Playa Vista selling to Brookfield Homes for $250-million-plus

The parent company of Playa Vista is set to be sold to a Canadian developer that intends to finish building the housing approved for the planned community near Marina del Rey, according to people close to the deal.

Brookfield Homes is buying control of Playa Capital Co. and gaining command of more than 50 acres of land near the coast. The transaction, valued at more than $250 million, is set to close at the end of the month, according to the individuals, who wished to remain anonymous because the deal isn’t wrapped up.

Development at Playa Vista has been going on for more than a decade. The 1,000-acre community already has more than 3,200 residences and 2 million square feet of offices. The land Brookfield is taking over is zoned for an additional 2,000 housing units.

As the new master developer of Playa Vista, Brookfield is expected to sell rights to develop 1,500 apartments to Irvine Apartment Communities, a division of the Irvine Co. It is also expected to sell some of the remaining 500 residential sites to Los Angeles developer KB Home.

Developers at work at Playa Vista include the Ratkovich Co. and Lincoln Property Co. Ratkovich is turning buildings once occupied by mogul Howard Hughes’ aviation company into creative office space for rent and Lincoln is working on the Runway, a $260-million shopping and apartment complex intended to be the commercial and social heart of Playa Vista.

Representatives of Playa Capital, Brookfield and the Irvine Co. declined to comment. Earlier this month Brookfield Residential Properties raised $222 million through a stock sale, which it used to pay down debt.

Lincoln Property executive David S. Binswanger acknowledged that Playa Capital is on the market.

“Obviously a sales transaction to new, well-qualified and capitalized developers would be nothing but good for the area,” he said.

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