Kroenke Warner Center complex
LocationWoodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States
Coordinates34°10′53″N 118°36′8″W / 34.18139°N 118.60222°W / 34.18139; -118.60222
Companies
OwnerKroenke Sports & Entertainment
Technical details
Size100 acres (40 ha)

The Kroenke Warner Center complex in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States is a mixed-use complex consisting of an open-air shopping center with a proposed expansion to include restaurants, hotels and residences, along with a training facility for the Los Angeles Rams, an NFL football team. The 100-acre complex (40 ha) was assembled from a vacant shopping mall, an abandoned corporate office building, and Toganga Village, an open-air lifestyle and retail destination (which continues to operate).

Context

Warner Center is a master-planned neighborhood and business district development in the San Fernando Valley which includes the Warner Center Towers office complex, the Westfield Topanga mall, and Warner Center Marriott Woodland Hills.[1] The neighborhood Specific Plan adopted in 2013 promotes the construction of housing, shops and restaurants which would make Warner Center a more bustling urban environment where people live, work, shop and find entertainment. Thousands of apartments have been gradually added since the adoption of the specific plan.[2] Large-scale mixed-use developments are already in the works such as a proposed $1-billion complex on Warner Center Lane with offices, stores, restaurants, residences and a hotel that would include parks and pedestrian-oriented open space.[3]

The Promenade was a 34-acre retail development (14 ha) that opened in 1973 as part of the Kaiser Aetna master-planned commercial-retail-residential development plan for their section of the massive former Warner Ranch. In September 2015, Westfield opened a major expansion of Westfield Topanga, called The Village, an open-air shopping destination next to the largely-inactive Promenade mall.[4][5] In December 2017, Westfield was acquired by French commercial real estate company Unibail-Rodamco, which would later be renamed Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW).[6] In December 2020, a new development called "Promenade 2035" to replace the dead mall with a sports arena, two hotels, a 28-story office tower and more than 1,400 new apartments was approved by the Los Angeles City Council with the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield plan being called a "mini-city ... within this larger city".[7]

History

News reports surfaced in 2021 that sports owner and real estate developer Stan Kroenke was in discussions with URW about acquiring one of its properties when it was reported that URW would sell its commercial properties in the United States.[8][9][10] In March 2022, the 34-acre vacant shopping mall (14 ha), The Promenade, was sold to Kroenke for approximately $150 million.[11][12][13] A month later, Kroenke bought an adjacent vacant 13-story office building, officially named the Landmark building, on 31 acres (13 ha) of parking lots and landscaping for $175 million, formerly occupied by health insurer Anthem Inc.[14] The 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) Westfield shopping center called Toganga Village (The Village at Westfield Topanga) was purchased in January 2023 for $325-million bringing the total property ownership to 100 acres (40 ha).[15] This was the second largest sale of a shopping center in 2022.[8] The Village will continue to operate as an open-air lifestyle and retail destination.[16][17]

Nearby residents were sent a letter explaining that this project would be a year-round practice facility and headquarters for the Los Angeles Rams.[18] Since 2017, they have used a temporary facility on California Lutheran University’s campus. The Thousand Oaks site is nearly 50 miles (80 km) from SoFi Stadium while Warner Center is about 30 miles (48 km) from the major sports complex in Inglewood.[19][20] Construction of temporary practice fields at the northeast corner of the former office building parking lot began in November 2023 to be ready for the 2024 NFL season.[21] The facility is not intended for their annual training camp, typically held at UC Irvine with the public welcomed. The Warner Center practice fields will not be open to the public.[22]

With the development plan previously approved for replacing the mall portion of the property, the company is widely expected to seek approval of similar commercial development unrelated to football along with the team headquarters, practice facility and field on the 65-acre property (26 ha), modeled on type of development of the much larger SoFi sports campus in Inglewood.[3] While some have assumed that the former Anthem building will be torn down, the Kroenke organization could develop the land faster if the building was left intact and used as offices.[23][24] City officials are encouraging dense mixed-use development for Warner Center so the area can achieve its original purpose of a downtown for the San Fernando Valley.[25]

References

  1. ^ Modi, Priyanka (June 7, 2022). "Stan Kroenke Adds 32-Acre Anthem Site To Warner Center Portfolio". The Real Deal. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  2. ^ Sharp, Steven (June 20, 2023). "Report: L.A. Rams to build temporary practice facility at 21555 Oxnard Street in Warner Center". Urbanize LA. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Vincent, Roger (June 7, 2022). "Why is Rams owner Stan Kroenke buying so much of Woodland Hills? SoFi Stadium gives a hint". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  4. ^ Wilcox, Gregory J (September 18, 2015). "Village at Westfield Topanga opens; 80,000 visitors expected this weekend". Los Angeles Daily News.
  5. ^ Banks, Sandy (September 19, 2015). "A pall on malls but a shopping village has cachet". Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ Cummins, Carolyn (December 12, 2017). "End of an era: Westfield accepts $32.8bn offer". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  7. ^ Zahniser, David (December 2, 2020). "L.A. signs off on $1-billion 'mini-city' in the west San Fernando Valley". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ^ a b Faithfull, Mark (January 4, 2023). "LA Rams Owner Kroenke Could Unite NFL And Retail At Westfield Mall". Forbes. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
  9. ^ Madans Welk, Hannah (March 7, 2021). "Mall Operator URW Plans to Sell All US Properties". Los Angeles Business Journal.
  10. ^ Vincent, Roger (April 8, 2022). "Westfield malls go up for sale as U.S. shoppers find other places to buy". Los Angeles Times.
  11. ^ Wittner, Michael (March 25, 2022). "Rams Buy Woodland Hills Mall For $150M: Report". MSN.
  12. ^ Grigoryants, Olga (May 5, 2022). "Billionaire Rams owner Stanley Kroenke is the new owner of the vacant Promenade mall in Woodland Hills". Daily News of Los Angeles.
  13. ^ "Billionaire Rams owner Stan Kroenke is the new owner of the vacant Promenade Mall in Woodland Hills". Daily News. May 5, 2022. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
  14. ^ "Rams owner buys Anthem site, doubling his Woodland Hills portfolio". Daily News. June 24, 2022. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
  15. ^ Hourie, Ilya (January 11, 2023). "Kroenke Uses Deutsche Bank Loan to Buy Village Mall". The Real Deal. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  16. ^ Welk, Hannah Madans (December 4, 2023). "Shopping Spree: Local Malls Ready for Holiday Shoppers". San Fernando Valley Business Journal. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  17. ^ "Rams owner Stan Kroenke escalates property buying spree in Woodland Hills". Los Angeles Times. January 4, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  18. ^ DaSilva, Cameron (June 10, 2023). "First look: Rams file paperwork to build practice facility in Woodland Hills". Rams Wire. USA Today. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  19. ^ Orozco, Lance (June 10, 2023). "Rams take step towards moving practice facility from Ventura County to San Fernando Valley". KCLU. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
  20. ^ Cohen, Andrew (June 13, 2023). "Rams File Paperwork for Practice Facility, HQ in Woodland Hills". Front Office Sports. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  21. ^ Sharp, Steven (November 16, 2023). "Construction to begin for Rams practice facility at 21555 Oxnard Street in Warner Center". Urbanize LA. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
  22. ^ Brumer, Delilah (June 30, 2023). "Woodland Hills residents get peek at Stan Kroenke's planned Rams facility". Daily News. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  23. ^ Mendez, Paola (June 20, 2022). "Rams to Follow Mixed-Use Playbook?". Los Angeles Business Journal. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  24. ^ Shaikin, Bill; Vincent, Roger; Farmer, Sam (February 24, 2022). "Rams could build a team training site in Woodland Hills". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  25. ^ Vincent, Roger (November 15, 2023). "Rams will move headquarters and practice facility to Woodland Hills". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
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