Retail Center Rising Near Downtown
When the Chesterfield Square shopping center opens in December at Western Avenue and Slauson Boulevard, another center is slated to be completed just west of downtown Los Angeles in an area also considered underserved by supermarkets and other retail stores.
Uniwil, a Santa Monica-based developer whose general partners are Fred Leeds and David Oved, has begun construction on a 193,000-square-foot shopping center at a site bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, 6th Street, Union Avenue and Burlington Avenue.
Among the tenants will be HomeBase, Food4Less, Rite Aid and McDonald’s, according to an announcement by Grubb & Ellis Co.
Uniwil recently bought a 52,222-square-foot property at 1671 Wilshire Blvd. for approximately $2.4 million. It was the last of seven parcels the developer acquired in assembling the 8 1/2-acre site, according to Armando Aguirre, a Grubb & Ellis broker. Aguirre represented the seller, Alhambra-based New Wilshire Investments, in the sale. Uniwil was represented by Sean Clark of Fortune Real Estate.
Aguirre called the Uniwil project “a giant step forward in the rehabilitation of the Westlake area of downtown,” saying the new shopping center signals “the growing interest national retail chains have in targeting high-density, urban, underserved areas that exist throughout much of blue-collar Los Angeles and surrounding communities.”
The new shopping center will create about 500 jobs, according to Uniwil’s Leeds. He said City Councilman Mike Hernandez helped expedite the project.
