Plans Floated for Westwood Village Theater Project
By ANDY FIXMER
Staff Reporter
Executives with Beitler Commercial Realty Services have begun circulating preliminary plans for a mixed-use project with a movie theater in Westwood Village.
The project, slated for a one-acre parking lot behind the Holmby building at 901 Westwood Blvd., would include a four- to six-screen movie theater complex with stadium seating, according to people who have seen the plans. Also included would be ground-floor retail and restaurant space, up to four floors of office space and several levels of underground parking.
While no applications have been filed with the city, the proposal has been circulated in a series of meetings with city and community representatives.
Jeff Katofsky, chief financial officer and general counsel at Beitler Commercial, said there were no immediate plans to develop the parking lot for the Holmby building, which he said is managed and leased through JD Market Acquisitions, a company of which he is president.
“We’re not anywhere with that project,” Katofsky said. “Right now, it’s a parking lot and it’s going to stay that way for some time.”
Katofsky would not confirm that any meetings had taken place with regard to the site. Barry Beitler, president of Beitler Commercial, did not return calls seeking comment.
Still, a team is forming. Greg Smith, project manager for the stalled Palazzo Westwood, has taken a leave of absence from Casden Properties Inc. to work as the project manager on the mixed-use project, according to Howard Katz, Casden’s vice president of community development.
Behr Browers Architects Inc., which has designed movie complexes for Mann Theatres, was said to have been retained to design the mixed-use project. Andrew Althaus, a Behr Browers vice president, would not comment beyond saying, “Something is coming out about this very shortly. Until then we are not allowed to comment.”
The site, the second-largest surface parking lot in Westwood Village, has frontage along Le Conte Avenue for most of the block between Westwood Boulevard and Broxton Avenue.
The value of the project was not mentioned at either meeting.
L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss said Beitler representatives had shown plans to members of his staff more than a month ago, and that Beitler had been encouraged to get feedback from the community before proceeding.
“It’s at the very early stages but it’s definitely worth serious consideration,” Weiss said. “This project demonstrates there is still a solid economic incentive to improving Westwood.”
Shauna Murphy, a Westwood Village planner with the L.A. Office of City Planning, said representatives of the planning, building and safety and fire departments were shown the preliminary plans for the mixed-use project at a meeting with Beitler executives.
The purpose of the “pre-development” meeting, common for large projects, was to elicit comments from officials about how the proposal fits with what’s allowed under current zoning and building codes, Murphy said.
“It’s still in the planning stages, there’s been no application yet, but any new development in Westwood Village is a pretty big deal,” she said.
