New Development at Playa Vista

Los Angeles developer Robert Maguire, in partnership with real estate giant Equity Office Corp., plans to build what would be the first major commercial office building at the long-delayed Playa Vista development.

The board of Chicago-based Equity Office and Maguire are expected today to announce plans to purchase a 6.5-acre parcel at Playa Vista for an estimated $28 million, according to several people familiar with the deal. The property, tentatively called Fountain Park Office Center, is near the intersection of Jefferson and Lincoln boulevards.

The deal would be a dramatic turnaround for Maguire and Playa Vista, which has struggled to start work on the commercial portion of its project or find a replacement for DreamWorks SKG, the entertainment studio that abandoned plans to build a new headquarters on the project in July 1999. Work is currently underway on the first phase of housing at Playa Vista, which is scheduled to be ready in early 2002.

Maguire, head of Los Angeles-based Maguire Partners, will purchase the land from his other partners at Playa Capital Corp. Neither he nor Playa Capital officials were available for comment.

Maguire is expected to build a 450,000-square-foot office complex that is scheduled to be completed in early 2002.

Progress on the office portion of the project--which will include more than 3 million square feet of commercial space--has been in limbo in recent months as Maguire and the majority owners of Playa Capital have continued to feud about the direction of the project.

In March, Playa Capital hired Los Angeles brokerage Cushman Realty to find a buyer for the 6.5-acre Pacific Park Office Center parcel.

Maguire and the other partners in Playa Vista soon afterward entered a lengthy arbitration to settle the dispute.

This is the second time Maguire, who has been involved with the project for a decade, has emerged with a prominent role at Playa Vista after suffering painful setbacks. In late 1997, amid financial problems and a bitter feud with DreamWorks and lenders, Maguire lost majority control of the project and was left with a minor role.

But less than two years later, after DreamWorks pulled out of the project, Maguire ended up with the right, under the terms of the contract with Playa Vista, to develop 114 acres of commercial space--including the site on which DreamWorks was to build its studio and headquarters.

Earlier this year, when Maguire sold MGM Plaza in Santa Monica for an estimated $360 million, he said he would use some of the proceeds to finance other projects, including Playa Vista.