Smedra’s Westwood Village Partners Sell Out to Casden
Developer Ira Smedra has a new partner in his controversial Village Center Westwood project in Westwood Village.
A group of Smedra’s partners has sold its interest in the project to Beverly Hills-based Casden Properties Inc., according to sources at the Charles Dunn Co., which brokered the deal.
The new partnership between Smedra and Casden is called Casden Glendon and in all likelihood will mean that the development at Glendon and Weyburn avenues will be predominantly an apartment project instead of the combination of shopping and movie theaters previously proposed, said Albert Shilton, a Dunn Co. managing director who negotiated the Smedra-Casden deal along with Dunn Co. President Darrell Levonian.
Smedra and Casden Properties executives both declined to comment on the deal or to say what percentage of the project each now owns. The Dunn Co. brokers would not disclose the price Casden paid for its share of the new venture, but the most recent appraisal of the 180,000-square-foot site valued the property at more than $30 million, according to industry sources. Previous Times reports have stated the cost of developing it at as much as $100 million.
Smedra’s project has been the subject of controversy and delays as community groups have debated what kind of development should take place. Maneuvering by both sides included an effort by Smedra to get the Legislature to amend state law governing pedestrian malls, but the bill was rejected by a Senate committee.
Shilton said Village Center Westwood, the former partnership in which Smedra was the general partner and other investors were limited partners, engaged the Dunn Co. several months ago to either sell the entire property outright or find a new development partner for Smedra, who acquired the property in 1995.
Shilton said the involvement of Casden Properties almost certainly means the project will include apartments as its main component because of Casden’s expertise in apartment construction and ownership. Such a change would depart sharply from the existing proposal.
