Steve Soboroff has overseen the rapid growth of the nearly 1,100-acre Playa Vista project since October 2001 when he became president of the development after a failed bid for mayor. The real estate developer, who has a long history of public service in L.A. city government, put his credentials to use and has helped the project overcome regulatory hurdles, opposition and legal setbacks. Now, the bustling development of homes, offices and parks off Lincoln Boulevard between Westchester and Marina del Rey has finally taken off. Some 2,100 residential units have been sold and much more is on the way, including three significant office developments and a shopping center by Caruso Affiliated. The development even has its own ZIP code 90094. With the Playa Vista development poised to enliven the area’s office market, Soboroff sat down with the Business Journal for a wide-ranging discussion.
Question: Will the new Playa Vista office developments establish the area as an office hub?
Answer:
To an extent it has already. I know some large users are moving across the street from Playa Vista on Jefferson Boulevard. They are not going to have anywhere near the amenities of Playa Vista, but they are closer to the action. I think this will create a ground zero like Century City, Beverly Hills or the Water Garden in Santa Monica. You’ve also got the Howard Hughes Center, the studios, nearby Culver City and the Marina.
Q: Are you worried about overbuilding?
A:
I don’t see it getting hugely overbuilt. (The way I see it is) at the end of this cycle, which includes Playa Vista and a few more buildings, the pendulum moves back to middle instead of swinging to oversupply. It is surprising it came around so quickly. I never thought there would be so much interest in all of the office entitlements at the same time.
Q: Do you have any big tenants here?
A:
Electronic Arts has a studio here with 600 people and over 250,000 square feet of space and it’s wonderful. They’ve done a great job, so sure I think (other) large users like that would be terrific.
Q: What makes Playa Vista so appealing to office users?
A:
The big connection is people who have offices here are going to be proximate to housing that is affordable. That’s affordable with a small “a.” Our average residential sale price is in the $700,000 range. That is a huge reason why Tishman selected the site. I think they drank the Playa Vista Kool-Aid. It wasn’t about, “Hey there is a piece of property we can jam some buildings on.” They are building low scale, well planned, environmentally sensitive, beautiful office buildings that are part of a massive park and residential community.
Q: What about concerns over the amount of traffic all of that development will create?
A:
Traffic in L.A. is worse than ever. Traffic around here is better than ever, except for Lincoln Boulevard. We’ve done a number of mitigation measures over 70. There are 35 more major ones to go, including Lincoln Boulevard and opening alternate roads to Lincoln. I will go on the record saying traffic will be better at the end of Playa Vista than it was at the beginning of it.
Q: As Playa Vista grows to include more residential and office development, you will need more retail.
A:
There are 6,000 people living here. We have enough to have things like a very successful Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and a full service restaurant with a liquor license. As our density picks up, Caruso’s shopping center will start construction at the end of the year. That’s going to be half the size of the Grove but in that same light and it will be more community oriented than regionally oriented.
Q: What is your impression of the typical residential buyer at Playa Vista?
A:
We have two bubbles one is the under 40 bubble which includes young married couples, people with very young children and singles. We have an inordinate number of single women because it is clean, safe, new, bright and with all kinds of people amenities. It is everything that somebody would want for their daughter. Then we have a large bubble of empty nesters and a bigger bubble of pre-empty nesters. Those are people who have two or three kids and they are married and they have one child at home who is in college or high school. What we don’t have are people that have lots of teenagers.
Q: Do you ever feel like mayor of a city?
A:
I feel like I’m a benevolent dictator. I get a much bigger kick out of that. You can make mistakes. There are great people who work at Playa Vista that do all the work here. People here are empowered to make decisions, make mistakes and test the limits. Instead of building a normal playground, let’s build one that is totally wheelchair accessible.
Q: It sounds like you didn’t mind getting out of government.
A:
I didn’t get out of government
voluntarily. I lost an election. I loved what I was doing there. But this is great. I am doing more for the city now than I could have ever expected to do having lost an election.
