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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Mixed-Use Looks to Move Into Warner Center

The Warner Center Business Park is dominated by low-rise office buildings that typically go dark after work hours. But a new project planned for the corner of Oxnard Street and De Soto Avenue is set to bring round-the-clock vitality and some architectural pizazz to the corporate neighborhood. Ohm Square is a 369,000-square-foot, mixed-use project at 5955 N. De Soto that is slated initially for 170 high-end apartments, including 13 live-work units and a 5,700-square-foot restaurant, along with parking for 258 cars and 193 bikes. A second phase will incorporate a 19-story commercial office tower on the 2.9-acre site as well as nearly 10,000 square feet of ground-floor restaurant and retail space and parking for an additional 490 cars and 254 bikes. The site is currently occupied by a two-story, 55,398-square-foot office building that Majestic Asset Management Inc. of Van Nuys acquired a year ago for $9.4 million, or about $177 a square foot, according to real estate data provider CoStar Group Inc. If the project wins city planners’ approval, that building will be demolished and Ohm Square will be one of the first developments under the Warner Center 2035 Plan. Ohm Square was recommended for approval by the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council this summer, which noted that developer Brian Lezak, Majestic’s president, did not ask for any exceptions or variances from the 2035 plan. “My partners and I all grew up in real estate-related families in the Valley and we are very supportive of the Warner Center specific plan,” Lezak said. While he does not yet have a specific time line or construction budget, Lezak said he hopes to get the go-ahead from the city sometime this fall. He also hopes that the architectural design by Van Tilburg Banvard & Soderbergh of Santa Monica, which features plenty of windows and balconies, will set a new standard. “We want to create a project similar to what you might see on the Westside, in Hollywood or Playa Vista,” Lezak said. “We want to bring that level of development into the Valley.” Shrinking Portfolio Veteran L.A. developer Nelson Rising continues to sell off pieces of the vast 1.75 million-square-foot portfolio of 10 office buildings his company, Rising Realty Partners Inc., purchased in 2013 from Bank of America Corp. for $200 million. The Charlotte, N.C., bank inherited the real estate portfolio when it bought out defunct mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Services of Calabasas in 2008. In the second quarter, Rising Realty sold a 167,742-square-foot Class A building at 225 W. Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks for $32.8 million to SteelWave, a commercial real estate investment firm in Foster City. Rising paid $29.3 million for the building. In July, Rising shed a pair of Agoura Hills buildings, totaling nearly 158,000 square feet of office space at 29701 and 29851 Agoura Road, for $27.4 million to Hankey Investment Co. of Los Angeles. In 2013, Rising paid roughly $16.6 million for the two buildings, which are fully leased to Bank of America Home Loans through 2020, according to real estate data provider CoStar. Local Acquisition DiNapoli Capital Partners of Walnut Creek paid $23.4 million for the Topanga Park Assisted Living Facility at 7945 Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Canoga Park last month. The seller was Sign of the Dove, a Woodland Hills investment company headed by Bernard Rosenson. Built in 1981, the 55,434-square-foot facility comprises 90 units with 120 beds. Included in the sale was a valuation of the business that placed it at approximately $2.34 million. Big Quarter This spring presented a perfect storm for Danny Abergel, first vice president of capital markets at Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. in Encino. Low interest rates, a slew of refinancing opportunities and several large acquisitions led Abergel to arrange a milestone $100 million in commercial real estate financing during the second quarter. The vast majority of the deals, including the $12.8 million purchase of Parkview Apartments, a 72-unit complex at 18317 Kittridge St. in Reseda, took place in the Valley, said Abergel, who wasn’t even aware of the loan volume he was generating. “The market was putting up perfect opportunities with some rate specials that we got, and it just happened that the loans we originated in the first quarter all closed in the second quarter,” he said. Staff reporter Karen E. Klein can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or at [email protected].

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