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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

NFL Owner Scores Big With Northridge Deal

Sports mogul Stan Kroenke has just picked up a prime piece of Southern California real estate – but it’s not in Inglewood where he wants to move his St. Louis Rams NFL team. In a deal that closed March 4, the Kroenke Group of Columbia, Mo. paid $115 million for Nordhoff Plaza, a 257,000-square-foot shopping center at Tampa Avenue and Nordhoff Street in Northridge. The sellers were Angelo, Gordon & Co., New York-based real estate investors, and CorAmerica Mortgage Advisors LLC in El Segundo. They bought the center for $90 million in 2012; last month’s sale was driven by a need to cash out and pay back the original investors. “We acquired it two-and-a-half years ago and it was the end of the fund’s life. We had a short-hold anticipated,” said William Petak, chief executive at CorAmerica. The 19350 Nordhoff St. shopping center, adjacent to Northridge Fashion Center, is over 80 percent leased to tenants that include Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Denny’s and 24-Hour Fitness. The five-building property is Kroenke’s largest L.A. investment to date – aside from the $101 million NFL stadium site he acquired at the now-closed Hollywood Park Racetrack. Kroenke also owns the 11-acre Westridge Village Shopping Center, at 26960 The Old Road in Valencia, and the 15-acre Malibu Colony Plaza, at 23705 Malibu Road in Malibu. Kroenke, worth an estimated $6 billion, has interests in 50 real estate projects nationwide with an estimated property value of $2 billion. His wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, is an heir to the Wal-Mart fortune; many of Kroenke’s shopping centers are anchored by Wal-Mart stores. What brought the Northridge opportunity to Kroenke’s attention? Kenny Stiles, a Kroenke leasing and development agent who worked on the Nordhoff Plaza deal, said company policy forbids him from commenting on acquisitions. But Fred Cordova, executive vice president of Kennedy Wilson Brokerage Group, said that Kroenke’s interest in the Valley fits a pattern. “Most of his investments look to be in retail and outside of core markets. This is a second-circle investment – further out on the yield curve – that he’s getting into before the foreign capital gets there,” he said. NoHo Hotel Most of the boutique hotel projects springing up in and around the NoHo Arts District are designed for Universal Studios-bound tourists looking for the convenience of nearby public transit. But yet another new hotel project is on the drawing board – and this one appeals to the San Fernando Valley business traveler. The Hampton Inn of North Hollywood is a 50,350-square-foot, 80-unit hotel to be located at 12401-12425 West Victory Blvd., adjacent to the Victory Boulevard off ramp of the Hollywood freeway. The hotel will have four stories and include parking for 76 vehicles in a one-level subterranean garage. The L.A. Planning Commission approved a zone change and other entitlements on the property last December at the request of motel developer Bhagabhai Patel of Touluca Lake. Robert Lamishaw, of Van Nuys-based JPL Zoning Services, represents Patel in the entitlement process. He said the parcel had been slated for a condominium project but that plan was shelved during the recession. Patel purchased the property for $3.1 million in 2013, according to real estate data firm CoStar Group Inc. It currently houses two commercial buildings totaling 2,962 square feet that will be demolished. “(Patel) recognized that with the growth in the NoHo Arts District and the closeness to the freeway, this was a good property for his clients, who are primarily business-oriented,” Lamishaw said. “It’s an underserved market, particularly in terms of a first-class place for people who are doing business in the Valley.” Architecture firm Omega Design Group of Victorville and Oregon-based construction firm E.A. White Construction Co. LLC, both of whom have worked on several other hotel developments with Patel, are working on the design and construction of the property. Like a string of other NoHo hotel projects, the proposal has won the support of neighbors and L.A. City Councilman Paul Krekorian. Staff reporter Karen E. Klein can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or at [email protected].

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