Commercial Scene : $200-Million Project Opening Near LAX
The first phase of Pacific Concourse, opening Thursday near Los Angeles International Airport, is more than just another mixed-use business campus: It’s the first large-scale real estate project originated by the Economic Development Corp., on behalf of Los Angeles County.
The $200-million, 30-acre project at 118th Street and La Cienega Boulevard is in Del Aire, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County between El Segundo and Hawthorne.
The project will serve as a buffer between the freeways and the remaining houses and will bring suburban amenities to an area cleared for the Century (105) and San Diego (405) Freeway interchange, according to Stanley Moore of Overton, Moore & Associates (OMA), Carson.
OMA is the project’s developer with Copley Real Estate Advisors, a unit of Boston-based New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. The architect is the Nadel Partnership, Los Angeles. Project financing is being provided by Wells Fargo Bank.
The first phase includes two 68,086-square-foot, three-story buildings and one 91,400-square-foot, four-story building, Moore said. The second and third phases will add five buildings, including a hotel, he said.
Economic Development Corp. President Reginald Bottger said the 8-year-old, not-for-profit group working for the county brought residents of the Del Aire area into the design process from the beginning, after the EDC bought the land at the southwest quadrant of the interchange from the California Department of Transportation for about $14 million.
He said that, as part the negotiations with the community, OMA agreed to spend $10 million on landscaping and infrastructure at Pacific Concourse. Landscaping, designed by Emmet L. Wemple & Associates, includes an artificial lake, a jogging track and a two-hole chip-and-putt golf layout.
Bottger said the agreement with OMA Del Aire Properties calls for EDC to lease the land for 75 years, starting at about $400,000 a year and escalating to about $800,000. The money will be used to expand business counseling, international trade and investment, business promotion and retention and small business loan programs throughout the county and in the Century Freeway Corridor.
He added that the project should create between 2,000 and 2,500 jobs and generate $2 million a year in property taxes for the county.
Donald W. Koch, OMA’s vice president/marketing, believes that Pacific Concourse will create its own market, distinct from the LAX/Century Boulevard office market that has about a 25% vacancy factor. The Seeley Co. is the leasing agent
