Kevin Demoff Sees Office Space, Residential and More at Smaller Version of SoFi Stadium
Los Angeles Rams Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff, second from left, speaks during a real estate panel event Thursday in Los Angeles. The other panelists were Jovan Agee, left, and Emil Khodorkovsky, second from right. The moderator was David Wurth, right. (Miller Ink)
One of the biggest mixed-use redevelopment projects in Los Angeles may have the look and feel of a smaller version of SoFi Stadium, according to the chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Rams, whose owner, Stan Kroenke, bought the property.
Kevin Demoff said last week the Rams envision roughly 100 acres Kroenke acquired last year in Woodland Hills, a neighborhood in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, one day featuring office and residential space along with a team practice facility.
Demoff spoke at a private real estate panel hosted at a luxury home in Los Angeles. Other panelists included Jovan Agee, founder and CEO of Sacramento-based real estate consulting firm Agee Global Solutions, and Emil Khodorkovsky, CEO of Los Angeles-based real estate lender Forbix Capital. The event was moderated by David Wurth, founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based media company CSQ.
Demoff's comments came after renderings of the future practice facility emerged in June at the site northwest of downtown Los Angeles at 21555 W. Oxnard St., off Canoga Avenue and Erwin Street. Plans are not finalized and require city of Los Angeles approval.
Demoff told CoStar News after the panel there is no groundbreaking date for the Woodland Hills redevelopment located roughly 25 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. However, he said during the panel the Woodland Hills redevelopment is expected to have roughly 6 million to 7 million square feet of entitlements, which is less than half of the 300-acre SoFi Stadium's 15 million square feet of entitlements in Inglewood. Beyond SoFi Stadium, the Inglewood site also features apartments, office and retail space.
Demoff said the Rams' goal is to build epicenters for live events while also creating spaces for people to live and work. For office space, Demoff said tenants, such as movie studios, life sciences companies and tech firms, want workplaces that are designed from scratch. Part of the Woodland Hills site includes a vacant 13-story office building.
"We bought a 13-story office tower that we could never repurpose or remake interesting," Demoff said at the panel during a discussion about the future of office space at the site. "But what we can do is take 100 acres in Woodland Hills and say [to office tenants], 'You can have a brand new campus attached to the Rams.'"
'Long-Term Vision'
Demoff said office space currently in Woodland Hills is old and lacks connection to housing in the Los Angeles neighborhood. He said the Rams development will help reimagine Woodland Hills and attract companies that want to work in the San Fernando Valley but don't have access to quality office spaces and mixed-use developments that these firms desire.
"If you can figure out how to turn a place like The Grove and L.A. Live into one singular development, that's always been our vision," said Demoff in reference to the shopping and dining destination near Hollywood and the sports and retail development in downtown Los Angeles.
The future Woodland Hills development faces challenges that SoFi Stadium didn't encounter. Demoff said that it may take upward of two decades to build out the site and that working with the city of Los Angeles hasn't been an efficient process relative to other cities the Rams have worked with. Plus, he said rising interest rates make development difficult.
In addition, he said it's a challenge to bring entitlements together from the various land sites the Rams now own in Woodland Hills.
"If you want to be a significant land owner and player in California, you have to take a really long-term vision," Demoff said. "You have to have that fortitude to get through those hurdles and headaches."
Article from CoStar News
By Jack Witthaus