Con Howe, former head of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, will be putting his expertise to use in his new role with national housing investor CityView.
Howe joined CityView to run a new housing fund that will focus on developing workforce housing in Los Angeles. He was the director of city planning for over 13 years before retiring in 2005. He’s spent the last 18 months running the Urban Land Institute’s Center for Balanced Development in the West. Prior to his work in L.A., Howe headed the New York City Planning Department.
“After 30 years of being in planning and entitlement work, it is a great opportunity to partner with people to get the projects built,” Howe said. “With those 30 years I have seen thousands of projects and proposed housing developments and I really feel I know quality projects.”
The fund, called the CityView L.A. Renaissance Fund, has launched with over $100 million to invest in local workforce housing projects. Sean Burton, chief operating officer of CityView, said he hopes the fund will close with between $125 and $150 million in capital.
Current investors include the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System and the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension, Burton said.
“We expect there to be more money,” he said. “We are in additional talks with pension funds.” Burton said the fund’s first investment could be announced as soon as the end of next month.
Burton said that developers like the Kor Realty Group LLC have expressed interest in doing a deal for the fund.
Santa Monica-based CityView is chaired by former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros.
Howe said that as Los Angeles experiences continued job and population growth, there “continues to be a really deep need and a deep market for workforce housing.” CityView is currently exploring opportunities for investment in projects in Inglewood and Hawthorne.
“Our strategy is to look into communities where there hasn’t been new inventory (in some time) and providing financing with home builder partners,” Howe said.
Cisneros said that his firm sought out Howe for the job because of his experience in the public sector.
“We are very fortunate that someone with his depth of knowledge of the L.A. real estate market, projects, partners and the public processes would be able to join us,” Cisneros said. “It is going to assure that we see the best of projects and can present our best projects to the city and the county.”
This is CityView’s third housing fund. The company has financed the building of over 6,500 homes in various stages of development in 14 states.
Downtown Lease
Business litigation firm Baute & Tidus LLP has signed a lease to remain in downtown Los Angeles.
The local firm will move into its new digs at the 777 Tower on June 1 after signing a 46-month sublease with CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. for space in the Maguire Properties Inc.-owned building.
The deal breaks down to $2.12 per square foot per month, said Jonathan Larsen, executive managing director of Transwestern. The transaction closed May 7.
The law firm will occupy 11,789 square feet of space on the 52-story building’s 49th floor. The space was formerly occupied by real estate services company Trammell Crow Co., but after CB Richard Ellis Group purchased the Dallas-based company in December, the Trammell Crow employees were relocated to CB Richard Ellis Group offices at 355 S. Grand Ave.
“The first day the space was on the market we were tracking it and we were able to secure the remaining sub lease term quickly,” said Larsen, who represented the law firm in the deal.
The law firm is relocating from offices at 801 S. Figueroa St.
Because the deal is a sublease, it is below the going rate in the building, Larsen said.
“The space is highly improved and the firm liked the building,” Larsen said.
CB Richard Ellis Group was represented in-house by John Zanetos.
Caruso Expands
Los Angeles-based mall developer Caruso Affiliated Holdings, the owner of the Grove shopping center, is opening a New York City office in July. With the opening of the office, Caruso Affiliated will explore developing properties on the East Coast.
“I think over time we certainly will do that,” said Rick Caruso, founder and chief executive of his namesake company. “We will be looking in the right areas.”
The office, which will be located in Rockefeller Center, also allows the company to establish closer relationships with retail companies that lease space in Caruso developments, Caruso said.
“We are going back there to be really close to retailers from New York and Europe,” he said.
Staff reporter Daniel Miller can be reached at
[email protected]
or (323) 549-5225, ext. 263
