Real Estate—Retail Takes Up Slack as Westwood Theaters Depart

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Despite lease expirations and the departures of several movie theaters, leasing activity in Westwood remains positive as anticipation builds around the reopening of the Bullocks Westwood/Macy’s site.

Bob Baker, senior vice president and director of leasing for Madison Marquette Retail Services, said the company has landed two more tenants.

Modernbook of Palo Alto signed a $1 million, 10-year lease for 3,890 square feet at 1060 Westwood Blvd., Baker said. The Modernbook Web site describes it as a modernist-designed bookstore specializing in fashion, photography, design and architecture.

The second new lease, at the same address, is Divaz. The women’s clothing store signed a $500,000, five-year lease, Baker said.

Both stores should be open by November, Baker said. The Bullock’s Westwood/Macy’s reopening will be scattered in the coming weeks, Baker said. Ralphs Grocery Co. will open one of its Fresh Fare supermarkets Sept. 19, Best Buy will open Oct. 30 and EXPO Design Center will open Nov. 1.

Also, construction crews continue the build-out of a Longs Drugs at the Bullock’s Westwood/Macy’s site, but an opening has not been announced.


Express Delivery for Disney

CIM Group, landlord at 1337 Third St. on Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, has signed women’s fashion supplier Express to a lease for $9 per foot.

Real estate sources said the deal was a good one for CIM considering the sluggish summer leasing activity. Retailers and other businesses have been reluctant to sign leases in the midst of an uncertain economic situation.

Express, which is a division of The Limited Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, takes over the 7,100 square feet vacated last summer by Walt Disney Co., which has been downsizing its retail operations.

The deal is a good sign for property owners on the Promenade, but it could become a flash point in the debate over chain stores moving into the area.

Many restaurants already have been forced off of the shopping street in the past three years because their thin profit margins don’t jibe with the escalating rents. Some city officials fear that mom-and-pop retailers will be forced out next, ruining the character of Third Street.

“It’s still a relatively low-key issue, but it’s building,” said Rob York, a principal at Fransen Co., a retail development consultant to downtown Santa Monica and the Bayside District. “There has been concern expressed about the number of chain stores that have come into the area.”


Leasing Activity

Law firm Bremer & Whyte LLP, which specializes in the defense of insurance companies and their insured, leased 6,933 square feet in the LNC Warner Center Complex in Woodland Hills. The Newport Beach-based lawyers moved 15 employees into the space last month. Tony Principe, executive vice president of Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services, represented Bremer & Whyte in the lease

G-4 LLC, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp., signed a two-year, 22,000-square-foot sublease at 11444 W. Olympic Blvd. in West Los Angeles. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources said the total consideration was more than $1.3 million. G-4, which creates original programming for Comcast, will use the space for administrative offices and post-production activities. G-4 replaces Campbell-Ewald West, an advertising company that recently moved to a 15,000-square-foot warehouse building in Santa Monica. Steven Klosky, principal for Newmark & Co. Real Estate Inc.’s Los Angeles office, and Scott Panzer, executive managing director and principal in Newmark’s New York office, represented Campbell-Ewald in the transaction. Phil Lindholm of Cushman & Wakefield represented G-4 in the deal.


Industrial Sale

RREEF Funds sold a 39,420-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Santa Fe Springs to F & B; Properties Inc. of San Francisco for $2.9 million. The property, which is 100 percent leased to one tenant, is at 9331 Santa Fe Springs Road. Darla Longo, Steve Batcheller, Rick McGeagh and Barbara Emmons of CB Richard Ellis Inc. represented RREEF in the transaction. Charles McCabe of CB Richard Ellis represented F & B; Properties.


Multifamily Sales

Shahla Sheikholeslam, a San Francisco-based investor, paid $2.1 million for the 20-unit Blossom Garden Apartments at 14159 Dickens St. in Sherman Oaks. The seller was LA Recovery 94 Equity Fund LP

An unidentified limited partnership from San Diego paid $10.3 million for the 161-unit Meadowbrook Apartment Complex at 15425 Sherman Way in Van Nuys.


Luxury Home Prices Rise

Luxury home prices in L.A. County continue to grow, but at a slower pace than earlier in the year, according to a report from First Republic Bank.

The average value of a luxury home in Los Angeles was up 0.8 percent to $1.3 million at the end of the second quarter, according to First Republic Prestige Home Index.

Since the beginning of the year, L.A. County luxury home prices are up 8.3 percent, and they’re up 13.6 percent versus a year ago, when the average price was $1.1 million. The index tracks the value of homes worth $1 million or more in Los Angeles. The index traces home values back to 1985, when the average luxury home was worth $990,180.


From Scenery to Storage

LAACO Ltd., the parent company of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, has taken the $43 million it made on the sale of 1,659 acres adjacent to Topanga State Park and invested in self-storage facilities in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

LAACO got state approval to sell the property, which had become somewhat unwieldy because it was unentitled. Lacking entitlements, the property was not worth much to a developer.

Because LAACO is not a development company, it would need to find a partner to build on the land, which would diminish returns to LAACO.

The resolution of the matter was selling the undeveloped property, save for 47 well-below-market rental homes on the property, to the American Land Conservancy for $43 million. LAACO used the proceeds from the sale, minus expenses, to increase the holdings of its self-storage business, Storage West.

Staff reporter Christopher Keough can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 235 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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