lack of overall quality box inventory in L.A. proper or infill Los Angeles,” CBRE Senior Vice President Jamie Brooks said. “99 [Cents Only], for all its challenges, controls some magnificent real estate.” 

99 Cents Only blamed financial trouble related to the pandemic, inflation and theft in announcing its liquidation and closure of its stores, including 164 across Southern California, according to Beta Agency. Other stores in Texas, Nevada and Arizona will also be closed.

Early reports indicated that 143 stores would close, and that an executive for Pic ‘N’ Save Bargains was recruiting investors hoping to buy and reopen the local 99 Cents outlets. It’s not clear if Mark Miller, CEO of Culver City-based Pic ‘N’ Save Bargains, has made headway on the deal.

99 Cents Only Stores was founded in 1982 by Dave Gold, who opened its first store in L.A.’s Ladera Heights, according to his 2013 obituary in the Los Angeles Times. Gold, who’d been working at a liquor store owned by his father, found that marking down surplus goods to 99 cents caused them to sell out “in no time.” 

99 Cents Only stores average 23,000 square feet, according to CoStar, putting them in a “junior box” retail category.

Vacancies are low for retail stores across the U.S. and the Southland, but are acutely low for stores of this size, Beta Agency partner Richard Rizika told Bisnow.

“Historically those leases were very competitively negotiated,” Rizika said. “There is an opportunity for a lot of the landlords to go ahead and increase rents if and when those leases were rejected by the bankruptcy court.”  

99 Cents Only Stores, now in bankruptcy, said it plans to have all its stores close by the end of May, a timeframe that many CRE professionals said seemed accelerated. 

The market may be ready to replace them. All the brokers that Bisnow spoke to said they expect the shuttered stores to be released soon.

Vacancy of retail stores across greater Los Angeles in the first three months of this year was 5.2 percent, according to JLL. The retail vacancy in Orange County was 4 percent, according to Kidder Mathews.

Though 99 Cents Only leases the vast majority of its stores, it owns 28 in California, including its store on Sunset Boulevard in Silverlake and another on Pico Boulevard in West L..A, CoStar reported. 

Barbara Armendariz, founder of SharpLine Commercial Partners, said that after 99 Cents Only Stores announced the bankruptcy, she had at least 40 calls from investors interested in possibly buying the stores. 

She also knows of at least a dozen retailers that are combing through the chain’s portfolio for opportunities. 

“They’re going to get snatched up very quickly, or as easily as the bankruptcy court allows,” Armendariz, who worked with 99 Cents Only in Los Angeles and Orange counties and the Inland Empire for more than a decade, told Bisnow.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post 99 Cents closures to open 3.8M sf of retail opportunities in SoCal  appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Jade Enterprises puts mostly vacant LA office building up for sale – Robert Khodadadian

Jade Enterprises has listed a mostly vacant office tower in Downtown Los Angeles for sale. 

The L.A.-based investment firm has put 660 South Figueroa Street, a 24-story, 284,500-square-foot tower, on the market, according to a LoopNet listing. A team led by Newmark’s Kevin Shannon is marketing the property for sale. 

No listing price was disclosed, though the deal would be a “significant” discount to what it could cost to replace the entire building — estimated to be more than $900 a square foot, or roughly $256 million. 

Jade bought the property for $80 million in 2014, or roughly $281 a square foot, records show. The firm used a $55.4 million loan from U.S. Bank for the acquisition and refinanced with a $51.5 million loan from Acore Capital. 

The balance of the loan has shrunk to $39 million. Jade is offering the buyer a deal to assume the loan, which matures in February 2027, with the acquisition.

Jade has spent $12 million over the last 10 years to renovate the building’s common areas and on tenant improvements, according to the listing. 

The property is currently 37 percent leased — and about 12 percent of that is set to expire before 2027. No leases are scheduled to expire this year. 

Offices in Downtown Los Angeles have been trading well below what Jade paid for the building in 2018, impacted by high interest rates and the City of L.A.’s transfer taxes, known as Measure ULA. 

Earlier this month, The Swig Company sold an office complex at 617 West 7th Street for $20.5 million, or $94 a square foot, marking one of the lowest deals on a square-foot basis for an office property in the Downtown market. 

The post Jade Enterprises puts mostly vacant LA office building up for sale appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Investment Sales, LA Office Market, Listing 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

California Supreme Court to rule on anti-ULA ballot measure – Robert Khodadadian

The California Supreme Court will take up the constitutionality of a November ballot measure that would kill the voter-approved “mansion tax,” or Measure ULA, in Los Angeles.

The state’s top court will hear arguments on May 8 regarding the constitutionality of the real estate transfer tax, plus dozens of other recently enacted special taxes, Bisnow reported. The court said it would issue a ruling by the end of June.

The court agreed to examine the measure after Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state legislature petitioned to strip the anti-Measure ULA measure from the ballot.

The measure, known as the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, seeks to change the percentage of a voter majority that proposed special taxes need to become law.

Measure ULA, enacted a year ago, included a 4 percent tax on nearly all commercial and residential property sales or ownership transfers above $5 million, and a 5.5 percent levy on properties selling or transferring above $10 million. 

A failed court challenge has been appealed on grounds it had been misrepresented as a “mansion tax,” while the transfer taxes have mostly impacted commercial sales.

“There’s a two-tiered system right now,” Matthew Hargrove, CEO of the California Business Properties Association, told Bisnow, describing the way the state can pass special taxes. 

The ballot measure that he and a coalition of supporters are backing aims to shut down that two-tiered system.

The system was made possible by a 2017 court decision on how cities can get special taxes approved. It essentially created two thresholds for approval — one allowing ballot measures proposed by citizen groups to pass with a simple majority, and another requiring government-proposed measures to pass with a two-thirds majority.  

Measure ULA was passed in November 2022 with with 57.8 percent voter approval.

“If the City of L.A. had put [Measure] ULA on the ballot, it would have required a two-thirds vote,” Hargrove said. “But because the City of L.A. did not do it, they deferred to community groups to do it, they got the benefit of that 50 percent vote threshold.” 

Hargrove and other measure backers say it restores the historical two-thirds requirement to pass special taxes. They also tout its transparency measures that require detailed ballot descriptions of how the money will be spent.

Closing the loophole would require making changes to the state constitution to clarify the voting threshold.

It would also require expanding the definition of a tax to include charges that state and local governments now classify as fees, according to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office. The measure could require them to be approved by two-thirds of California voters. 

Newsom, the legislature and the United to House LA coalition that supported Measure ULA, contend the new measure is unconstitutional. 

They argue the measure considered by the state Supreme Court seeks to restructure the state constitution, altering the fiscal powers of the legislative and executive branches and those of the voters well beyond the level of a constitutional amendment, Jonathan Jager, an attorney with Public Counsel who authored an amicus brief for United to House LA, told Bisnow.

“The governor’s position, which the coalition agrees with, is that the Taxpayer Protection Act measure so fundamentally rewrites the state constitution … it’s a revision to the constitution,” Jager said. 

Unlike constitutional amendments, revisions to the state constitution can’t be proposed by citizens. They have to come from the legislature, Jager said. 

If approved, the new measure would go into effect retroactively, requiring such initiatives passed since Jan. 1, 2022, to return to voters and get the two-thirds majority approval in 2025. That would effectively kill Measure ULA, among about 40 tax initiatives that would be invalidated, Hargrove said

The League of California Cities counts more than 130 initiatives that would be overturned, a figure that Hargrove contested.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post California Supreme Court to rule on anti-ULA ballot measure appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Measure ULA, special taxes 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

LA court strikes down SB9 law allowing single-family lot splits – Robert Khodadadian

A Los Angeles judge has struck down SB9, the California state law that allows homeowners to split single-family lots and build duplexes, ruling the law unconstitutional.

Five Southern California cities — Carson, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Del Mar and Whittier — sued the state in 2022, claiming SB9 interfered with local governance, according to court records. 

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis Kin ruled that SB9 was not “reasonably related and sufficiently narrowly tailored” to ensuring access to affordable housing, according to an order earlier this week. The Palo Alto Daily Post first reported the court’s order, which can be appealed by the state. 

“SB9 contains no provision to require, promote or incentivize dwelling units within single-family residential zones or on subdivided urban lots to be affordable or designed as affordable,” the judge said in his order. 

“We are reviewing the decision and will consider all options in defense of SB 9,” a representative for California Attorney General’s office said in a statement.

SB9 passed in 2021 and quickly became one of the most controversial housing laws in the state and a point of contention in the NIMBY vs. YIMBY debate. The legislation required all California cities “ministerially approve” applications to divide a single-family lot into up to four units — that is, any application that came in had to be approved regardless of zoning. 

The legislation was supposed to boost housing availability across the state by expediting the construction of housing in single-family neighborhoods. However, a year after it came into effect, a UC Berkeley report found the impact of the law had been “limited.” 

The report’s authors found SB9 activity was “limited or non-existent” across a sample of 13 cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Long Beach. 

This story has been updated to include a statement from the California Attorney General’s Office.

The post LA court strikes down SB9 law allowing single-family lot splits appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Breaking, Breaking News, SB9 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Multifamily development plans in California fall to 10-year low – Robert Khodadadian

Plans to build apartments in the Golden State have plunged to a 10-year low, dashing hopes of tenants that added units could usher in rent relief.

State permits approved for multifamily housing in the first quarter fell 22 percent to 8,972 units compared to the first three months of last year, the Orange County Register reported, citing figures from the U.S. Census Bureau complied by the St. Louis Fed. 

That’s the slowest quarter for multifamily plans since the start of 2014. Across the nation, permits for multifamily developments last month fell 17.5 percent year-over-year, while multifamily starts plunged 43.7 percent from a year ago.

Developers across the state crumpled their building plans as interest rates soared and the economy slowed.

As vacancies have ticked up, rents have flattened, further discouraging new construction.

The year’s sluggish start is in stark contrast to the swift launch for new multifamily housing construction in the last few years, according to the Register.

First quarter permitting was 32 percent below the pace between 2021 and last year, when 159,476 multifamily units were in the pipeline — the largest since 2004-2006.

The new supply of rentals helped tamp down sharp rent hikes during the pandemic.

California rents fell at a 1.4 percent annual rate last month, after dipping 0.8 percent last year,  according to ApartmentList. In 2022, statewide rents rose 11 percent, and 5.5 percent in 2021 as tenants sought larger living spaces during a pandemic shift to remote work.

Apartment vacancy in the first quarter averaged 5.2 percent, compared to 5 percent last year and 4 percent in 2022.

While multifamily development of primarily apartments has slowed, plans to build single-family homes have partly rebounded.

From January through March, single-family permits rose 26 percent statewide to 14,215 units. 

But that’s still 7 percent off the 2021-2023 pace, when 182,883 houses were permitted, unchanged from the previous three years, according to the Register.

Overall, California home permits were 23,187 units in the first quarter, up 2 percent from a year ago but off 19 percent from 2021-2023’s pace. In those three years, 342,359 permits were filed, the best count since 2005-2007, according to the newspaper.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Multifamily development plans in California fall to 10-year low appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Apartment rents, apartment vacancy, housing permits 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Realtor-backed group challenges City of Orange housing plan – Robert Khodadadian

The Realtor-backed Californians for Homeownership has challenged a state-approved housing plan from the City of Orange that includes thousands of homes in areas off-limits to residential development.

The Los Angeles-based nonprofit filed a lawsuit seeking a court order that Orange revise its “housing element” plan, alleging the city included mall parking lots and other parcels with deed restrictions that forbid housing, the Orange County Register reported.

Californians for Homeownership, backed by the California Association of Realtors, has filed 21 lawsuits challenging local housing plans throughout the state, including Beverly Hills, Fullerton, La Cañada Flintridge, Claremont and La Mirada.

The prohousing group accused Orange of including nine encumbered parcels in its housing plan without proof that their current uses will end by the end of the decade.

The sites account for 3,211 of the 3,936 new homes in the city’s eight-year housing blueprint hrough 2029. At least 1,671 of those homes must be affordable for low-income residents.

“The city’s housing element relies on non-vacant sites to satisfy over 50 percent of the city’s lower-income (housing goals),” the lawsuit states. “The city did not (provide) substantial evidence that (the existing) uses are likely to be discontinued.”

The lawsuit contends that the city must prove those sites truly can be redeveloped before the current plan expires in October 2029.

“I don’t know whether these sites are good or bad. What I do know is that the city has not produced the evidence … to demonstrate whether or not (the parcels are) good or bad,” said Matthew Gelfand, an attorney for Californians for Homeownership. “And without that evidence, that housing element is not substantially compliant with state law.”

State housing officials had raised questions about the Orange plan over deed restrictions on some Orange sites last spring, but approved the plan after city officials provided “additional owner outreach (and) updated analysis,” according to state records reviewed by the Register.

The sites include parking lots at the Outlets of Orange mall at 20 City Boulevard West, subject to a recorded declaration maintaining them as parking lots through 2047.

They include parcels at the City Town Center 3743 West Chapman Avenue that a recorded declaration commits to retail for 65 years.

They also include parcels at the Stadium Promenade and Century Stadium shopping center and cinema at 1701 West Katella Avenue now subject to covenants barring residential use through 2044.

Orange City Attorney Mike Vigliotta declined to comment about ongoing litigation, as did a spokesman for the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

Before the state certified the city’s housing plan on Jan. 2, developers filed four applications seeking to build 696 homes under builder’s remedy, a state housing loophole that allows developers to bypass zoning rules in cities that haven’t certified their plans if they contain at least 20 percent affordable housing.

The builder’s remedy applications include a proposal by Integral Communities to build 209 townhomes and granny flats behind the Village of Orange mall.

They also include a proposal by Stonefield Development to build 138 apartments in 11 three-story buildings, plus a self-storage building at the “Chapman-Yorba” site along Santiago Creek.

Milan REI X , an affiliate of Milan Capital Management, pitched a builder’s remedy plan to build 118 townhomes at the Mara Brandman Horse Arena on East Santiago Canyon Boulevard. It also filed a similar application to build 231 houses, townhomes and apartments at the Sully-Miller sand and gravel quarry.

City planners have pushed back with laundry lists of corrections needed for those projects. In three of those plans, the city still requires developers to get a zoning change and general plan amendment despite the builder’s remedy provision in state housing law.

The city’s assertion is similar to those struck down by Los Angeles County judges in builder’s remedy cases filed against the cities of Los Angeles and La Cañada Flintridge.

“Right now, they’re saying that we still need to file a zone change and a general plan amendment,” John Stanek, a partner at Newport Beach-based Integral Communities, told the Register. “My legal team’s preparing a response.”

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Realtor-backed group challenges City of Orange housing plan appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Housing Element 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Brookfield’s deal to sell 777 Tower in Downtown LA collapses – Robert Khodadadian

Brookfield Properties’ deal to sell 777 South Figueroa Street, a 1 million-square-foot office tower in Downtown Los Angeles, has fallen apart, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

Consus Asset Management, an investment firm based in South Korea, pulled out of a deal to buy 777 Tower for $145 million. Commercial Observer first reported that the transaction fell apart. It’s unclear why Consus pulled out and the firm could not be reached for comment. Brookfield did not respond to a request for comment.

Brookfield defaulted on $319 million in loans tied to the 52-story tower last year, after rising interest rates squeezed profits from the building. The firm put the property up for sale in the fall. 

Sources previously told TRD that Brookfield scored at least 15 offers on the tower, which is almost half empty, after putting the property up for sale last fall. 

The Consus deal, which was set to close at about $145 a square foot, would have marked another benchmark for office sales in Downtown L.A., an office market that has been plagued by defaults, landlords cutting and running, high vacancy and low trades on a price-per-square-foot basis. 

In December, Carolwood, run by Adam Rubin and Andrew Shanfeld, bought the 1.1 million-square-foot AON Center at 707 Wilshire Boulevard for $147.8 million, or about $134 per square foot, in a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure.

Earlier this month, developer Izek Shomof bought 617 West 7th Street, an office building in the same area of Downtown L.A., from the Swig Company for $20.5 million, or $94 a square foot. Swig had bought that property for $38.8 million in 2011. 

The post Brookfield’s deal to sell 777 Tower in Downtown LA collapses appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Breaking, Breaking News, Distress, Investment Sales 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Neutrogena to move headquarters from LA to the Garden State – Robert Khodadadian

Neutrogena, maker of Beach Defense sunscreen and cosmetics, will move its headquarters from Los Angeles to New Jersey. New Jersey?

The Westchester-based unit of New Jersey-based Kenvue is closing its corporate headquarters at 6080 West Center Drive to consolidate operations in Skillman, in the Garden State, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

The move comes as Kenvue executives try to boost Neutrogena’s lackluster performance. It also represents the latest major business exit out of L.A.

Neutrogena, which had called Westchester home for decades, is laying off 84 local employees in three waves, with most given the option to relocate. The company expects to shut the doors by August.

Founded in 1930 initially as Natone, the company changed its name to Neutrogena in 1962 and went public in 1973. Johnson & Johnson bought the firm in 1994 for $924 million. It then spun off its consumer health division last year into the independent Kenvue, owner of Aveeno, Band-Aid, Tylenol and Neutrogena.

The publicly traded firm reported an 8 percent drop in sales for skin health and beauty last year, a segment driven largely by Neutrogena.

A company executive told Bloomberg Finance this month that the decision to move to New Jersey was made in an effort to “boost growth and improve collaboration.”

The size of its headquarters at the 13-story office building north of LAX were not disclosed. 

The 316,000-square-foot, Class A office building, built in 1987 off the 405 Freeway, is part of a six-building, 1.4 million-square-foot Playa District campus owned by EQ Office, based in Chicago. Tenants include Sony and Pepperdine University.

The pending departure by Neutrogena is just the latest in a series of mergers and moves by homegrown firms out of Los Angeles since 2000, according to the Business Journal.

Northrop Grumman moved from Century City to Virginia in 2011, though it’s still a large employer in Los Angeles County. In 2009, Hilton Worldwide Holdings moved from Beverly Hills to Virginia. In 2014, Occidental Petroleum moved from Westwood to Houston.

Real estate brokerage CBRE moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas in 2020. A year later, engineering and construction firm AECOM also left L.A. for Dallas.

Last year, Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft in a deal that kept local operations, but resulted in substantial layoffs. Mexican food producer Cacique Foods last year moved its hub and dairy plant from Monrovia and City of Industry to Texas.

Only two Fortune 500 companies are now headquartered in L.A.: Reliance Steel & Aluminum and Farmers Insurance. Outside the city limits, Disney is in Burbank and Amgen is in Thousand Oaks.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Neutrogena to move headquarters from LA to the Garden State appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, headqarters 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Spec home developer lists Beverly Hills PO manse for $29.5M – Robert Khodadadian

A spec home in Beverly Hills Post Office has hit the market for $29.5 million, more than eight years after the developer, Yosef Dangor, bought the property. 

Josh Flagg at Compass is listing the home at 9705 Oak Pass Road for sale, according to an announcement from the brokerage. 

9705 Oak Pass Road (Marc Angeles, Getty)

The seven-bedroom, 8,800-square-foot home was designed by Noah Walker, an L.A.-area architect famous for designing some of the county’s costliest homes. The contemporary-style “architectural masterpiece” is located in a gated community, according to listing notes.

An entity tied to Dangor bought the property for $3 million in 2016, records show, and scored an $8 million loan from Anchor Loans in Westlake Village on the site last year. 

9705 Oak Pass Road (Marc Angeles, Getty)

Beverly Hills Post Office, though the area shares the same famous 90210 zip code with the city of Beverly Hills, technically lies in the city of Los Angeles. That means Dangor will have to shell out a 5.5 percent transfer tax if the property sells for $10 million or more. 

The property is flush with amenities — a Himalayan salt sauna, pool, spa, outdoor kitchen, fire pit, steam showers, movie theater and gym. 

The listing discloses a 2 percent buyer’s agent fee, though it’s subject to negotiation. 

Flagg, who stars on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing L.A.,” jumped to Compass from Douglas Elliman last month. The listing marks one of his first deals under the Compass brand. 

The post Spec home developer lists Beverly Hills PO manse for $29.5M appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Luxury Real Estate 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Industrious lease expands coworking presence in Century City – Robert Khodadadian

Industrious has signed a lease for 19,000 square feet of offices in Century City, weeks after the coworking company expanded its offices in Westwood and Santa Monica.

The New York-based flex workspace firm led by Jamie Hodari and Justin Stewart signed a 10-year lease for the offices in the North Tower of Watt Plaza at 1875 Century Park East, Commercial Property Executive reported. 

Financial terms of the lease with Santa Monica-based Watt Companies, owner of the 23-story, 476,100-square-foot building and twin tower next door, were not disclosed.

Industrious is now listing coworking space from $399 a month, according to its website.

The deal comes after Industrious opened a 20,800-square-foot office at 1100 Glendon Avenue in Westwood Village, with plans to open a 23,300-square-foot office in December at 808 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica.

The Industrious lease in Century City expands on 40,000 square-feet of coworking offices the firm occupies at the South Tower of Watt Plaza at 1925 Century Park East.

Industrious also has offices in Playa Vista,, Hollywood, West Hollywood and Downtown L.A. The firm has also scooped up locations left behind by WeWork across the nation following that company’s bankruptcy. Industrious claims more than 200 coworking offices in 65 cities worldwide.

Thirteen months ago, a Chicago-area judge ruled that Industrious owed Stockbridge Capital Group, its former West Loop landlord, more than $2.3 million for walking out on its lease.

In 2022, CBRE announced it was investing another $100 million in Industrious to help speed up international expansion. A year earlier, the Dallas-based firm acquired a 35 percent stake with the cash purchase of about $200 million in primary and secondary shares.

Early this year, Industrious partnered with PGIM Real Estate and HPI Real Estate and Investment Services to open a 20,600-square-foot coworking office in Austin, its fourth in the Texas capital.

As of January, Los Angeles had 4.3 million square feet of coworking office space, making it the second largest flex office footprint in the U.S., according to a CommercialEdge market update.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Industrious lease expands coworking presence in Century City appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Fogel Real Estate plans resi, retail project in Venice Beach – Robert Khodadadian

Fogel Real Estate, run by Steven Fogel, is planning to build a 36-unit apartment building, spanning 36,700 square feet, in Venice, according to a filing with the Los Angeles Planning Commission on April 16. 

The plans for 825 South Hampton Drive include a 3,400-square-foot, ground-floor retail section with a cafe and three levels of below-ground parking with 60 spaces.

The limited liability company, SJF Venice, which filed the plans, lists Steven and Kelly Fogel as managers, according to state business records. 

Steven Fogel is the co-founder and chairman of Westwood Financial, a Los Angeles-based firm that owns and operates 127 shopping centers across the U.S, according to a company website.

His daughter Kelly Fogel, a Los Angeles-based photographer, declined to comment on the plans.

The firm bought the roughly half-acre site for $15 million in 2022, according to property records filed with L.A. County. The land sits on the intersection of Hampton Drive and Abbot Kinney Boulevard, a popular shopping strip in Venice. 

The purchase came after an entity tied to Fogel Real Estate defaulted on a loan from Columbia Pacific Advisors tied to the property next door, 812 South Main Street, records show. Columbia Pacific foreclosed on that 30,000-square-foot piece of land for $2.3 million in 2021. 

Fogel Real Estate’s plans rework earlier designs for the site that included eight live-work condos, three levels of subterranean parking and 9,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground level, TRD reported in 2017. Fogel previously leased the property, before it bought the site, records show. It’s unclear why Fogel pulled the 2017 plans and has refiled. 

Venice continues to be a desirable neighborhood, despite a “continuing decline in occupancy” and “subdued” renter demand, according to recent data compiled by Mathews Real Estate Investment Services.

Rents in Venice Beach dropped 0.8 percent between March 2023 and last month, according to the report, but is still “one of the three most expensive” neighborhoods in Los Angeles for renters, with asking rents averaging $3,290 a month. 
Other developers that have filed plans in Venice over the last couple of years include Amadora Heights and Wiseman Residential.

The post Fogel Real Estate plans resi, retail project in Venice Beach appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Development, LA multifamily market 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Santa Clarita looks to Irvine model for redeveloped Valencia Town Center – Robert Khodadadian

Valencia Town Center could become a great destination for families to live, play and work, not unlike Irvine Spectrum Center in Orange County.

The Irvine mall developed by the Irvine Company could serve as a model for Santa Clarita, whose planners laid out a framework for redevelopment of the Valencia Town Center mall in a Planning Commission meeting on April 16, the Santa Clarita Signal reported.

The 1 million-square-foot indoor mall at 24201 West Valencia Boulevard was purchased by Dallas-based Centennial last fall for $199 million after Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, based in Paris, defaulted on its mortgage loan.

The Texas investor then said it had one goal: to add value by building homes, offices and more businesses at its 53-acre property in north Los Angeles County.

City planners were already hard at work drafting a Town Center Specific Plan — creating flexible guidelines for its redevelopment. The plan’s area extends beyond the mall to cover 111 acres, including City Hall.

Senior Planner Dave Peterson said the city wants to require that commercial and residential development be built in tandem.

He said “making a great place” where a family could live, play and work was as important as having the right mix of commercial tenants. 

For that, he pointed to the Irvine Spectrum Center, which for nearly three decades has evolved into a Moroccan-style retail magnet that now includes a Nordstrom, Ferris wheel, 21-screen cinema, Improv Comedy Club and around 130 shops and restaurants, in addition to two office towers.

One of the appeals of the Irvine Spectrum Center, Peterson said, is that you can read a book in one of the grassy areas and not realize the 5 Freeway is a few hundred feet away, because of the intentionality of the center’s design. 

“What that defines is the experience of the place,” Peterson said, referring to the fact that people said they just like to go there. “And that is the kind of thing that the Town Center Specific Plan is aiming for.” 

The city’s specific plan calls for the city to “strongly encourage” the developer to include 2,200 homes, of which 440 would be set aside as affordable housing for households earning less than 80 percent of area median income. 

At the same time, planners pondered the possible demolition of portions of the mall, including its food court, JC Penney store and “the Sears box,” while adding a hotel and convention center on the south side.

Michael Platt, executive vice president of mixed-use development at Centennial, said the company would wait until the city finished its Town Center Specific Plan before laying out its plans. He praised the city for its “forward-thinking” and “holistic” initiative.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Santa Clarita looks to Irvine model for redeveloped Valencia Town Center appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Mall redevelopment, specific plan 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Rancho Palos Verdes OKs state-mandated housing plan two years late – Robert Khodadadian

Rancho Palos Verdes has approved a new draft of its state-required housing plan, more than two years after the city blew its deadline.

The upscale South Bay city approved a plan to build 647 homes by 2029, despite pushback from residents concerned about density, traffic and local control, the Torrance Daily Breeze reported. 

The deadline to get the “housing element” plan approved by state regulators was Oct. 15, 2021. Each city and county is required every eight years to create the blueprint to rezone for a specific housing goal. 

The failure to get its plan certified leaves Rancho Palos Verdes open to the builder’s remedy, a legal loophole in state housing law that allows developers to bypass local zoning with projects that meet affordable housing thresholds.

Builders have triggered the remedy in cities from Redondo Beach to the Bay Area that have failed to certify their housing plans.

Rancho Palos Verdes has grappled with its required update requiring more low-to-moderate housing for some time, according to the Breeze.

“Most California cities have struggled mightily in this particular round of the housing element,” Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Pro Tem Eric Alegria told a room packed full of constituents.

“I hear a lot of passion from our speakers, understandably,” he said. “We are all passionate about our homes — (and) we can all agree that housing is needed, in general. (But) I also agree that promoting housing alone does not solve homelessness as a singular tactic.” 

For elected officials and residents alike, the major concern was having to plan for apartments in an upscale city of mostly single-family homes.

Mayor John Cruikshank expressed sympathy with many in the audience.

“The onslaught of Sacramento continues and there’s not much we can do about this until we change Sacramento,” Cruikshank said. Rancho Palos Verdes, he added, is “about low density; we are about single-family homes.”

“We’re all frustrated by this process and all five of us up here get that.”

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Rancho Palos Verdes OKs state-mandated housing plan two years late appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Builder’s Remedy, Housing Element 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Bank of Southern California puts Neil Shekhter portfolio up for sale – Robert Khodadadian

Bank of Southern California has listed three apartment complexes in Santa Monica for sale — properties formerly owned by developer Neil Shekhter, The Real Deal has learned. 

The bank foreclosed on the three buildings at 1038 10th Street, 1007 Lincoln Boulevard and 1516 Stanford Street in February, L.A. County records show, after Shekhter defaulted on almost $16 million in loans tied to the properties. 

At a public auction, Bank of Southern California foreclosed with a credit bid of $9.5 million, coming out to about $394,000 per unit.

Now the bank is asking $10.8 million for the three buildings, which together total 24 units, according to listings on LoopNet for the property. At that price point of $450,000 per unit, Bank of Southern California could recoup some of its loss that came from Shekhter’s unpaid debt. A team led by JLL’s Luc Whitlock is marketing the portfolio for sale. 

Shekhter paid about $10.6 million for the three buildings between 2015 and 2016, property records show.

The buildings can be bought individually or as one portfolio, according to the LoopNet listing. Almost half of the units will be vacant at the time of sale. 

The properties could be bought by owner-occupiers — someone who could occupy one of the units and rent out the rest, according to JLL’s marketing materials. 

Shekhter and his firm, WS Communities, had refinanced the three properties in September 2022, using a business loan from Bank of Southern California, court records show. 

Shekhter’s sons Adam, Alexander and Alan Shekhter, each signed unlimited personal guarantees with recourse, meaning if the properties could not pay back the loan, the brothers would be personally liable for paying it back, according to court documents. 

Bank of Southern California had sued Shekhter’s sons over the defaulted loans, claiming the three “failed and refused, and continue to fail and refuse, to pay the sums due and owing to plaintiff, in breach of said guaranty,” court records show.

The post Bank of Southern California puts Neil Shekhter portfolio up for sale appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Distress, Foreclosure, Investment Sales, LA multifamily market, REO 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Redcar plans three-story mass timber office building in Santa Monica – Robert Khodadadian

Redcar Properties has upgraded plans for a 47,300-square-foot office building in Santa Monica.

The locally based developer led by Jim Jacobsen unveiled a new look before the city Architectural Review Board for the three-story building proposed for 1630 Euclid Street, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The project, presented to the same board in August, would replace a 7,300-square-foot commercial building west of Memorial Park.

The office building was designed by Culver City-based House & Robertson Architects, which led the design for the distinctive stainless steel ribbon façade at the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A.’s Miracle Mile.

Its upgraded design for 1630 Euclid includes a “hybrid” mass timber building topped with rooftop solar panels above a two-level underground garage.

The offices would include floor-to-ceiling windows surrounded by outdoor balconies and stairways, according to renderings. A rooftop deck would be shaded by a trellis canopy.

In a report, Santa Monica planning staff recommended the Architectural Review Board approve the project, according to Urbanize.

The proposed offices, revised from brown to white with wood trim, is a sister project connecting to a 39,000-square-foot building Redcar built next door at 1650 Euclid. The two buildings will attach on each floor, according to Urbanize, and the parking levels at 1630 Euclid will be accessed through the next-door building.

In February last year, Redcar filed plans to build a 75,000-square-foot office building at 3122 Nebraska Avenue, which would replace two mid-century industrial buildings.

The firm has built projects in Culver City and in Chinatown. In August, construction was underway for its five-story office complex in Chinatown, among the first in Los Angeles built of cross-laminated timber.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Redcar plans three-story mass timber office building in Santa Monica appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

DJM and PGIM list Bella Terra mall in Huntington Beach for sale  – Robert Khodadadian

DJM Capital and PGIM have listed an 853,000-square-foot shopping center approved for 300 homes in Huntington Beach. The outdoor mall could fetch $300 million.

The San Jose-based developer and the real estate arm of Prudential Financial, based in New Jersey, are marketing the Bella Terra retail center at 7777 Edinger Avenue, Bisnow reported, citing a report by Real Estate Alert. The asking price was not disclosed.

But the nearly fully leased shopping center could sell for as much as $300 million, or $352 per square foot, market experts say.

If Bella Terra sold for that price, it would become “one of the biggest single-asset trades of a U.S. retail property within the past four years,” Real Estate Alert said.

The shopping center at the 405 Freeway and Beach Boulevard is 96.8 percent leased. Whole Foods serves as its grocery anchor, while Costco has a ground lease for its big-box store.  The Cheesecake Factory, Kohl’s, REI and Ulta Beauty are also tenants. 

The property is billed as a retail center among the top 1 percent of shopping centers by foot traffic, according to Real Estate Alert. Some 92 percent of its stores are leased to national retailers, while the average tenant stays for 14.5 years. 

Eastdil Secured is marketing the mall on behalf of DJM Capital and PGIM.

DJM bought the shopping center in 2005 for an undisclosed price. 

The open-air mall, once known as the Huntington Beach Mall, was built in 1966. It was renamed Bella Terra and redeveloped, with DJM replacing an underused amphitheater with new shops and restaurants, while adding a performing stage, lawn and beer-and-wine garden.

In 2015, PGIM paid nearly $289 million for a 75 percent stake, according to the Orange County Business Journal.

In 2022, the mall’s co-owners won approval to build a 300-unit apartment complex on 47 acres at Bella Terra, replacing a 149,000-square-foot store occupied by Burlington Coat Factory and a 33,000-square-foot store next door.

Plans call for a U-shaped building of four and six stories with 300 apartments and 25,000 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants. Construction was supposed to have begun last year, but the project never broke ground.

PGIM and DJM are also partners at Long Beach Exchange, a 266,000-square-foot shopping center they bought in early 2022 for nearly $160 million.

DJM Capital teamed up with Gaw Capital Partners in 2019 to buy the 463,000-square-foot Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood for $325 million. They renamed the outdoor mall Ovation Hollywood.

DJM also has stakes in Lido Marina Village in Newport Beach, Pacific City in Huntington Beach and Runway, an outdoor mall in Playa Vista.

In early 2022, the company bought Gateway Center, a 79,000-square-foot, nine-building retail center in Mission Viejo for $29.5 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post DJM and PGIM list Bella Terra mall in Huntington Beach for sale  appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Open-air mall 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Long Beach ups zoning so Linc Housing can build affordable apartments – Robert Khodadadian

Long Beach has upgraded its zoning to allow Linc Housing to build 72 affordable apartments and other developers to build homes in “high resource” neighborhoods.

The City Council approved the zone change to allow the locally based affordable housing developer to build four- and three-story complexes at 4151 Fountain Street and 4220 Wehrle Court, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.

The council also declared a two-thirds acre lot with a defunct grocery store owned by the city in California Heights to be surplus property. It’s where West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation has proposed building a 100-unit affordable housing complex.

Both projects are in “high resource” or “high opportunity” neighborhoods, a designation by the State Tax Credit Allocation Committee. It’s based on the presence of schools, parks, access to employment, retail and other factors, according to one city official.

Last summer, Linc Housing filed plans to build the 73-unit complex at 4151 East Fountain Street and 4220 Wehrle Court, to replace a troubled group home for disabled teens, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. 

The City Council unanimously approved the zone change, general plan map amendment and a sustainable communities project exemption to make the project possible.

Plans for the complex, dubbed the Fountain Street Apartments, call for a manager’s unit and 72 one-, two- and three-bedroom affordable apartments for households that earn between 30 and 60 percent of area median income.

The complex will include 18 homes for people with disabilities, plus a playground, community room, green space and parking for an unspecified number of cars.

The $58.7 million project was awarded $23.1 million by the California Department of Housing and Community Development this week as part of $523.8 million in “Super NOFA” grants for affordable housing, according to Urbanize.

Neighbors expressed concerns about extra traffic, public safety and access impacts at a nearby elementary school.

Councilwoman Kristina Duggan, who represents the Third District, said residents’ concerns were her concerns.

She said city staff are looking to change street sweeping and work with the school district to improve before- and after-school traffic.

“I’m happy that this is in the Third District and we’re part of the solution and we’re providing 72 families homes,” Duggan told the council and constituents. “Now, I also want to acknowledge the neighbors who have come out and worked with me and talked with me about this project.

“It’s rooted in real concerns about the impact to the neighborhood and the quality of life for the people who will be living in the new development.”

Long Beach must plan for 26,502 homes, more than half of them affordable to low- and moderate-income residents, by 2030, according to its state-mandated housing blueprint.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Long Beach ups zoning so Linc Housing can build affordable apartments appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Affordable Housing, Zoning 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Macerich faces “imminent” default on $300M Santa Monica Place loan – Robert Khodadadian

Macerich has an episode of déjà vu, after a $300 million loan on its Santa Monica Place mall goes to special servicing — the second time in two years. 

The loan on the 527,000-square-foot mall is expected to see “imminent maturity default,” according to Trepp. 

In August 2022, the same loan was sent to special servicing for the same reason. But Macerich managed to negotiate an extension with lender Wells Fargo, by buying a rate cap, a hedge against rising rates. With that new extension, the loan is currently set to expire in December.

 Macerich did not respond to a request for comment. 

The property at 395 Santa Monica Place has struggled for the last five years. As tenants have given up space and in the wake of the pandemic, Macerich, a real estate investment trust headquartered in Santa Monica, has struggled to fill the vacancies. 

At the end of 2019, the property was 95 percent leased, including to higher-end department stores Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, according to financial filings. 

Macerich was reeling in an average of $58 per square foot a year on its owned malls, it disclosed in a 2019 financial report. Based on that average, Santa Monica Place would have generated about $1.4 million a month in rent — almost double what was needed to service the debt.

But in 2020, after the pandemic hit, occupancy dropped to 91 percent. In 2021, Bloomingdale’s and ArcLight Cinemas both vacated the property, causing occupancy to shrink to 85 percent. 

More than half of the property was available for lease at the beginning of 2023, according to Macerich. 

At the end of 2023, the property was reeling in about 70 percent of what was needed to service the debt. 

Macerich expects that a renovation of the spaces left by Bloomingdale’s and ArcLight will help attract new tenants, according to a 2023 annual report. The firm plans to spend up to $40 million to redevelop the 150,000-square-foot space, a project it anticipates will finish by next year. 

The post Macerich faces “imminent” default on $300M Santa Monica Place loan appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Breaking, Breaking News, Distress, LA retail market, Real Estate And Finance 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Panot Capital snags $51M loan for vintage apartment buildings in LA – Robert Khodadadian

Panot Capital has scored a $50.8 million loan to refinance 10 century-old apartment buildings in Hollywood and other parts of Los Angeles.

The Houston-based investor led by Aaron Iskowitz and Zain Sayed secured the loan for the vintage properties with 482 apartments across the city, the Commercial Observer reported. The locations of each property were undisclosed.

The loan from Israel Discount Bank of New York, or IDB, comes on a seven-year term with four years of interest-only payments at a rate of 5.94 percent. 

The deal was arranged by Northmarq, which described it as “a below-market-rate loan on vintage brick buildings across Hollywood.”

Pinot Capital, founded late last year, focuses on data-driven multifamily and mixed-use properties, with offices in Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Rhode Island.

The startup has acquired a portfolio of 1.3 million square feet of properties with more than 850 units, and 11.3 million square feet of land in California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island, according to its website.

Its Los Angeles portfolio includes 532 apartments within 263,300-square-feet of buildings.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Panot Capital snags $51M loan for vintage apartment buildings in LA appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

WeWork keeps North Hollywood location, sees LA as “key market” – Robert Khodadadian

WeWork, the embattled New York-based coworking firm, said on Monday it filed a motion to keep its leases at two Los Angeles locations. 

The company included both as a part of the five lease assumptions it disclosed on April 15 as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The first L.A. location is at 5161 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood. The other WeWork coworking space is located at 10250 Constellation Boulevard in Century City.

According to a WeWork spokesperson, the company has seen “really strong demand” for coworking spaces with the rise of flexible work post-pandemic, describing Los Angeles as a “key market for WeWork.” The firm reports market demand for both “on demand” daily bookings and monthly memberships, called WeWork All Access, which “factored into” WeWork’s decision to stay in the NoHo building. 

“We continue to work with our landlords to achieve more sustainable lease terms so that we can really stay in as many buildings in the city as possible,” the spokesperson said.

In addition to coworking space itself, the 5161 Lankershim Boulevard WeWork location offers nearby amenities such as restaurants in the NoHo Arts District and galleries in Valley Village.

“The buildings we’ve assumed in L.A. are ones where we see a sustainable path forward for our operations in the long term,” the spokesperson noted. “We’re just really excited by the progress that we’ve made in L.A. so far, and we look forward to continuing this momentum.”

Across the country, WeWork has been on a hunt for fresh financing while negotiating leases with landlords as a part of its comeback plan.

Earlier this month, the company announced that it “determined a final path forward at 90 percent of the locations in its global real estate portfolio through amended leases, new management agreements, or via the lease rejection process” in a statement on April 2. The company plans to exit Chapter 11 by the end of May.

“We remain committed to emerging from our global real estate and financial restructuring later this quarter, and expect to do so with little to no debt,”said CEO David Tolley.

The post WeWork keeps North Hollywood location, sees LA as “key market” appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Industrious expands into LA’s Westwood and Santa Monica – Robert Khodadadian

Industrious is expanding its coworking offices around Los Angeles with new locations in Westwood and Santa Monica.

The New York-based coworking firm led by Jamie Hodari and Justin Stewart has opened a 20,800-square-foot office at 1100 Glendon Avenue in Westwood Village, the Commercial Observer reported.

In December, the flex workspace company plans to open a 23,331-square-foot office at 808 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica.

Given their size, it appears each office was leased. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Industrious teamed up with Santa Monica-based Douglas Emmett to open the Industrious at Westwood Center, which includes 243 desks in Westwood Village near UCLA.

The firm will open the Santa Monica office at the four-story Lincoln Wilshire building, with 242 desks, nearly two blocks from Santa Monica Boulevard.

“Santa Monica and Westwood are two submarkets we’ve had our sights set on for years, and we’re thrilled to be planting our first flags in the area,” Peri Demestihas, head of North American real estate growth for Industrious, said in a statement.

Industrious also has offices in Playa Vista, Century City, Hollywood, West Hollywood and  Downtown L.A. The firm has also scooped up national offices left behind by WeWork following that company’s bankruptcy. Industrious claims more than 200 coworking offices in 65 cities worldwide.

Thirteen months ago, a Chicago-area judge ruled that Industrious owed Stockbridge Capital Group, its former West Loop landlord, more than $2.3 million for walking out on its lease.

In 2022, CBRE announced it was investing another $100 million in Industrious to help speed up international expansion. A year earlier, the Dallas-based firm acquired a 35 percent stake with the cash purchase of about $200 million in primary and secondary shares.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Industrious expands into LA’s Westwood and Santa Monica appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Coworking offices 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Lincoln Property defaults on Newport Beach office loan – Robert Khodadadian

When Lincoln Property Company bought 1500 Quail Street in Newport Beach in 2018, the company lauded the office building as a “trophy asset,” a “rare opportunity” and a property with “very stable cash flow.” 

Circumstances have changed. 

Lincoln Property defaulted on a $23.3 million loan tied to the 90,000-square-foot building last month, according to a notice of default filed with Orange County. The firm did not respond to a request for comment before publication. 

The Dallas-headquartered commercial landlord bought the building with an unnamed institutional investor in 2018, paying $32 million, according to property records and an announcement at the time. The firm used the loan from Capital One for the acquisition, and then extended the debt twice. 

Lincoln Property currently owes $20.9 million under the mortgage, according to the notice of default. Capital One can schedule a foreclosure on the building no earlier than June 26, in accordance with California law. 

At 1500 Quail Street, the building is 83 percent leased, down from 90 percent when Lincoln bought the property. 

Many Orange County office buildings have fallen victim to the same factors suppressing office demand — from both tenants and investors — across the country. Remote work has led to companies shrinking footprint and lenders have become hesitant to make loans on office buildings. Rising interest rates have also hurt borrowers with floating-rate loans, as their monthly mortgage payments have skyrocketed. 

Last month, Greenlaw and Walton Street lost an entirely empty, 350,000-square-foot building at 1 City Boulevard West in Orange, signing over the property to TPG Real Estate Finance Trust in a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, after defaulting on a $64 million loan.

The post Lincoln Property defaults on Newport Beach office loan appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Default, Orange County 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Amazon.com leases two 1M sf warehouses in the Inland Empire – Robert Khodadadian

Amazon.com has inked deals for two distribution warehouses of 1 million square feet each in the Inland Empire, where vacancy has ticked up in the top industrial market in the nation.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant last quarter leased one warehouse at 4000 South Hamner Avenue in Ontario and another at 6120 Clinker Drive in Jurupa Valley, the Commercial Observer reported, citing a report from Savills.

The owner of the new Amazon warehouse in Ontario is Dermody Properties, based in Reno. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The property is not far from three other large Amazon distribution and fulfillment centers in one of the region’s densest warehousing submarkets near Ontario International Airport and Ontario Ranch.

The owners of the new warehouse at the Agua Mansa Commerce Park in Jurupa Valley are Newport Beach-based CT Realty and PGIM Real Estate, based in New Jersey. Terms of that deal were also not disclosed.

The two new Amazon leases were among the five tenant contracts signed for more than 1 million square feet in the first quarter in the Inland Empire, which has experienced a weakening market, according to the Observer.

The industrial vacancy in the IE rose 1 percent to 7.8 percent from the prior quarter, and increased 4.9 percent from the previous year.

Even with the large Amazon leases, leasing activity dropped by 500,000 square feet, according to Savills.

Available sublease space jumped by 33.3 percent to more than 20.3 million square feet — the highest amount on record. Vacancy is expected to continue to increase this year, the report said.

In January, Denmark-based Maersk leased a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution warehouse along the 15 Freeway at 8140 Caliente Road, in Hesperia, on the edge of the Inland Empire.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Amazon.com leases two 1M sf warehouses in the Inland Empire appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Jamison clears hurdle for 23-story apartment towers in LA’s Koreatown – Robert Khodadadian

Jamison Services has moved ahead with plans to build two 23-story apartment buildings in Koreatown.

The Koreatown-based developer led by Jaime Lee won approval from the Los Angeles Planning Commission to construct the dual highrises with 760 apartments at 3600 Wilshire Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. They would replace a parking garage behind an office tower.

The project, proposed eight years ago, calls for two buildings containing 760 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments on the north side of 7th Street, between Harvard Boulevard and Kingsley Drive. 

The buildings would contain 6,400 square feet of ground-floor shops, and parking for nearly 1,300 cars.

The side-by-side towers, designed by Chicago-based Perkins&Will, would each rise 269 feet, their floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors covered by rows of external balconies, according to a rendering. 

Each building would have a rooftop pool, with a shared fitness center and a landscaped plaza with pools down below.

Construction would take two years, but a ground-breaking date was not disclosed.

The proposed apartments look like another Jamison Services project down the street at 3470 Wilshire Boulevard, where another parking garage behind an office tower would be replaced by residential highrises.

Jamison has also built a pair of apartment towers along the north side of the street at 3545 Wilshire, and is now building a hotel across Harvard Boulevard from the 3600 Wilshire site, according to Urbanize.

Jamison Services, founded in 2013, is a unit of Jamison Properties. It has amassed more than $3 billion worth of real estate, according to Lee’s LinkedIn page. It owns 5,500 apartments in Los Angeles, with 11,000 more in the pipeline.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post Jamison clears hurdle for 23-story apartment towers in LA’s Koreatown appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

HED: Supreme Court rules builders can challenge California impact fees – Robert Khodadadian

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that California developers and home builders may challenge impact fees imposed by cities and counties for roads, bridges and more.

The justices said the fees may be unconstitutional if builders and developers are forced to pay an unfair share of the cost of public projects, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In the landmark case, a 72-year-old retiree from Placerville, George Sheetz, took on El Dorado County over a $23,420 building fee, raising questions about the justification of “impact fees” imposed on new construction projects.

The outcome of the case could have major repercussions for local government budgets and housing markets, especially in the Golden State. 

But the justices didn’t set a rule for deciding when such fees become unfair and unconstitutional.

Developers contended that limiting California’s high fees for new construction would lead to more affordable housing. California state courts had blocked such claims.  

But the 9-0 Supreme Court decision opened the door for such challenges. The justices revived a constitutional claim brought by Sheetz, who put a manufactured home on a small lot and was told he would have to pay the $23,420 “traffic mitigation fee.”

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they joined the court’s opinion in Sheetz vs. El Dorado County because it was limited to allowing such challenges.

In a separate opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he saw merit to the “common government practice of imposing permit conditions, such as impact fees, on new development through reasonable formulas or schedules that assess the impact of classes of development rather than the impact of specific parcels of property.”

State and county attorneys made just that argument. They said it was fairer to impose a development fee on all the lots in an area.

But the justices nonetheless ruled that homeowners or developers may sue to challenge these fees as an unconstitutional taking of their private property. 

The Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento, which supported Sheetz, hailed the ruling as a significant victory for property rights.

The case will now go back to the California courts.

Attorney Paul Beard, who represented Sheetz, said the “fee must be set aside as an unconstitutional taking, because the county has failed to show — and cannot show — that the fee is sufficiently related and proportionate to the traffic impacts of Mr. Sheetz’s modest home.” 

The debate over development fees is especially relevant in California as local governments have increasingly relied on the charges to finance parks, streets, schools and other infrastructure and services in the decades after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 limited property tax revenues, according to the Times.

The fees have come under scrutiny as developers and others have blamed them for driving up the cost of housing and for wide disparities between cities.

A 2018 study by UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation found that fees for new single-family homes in California range from $21,000 to $157,000 per home, accounting for 6 to 18 percent of the price of a typical home, depending on the location.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post HED: Supreme Court rules builders can challenge California impact fees appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

Decron sells Ventura County multifamily to AEW for $133M – Robert Khodadadian

Decron Properties has sold an apartment complex in the Ventura County city of Moorpark for $133 million, as it continues offloading some of its Greater Los Angeles assets. 

AEW Capital Management bought the 376-unit complex, named Ranch at Moorpark at 51 Majestic Court, according to an announcement from Decron on Thursday. The deal came to about $354,000 per unit. 

It’s unclear how AEW financed the acquisition and the deed has not yet been recorded with the county. The firm did not respond to a request for comment. 

Decron, which is based in Los Angeles, bought the property for $84 million in 2013, according to property records, or about $224,500 per unit. The firm renovated every apartment, plus common areas, and expanded parking. 

Over the last six months, Decron has worked to sell off assets in and around Los Angeles, with plans to take those proceeds and put them to work in other markets. 

“We’re looking at markets like San Diego, where we recently made a substantial acquisition, and places like Phoenix and Seattle where we already have created a significant portfolio,” Decron CEO David Nagel said in a statement. 

In December and January, Decron sold two properties in the city of L.A. and two more in Thousand Oaks for a combined $212 million, Nagel told TRD earlier this year. All in all, the company’s cashouts sum to a total $345 million over the last six months. 

In L.A., Nagel said Decron was particularly “disincentivized” to stay

“Once Measure ULA went through, it really disincentivized us to stay,” he said. “And what’s the next thing that’s going to happen that’s going to hurt us and prevent us from reinvesting in our properties as we would like to?” 

Read more

The post Decron sells Ventura County multifamily to AEW for $133M appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, Investment Sales, LA Multifamily, Ventura County 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More

HOA at Ocean Towers in Santa Monica stole $5.7M, prosecutors say – Robert Khodadadian

Views from the 19-story twin Ocean Towers above the beach in Santa Monica are stellar. But a look into management at the 317-unit luxury co-op is as dark as a Hollywood film noir.

A decade-long saga of alleged fraud and manipulation has unfolded at the Ocean Towers condo complex at 201 Ocean Boulevard, the Los Angeles Times reported in a 4,300-word expose.

A web of deceit involves former figures within its homeowners association, including John Spahi, his son Omar, former HOA President Joseph Orlando, and his late wife, Dorothy.

Residents of Ocean Towers, built in 1971, had long harbored suspicions about John Spahi’s abuse of power within the HOA board. 

Allegations included manipulating board elections, draining HOA accounts for personal legal battles and orchestrating inside deals with valuable real estate. 

The scale of the alleged grift came to light when a grand jury indicted the Spahis and Orlandos on 119 charges, including grand theft, identity theft and money laundering, totaling $5.7 million in stolen funds, according to Los Angeles County prosecutors and the state Attorney General’s office.

The fraud allegedly involved billing the HOA for construction projects that were never completed by a company named Progressive, in the name of an unwitting owner.

Lawsuits and investigations revealed a complex scheme of financial maneuvering, including transferring units among relatives and partners and taking out massive loans without homeowner approval.

Ocean Towers residents faced intimidation tactics, lawsuits and eviction threats when challenging the Spahis and Orlandos. 

Despite initial resistance, some residents, led by Michael Reach and attorney Jeffrey Wittenberg, took legal action against the entrenched board. Eventually, a court-appointed receiver ousted the old guard, revealing the dire financial straits of Ocean Towers and the extent of the alleged embezzlement.

As the legal battles continue, the residents looks toward recovery under new management. 

However, the repercussions of the fraud may linger, with residents burdened by high HOA fees and debt incurred during the Spahi era. 

Meanwhile, John Spahi awaits trial at an unscheduled date, while facing scrutiny from residents who question how he has evaded accountability for years of alleged misconduct.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

The post HOA at Ocean Towers in Santa Monica stole $5.7M, prosecutors say appeared first on The Real Deal.

  Uncategorized, embezzlement 

#SkylineProperties #realestatenews #commercialrealestate #offmarketrealestate #nycrealestate #Tradedny #danielshirazi #manhattancommercialrealestate #ManhattanRealEstateMarket #Skyline #NewYorkCityRealEstate #groundleases #apartmentbuildings #Realestateinvestment #robertkhodadadian #groundlease #netlease #investmentsales #brokerage #offmarketbroker #TheRealDeal #CommercialObserver #NewYorkRealEstateJournal #commercialbuildings Los Angeles – The Real Deal  Read More