Business Journal showcases L.A. professionals who are sold on retail property development.
DEVELOPER
Arturo Sneider, 42
Founding Partner
Primestor Development Inc., downtown Los Angeles
Not everyone who notices a problem decides to do something about it. But developer Arturo Sneider has made a career out of solving a problem he saw when he moved here from Mexico City in 1986: few shopping centers in Latino neighborhoods.
Today, he has completed more than a dozen retail centers in neighborhoods such as Pacoima and Walnut Park, bringing big-name retailers like Best Buy and Lowe’s to communities other developers had overlooked.
“There was not a lot of representation of Hispanics in retail as owners or operators, and no national mainstream brand tenants selling to Hispanics in Hispanic neighborhoods,” he recalled. “It was a combination of the social aspect of it and the lack of product, and I said we need to focus on it.”
With a family history in property management, taking on the task of building his own development company didn’t seem daunting. With brother-in-law Leandro Tyberg, Sneider founded Primestor Development Inc. in 1991.
Unlike many retail developers today, the company hasn’t been stopped by the recession. In fact, it has been thriving. It opened four projects last year alone, including the $78 million Plaza Pacoima, which houses a new Costco, Lowe’s and Best Buy.
“We were lucky enough to focus on a demographic that has continued to expand, continued to welcome the work that we do, and that still needs goods and services to be delivered even in spite of the fact that there’s an economic slowdown,” he said.
Like most of his projects, Plaza Pacoima was part of a public-private partnership with the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, and required public and private financing to get off the ground.
“The most challenging thing for urban middle- to low-income communities to be developing is that construction costs and land costs combined are higher than the rents that you can achieve and so you end up with a lot of layers of complex financing tools,” he said.
Complicated or not, Sneider’s company is branching out. It opened an office in Chicago while developing a $120 million shopping center called Marshfield Plaza, which opened last year. It is close to opening an office in Sneider’s hometown of Mexico City as the company looks to begin developments there.
Sneider has already been integrating himself into the Mexican real estate community and was instrumental in bringing the Panda Express chain into the country this year. He said he’s negotiating with other tenants on both sides of the border to cross over, but said it’s too early to name names.
Sneider has about seven projects in different stages of development and has ambitious plans to bring more retail tenants into Latino neighborhoods. Specifically, he’s eyeing H&M, Forever 21, Nike and Victoria’s Secret.
“Those are tenants that I think would do tremendous business (in Latino communities) and aren’t doing it yet. They don’t know what they are missing,” he said.
Still, Sneider admitted, the development he does is not for everyone.
“If you don’t see this as sort of having a true community impact in the creation of jobs and opportunities for the communities, you wouldn’t do it because there just are not enough years in someone’s life to deal with that,” he said.
