Downtown L.A. Center in Bed With Big Brands

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Downtown Los Angeles will soon make way for lotion and lingerie.

Brookfield Office Properties, the New York developer behind rejuvenated retail center Fig at 7th, has signed two long-term leases with Columbus, Ohio, specialty retailer Limited Brands to open Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works shops downtown.

Victoria’s Secret will take about 8,400 square feet in a store that will offer intimate apparel, beauty products, sleepwear and hosiery. A portion of the space will be dedicated to a freestanding store for the retailer’s Pink brand, a line of products targeted toward teen girls.

Personal care retailer Bath & Body Works will occupy about 2,600 square feet.

Both stores are expected to open in the spring.

They will join a number of other big-name retailers that have opened at the downtown L.A. retail center in the last few years, including H&M, Zara, City Target and Sport Chalet. A number of local restaurants have also committed to the retail center, including City Tavern, Mendocino Farms, Sprinkles Cupcakes, California Pizza Kitchen and George’s Greek Grill.

Edward Hogan, national director of retail leasing for Brookfield, said he hoped that in addition to serving those who already live and work downtown, these national brands will draw shopping crowds from farther afield.

“We strategically curated a collection of retailers and culinary operators at Fig at 7th that fulfill the desires and needs of the downtown L.A. resident and workforce populations,” he said in a statement. “The result is a shopping and dining experience that is rapidly becoming not only a place for the community but also a destination for those who reside elsewhere in Southern California.”

After Limited Brands’ commitment to take more than 10,000 square feet at the 330,000-square-foot retail center, less than 10,000 square feet remains, though other leases are said to be in the works.

Limited Brands represented itself in negotiations with Brookfield. Kevin Dee and Ted Slaught of Charles Dunn Co. as well as Hogan and Liz McLay of Brookfield represented the landlord.

Football Facility

The UCLA athletic department announced last week that it had hired an architect to design and construct a new football training facility on the Westwood campus.

ZGF Architects of Portland, Ore., was tapped to design the Spaulding West Building, a facility next to Spaulding Field that will house coaching offices; locker and shower rooms; hydrotherapy, strength and weight training space; film viewing areas; laundry machines; and equipment storage space.

In late August, the school put out a formal request for qualifications from architects interested in working on the $35 million project. In that request, UCLA said one of its goals was to consolidate office and training facilities for the football program, which are now spread across a number of buildings. The new building is also an effort by the school to upgrade to a level on par with other football programs in the PAC-12 Conference.

Dan Guerrero, UCLA’s athletic director, said the school chose the architecture team at ZGF based on work the firm has done in the past on other university athletic facilities. The firm recently completed work on several buildings for the University of Oregon, including an athletic medicine center, football performance center and academic center for student athletes.

“UCLA athletics is excited to team up with them to create what we both feel will be one of the finest facilities in the country,” he said in a statement.

ZGF, which has regional offices in downtown Los Angeles, has also worked on other high-profile projects in Southern California, including the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center at L.A.’s Exposition Park and new headquarters in Agoura Hills for the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

Braulio Baptista, a design partner at ZGF, said his team was eager to begin work to tailor the building to the UCLA football program’s needs.

“Our team at ZGF is very excited to be working on this project,” he said in a statement.


Staff reporter Bethany Firnhaber can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.

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