Barrack Goes Arty For Party Pumping Condos at Marina

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Someone should have told developer Tom Barrack that Marina del Rey has changed radically since the swinging 1970s, when disco and gold chains ruled.


Barrack, chief executive of Colony Capital LLC, bought a bare bones Marina apartment tower last year and tried to market the $1 million, two-bedroom condos to divorced women. The retro ads featured a Brazilian model next to a helicopter and designer luggage under the headline: “You keep the house, I’ll take the condo.”


Not surprisingly, the ad campaign bombed.


Now Barrack has created a new marketing twist, connecting Marina del Rey to the L.A. Art Scene of the 1960s.


Last week, the 19-story Azzurra hosted a reunion of what it called “hip, hang-loose, renegade artists,” and has bought 160 artworks from the era, including Dennis Hopper’s ‘Double Standard’ 1961 photograph of the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Doheny Drive, shot through a car windshield. Hopper, sculptor Alexis Smith and a dozen others were expected to make an appearance.


The building showcases the works of several prominent figures from California’s ‘Light and Space’ movement, including pop artists Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston and sculptor Claes Oldenbrug.




Robert Rodriguez, chief executive of mutual fund manager First Pacific Advisors Inc., has finally become an owner of the value stock house he put on the map.


First Pacific’s top eight executives are in the process of completing a management-led buyout of FPA from Boston-based Old Mutual Asset Management. Shareholders will vote on the sale.


Though FPA, with $9.9 billion under management in 10 mutual funds, is barely a spit in the ocean compared to Capital Research’s American Funds, Rodriguez continues to be a major draw.


He has earned Morningstar’s manager of the year award in both the equity and bond categories in 1994 and 2001. Last week, Barron’s ranked FPA Capital Fund, a small cap value fund that Rodriguez has run since 1984, the No. 1 mutual fund in the U.S. based on its 19.99 annualized return.




Billionaire Eli Broad is back in the home-building business.


That may surprise plenty in the real estate community, since Broad ended his service as chairman of the former Kaufman & Broad, now KB Home, in 1995.


Broad is heavily involved in developing plans for Placer Ranch, a 2,200-acre parcel of undeveloped land in Sacramento County that is part of his personal holdings.


His primary interest is in donating 300 acres to Sacramento State University, which plans to build a branch campus on the site and ultimately accommodate a full CSU campus.



*Staff reporter Kate Berry can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 228, or at

[email protected]

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