INTERVIEW—Robert F. Maguire III

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From his role in developing downtown L.A. to endless squabbles over Playa Vista, Robert F. Maguire III has never been afraid to get involved in the big projects

Robert F. Maguire III’s influence on Los Angeles has been substantial.

He played a big role in shaping the downtown skyline, but these days he’s spending much of his time at Playa Vista and in the Tri-Cities area, even though his office remains in downtown.

He has been among the more colorful personalities on the local real estate scene, seemingly in endless litigation with his various partners over the years. Since June, he has been in arbitration talks with his blue chip partners in Playa Vista Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.

The dispute erupted when Maguire’s partners in Playa Capital Co. tried to sell a piece of commercial property to a third party, without first getting approval from Maguire. On that issue, Maguire insists that he has first rights to develop the entire commercial portion of the 120-acre first phase of Playa Vista.

Maguire is just as likely to dive into skirmishes that are only indirectly related to his property holdings. He grabbed media attention this year for his efforts to resolve the janitors’ strike and for his vocal role in assuaging security fears in the days before the Democratic National Convention. He also has been active in efforts to lure high-tech companies to fill the void in the downtown office market.

Such efforts are clearly at least partially motivated by self-interest. The bulk of Maguire’s 3.5 million-square-foot, $850 million property portfolio is located downtown. That is set to increase to 4.5 million square feet thanks to coming office projects in Pasadena, Glendale, Santa Monica and Playa Vista.

Members of Maguire’s family also have somewhat colorful stories.

His entrepreneur father started Philippine Airlines and later used his expertise and his private air force to assist Jewish refugees making their way to the new State of Israel in 1948. His grandfather served as a judge in the Nuremberg trials and presided over the punishment of German war criminals. His son, Peter Maguire, is a historian on war crimes who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Nuremberg.

Question: There’s obviously tension between you and the folks at Playa Capital. Are all these months in arbitration affecting your working relationship?

Answer: It’s actually very good on an operational level. What I want to do is develop. That’s the key. As long as we can go ahead and develop, we’re perfectly happy. I have enormous respect for the principals involved and the ownership group at Playa Vista.

Q: What’s your role in Playa Vista right now?

A: We’re basically the developer of all the campus, which is an entertainment media campus.

Q: Are you going to be doing all the commercial development?

A: That’s our intention, absolutely. Let me underline that.

Q: What would that amount to?

A: It’s 3.6 million square feet. It is Fountain Park, which is about 430,000 square feet at Lincoln and Jefferson, then the main campus is 114 acres with 3.2 million square feet. It will be an entertainment and technology campus, it will have a complement of sound stages, post-production, all of the complementary services for a fully operating studio, as well as a really gorgeous campus with about a 10-acre park in the center. By contrast, MGM Plaza will have about 1.2 million square feet on 15 acres.

Q: Looking downtown, do you think we’re ever going to see another high-rise tower built there?

A: Sure. I think what’s happening now is the absorption downtown has been very good. We’re basically full in all of our buildings. There are some buildings like Arco Plaza that have space and a couple of others. But the absorption and the increase in rents from 1996 to today, for example, has been very, very strong in spite of all the mergers and acquisitions. If we had not had the variety of mergers which have occurred, the overall vacancy downtown would definitely be in single digits. The improvements have been major and, in fact, it’s done extraordinarily well. The space has been picked up by a variety of other users, including some very exciting ones kind of the Old Economy shift to the new users.

Q: A lot of influential people Eli Broad being the most obvious have really focused on downtown. But you’re the biggest property owner. Does that give you a different role?

A: Yeah. I think we really can make things happen. Eli’s great and Eli does well, but we’re kind of on the ground here and really trying to move things along, to get everybody involved in thinking how people can be more receptive to people working in tech companies.

Q: Have you been doing much outreach in terms of bringing in Internet companies, high-tech companies?

A: You bet. The Hiwire Space (an Internet company that recently moved downtown). Take a look at that space, it’s really great. I think that the perception is changing, and I think it’s going to start changing fast. The other reality is, there’s a huge demand for office space and it’s not getting served at all on the Westside. It’s just so hard to do with the opposition and restriction on the Westside.

Q: Who do you see moving into downtown?

A: We’re talking to a variety of Westside tenants that are terrific companies, but are looking at rents that are going to go through $60 a foot (per year) on the Westside.

Q: Basically, you’re appealing to the financial side?

A: Yes. We’re extraordinarily competitive relative to the Westside. It’s at least a third or 40 percent under the Westside.

Q: Do you talk much with your former partner, Jim Thomas? Do you have any plans to do more projects together or anything like that?

A: We talk frequently. You never know.

Q: How did you get interested in development?

A: I really couldn’t tell you, since I was a poli-sci major at UCLA and an English minor, and I was going to go to law school. I guess my background is I come from a family that has a very liberal tradition. My grandfather was a lawyer and a judge at Nuremberg. My great-grandfather was a friend of Eugene Debbs, a real social activist. The tradition has been one that is very liberal in a classical sense, thinking about the arts and how society ought to work.

Growing up all over the world has a real impact. You don’t have an insular view of the world. I had two grandfathers who were very accomplished artists, and everybody in our family thinks in very graphic terms.

Q: You’ve certainly been involved in some rather grand undertakings, and that seems to have accelerated this year with the janitors’ strike and the Democratic Convention. Are you trying to establish some kind of legacy?

A: I think that you can accomplish a large amount if you try. It’s hard to measure. What can you do about the state of the city? Sometimes you get in the middle of it and you think, “Good Lord. Nothing.” But I believe incrementally you can have an enormous impact on the shape of how the city works and whether it is an equitable place for people to live. I’m very interested in those issues. How do you make housing work, how do you deal with the problems of society? I think people basically enjoy living in the cities. I really do. And I think the plan for Playa Vista is incredibly interesting and complex. It’s a fascinating plan. I think the same thing is happening downtown if you can move it and try to push it and nudge it in all directions. The big failing has been the lack of residential housing. Getting that changed is going to have a huge impact.

Q: Speaking of impacts, you’ve had some hard knocks through the years in your thrill-seeking activities. You hurt your neck pretty seriously, right?

A: I smashed it bodysurfing 30 years ago. I’m an old-time surfer. I smashed and hit the bottom with my head on the sand which is like concrete. I’m lucky I’m not paralyzed.

Q: Are you doing much surfing these days? Or skiing?

A: Yes I ski, I row I have a two-man dory. It’s an old design that’s real seaworthy, a 17-foot dory and it has sliding seats for two rowers. We’re going to row from Catalina to Marina del Rey 33 miles.

Q: Is that safe?

A: We have wetsuits, a submersible VHF radio. It’s fine.

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