What happens when an individual goes up against a group of the most powerful firms on Wall Street?
If that person happens to be developer Robert F. Maguire, the Wall Street firms might be the underdogs.
Maguire has apparently won a skirmish in his ongoing dispute with Playa Capital Co. over the massive Playa Vista development. Sources familiar with arbitration talks between Playa Capital Co. and MaguirePartners said that Maguire is now poised to buy a 6.5-acre parcel in the heart of the project a parcel that Playa Capital had sought to sell to an outside developer in March.
“Rob’s back in the game on the parcel,” said a real estate insider who asked not to be identified. “He’s very smart and you can never count him out.”
Maguire remains in charge of developing, managing and leasing the commercial portion of the 120-acre first phase of the project, which is planned to eventually contain 3.6 million square feet of office and retail space. Several years ago, Maguire was controlling partner of the Playa Vista project but lost much of his influence after banks initiated foreclosure. He still retains a minority stake.
Maguire had contested the sale of the 6.5-acre parcel to another developer, insisting the first option to buy commercial property should belong to him. Maguire and Playa Capital have been in arbitration talks since June over how development of the commercial portion should be handled.
It remains unclear how the move by Maguire to purchase the parcel will impact future sales of commercial property at Playa Vista.
Peter B. Denniston, president of Playa Capital, said the firm put the parcel on the market as part of its overall strategy for the project.
“Playa Vista’s development program has always been planned as a combination of development and sales to third-party developers,” he said.
Playa Capital officials said they have received eight offers on the 6.5-acre site since they put it on the market in March and assigned Cushman Realty Corp. to represent the company in the sale negotiations.
Denniston declined to comment on the ongoing arbitration or on Maguire’s move to purchase the property. A spokesman for MaguirePartners also declined to comment.
In addition, observers say, Maguire is possibly seeking to buy out one or more of the seven investment banks and other entities that make up Playa Capital. Those include Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.
The 6.5-acre site that Maguire is poised to buy, known as the Fountain Park office campus site, is the commercially zoned portion of the 24-acre Fountain Park parcel at Playa Vista, located northwest of Lincoln and Jefferson boulevards.
Maguire told the Business Journal earlier this year that increasing his stake in Playa Vista was one of the ways he planned to reinvest capital from two recent major transactions. One of those transactions was his firm’s sale of the MGM Plaza office complex to Tishman Speyer Properties earlier this year.
