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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Ralphs Bests Vons in Woodland Hills Market Battle

The retail battle between grocery rivals Safeway and Kroger in the in Warner Plaza shopping center, fought by their respective divisions of Vons and Ralphs, is over with Vons closing its doors Saturday, March 22. Separated by five small units, the co-anchors at Ventura and Topanga have been the twin suns in a galaxy that includes the competing specialty coffee sellers of Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf; Noah’s Bagels and Western Bagel; national concerns like Rite-Aid, Blockbuster and Bank of America; as well as various local tenants and eateries. As Kroger reinvested in Ralphs, remodeling to add prepared food stations and delicatessen-type features, that westernmost of the two grocery stores shone brighter in recent years. Now, with heavy discounts helping to clear the shelf space in its final days, the 30,000 square foot Vons market has gone dark. Safeway company spokesman Daymond Rice said store employees would be transferred to other Vons properties in the region. “We have performance standards established for all of our locations, and this is one property that simply did not meet expectations,” Rice said. A new store location is coming to Corbin and Ventura, a store employee said. ACE Leases in Northridge ACE American Insurance Company has leased 27,184 square feet of space at the 10-story West Valley Corporate Center in Northridge. Gretchen Sauer, senior vice president for IDS Real Estate Group announced that ACE signed a five-year lease valued at over $5 million. The company plans a June occupancy and expects to employ approximately 185 people at the site. Sauer, Rob Fuelling, also a senior vice president of IDS, and Jim Lindvall of Grubb & Ellis’ Sherman Oaks office office represented the joint venture of Chatsworth Office LLC and CalSTRS, owners of West Valley Corporate Center. Tony Acerra and Colin Fitzgibbons of The Staubach Company represented ACE American. IDS is the center’s asset and property manager. Located at 9200 Oakdale Avenue, the property consists of a 258,000-square-foot Class A office building on a landscaped 9.3-acre campus. There are still 42,052 square feet of space available. Sylmar Industrial Site Goes For $2.6 Million Chris Dorland and Spencer Strull, associates at the Sherman Oaks office of Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura Inc., announced the sale of a 16,800-square-foot industrial facility in Sylmar for $2,680,000 to Drapes 4 Show, Inc. Dorland and Strull represented the seller, Edward Cholakian. The buyer was represented by Billy Walk, an associate at CB Richard Ellis. Triad Signs Three Triad Management Systems, Inc., has been appointed property manager for three commercial properties since the start of 2008. The first, Northridge Park Plaza at Devonshire and Reseda boulevards, has approximately 35,000 square feet of space, includes Bank of America, Fremont Savings and Loan, Weight Watchers, Hanmi Bank, Spudnuts and others. The second, Mervyn’s Shopping Center in Simi Valley, has approximately 14.5 acres of land at Cochran Street and Sycamore Drive with six owners and tenants including Mervyn’s, Payless Shoes, CVS Pharmacy, Denny’s, Sally Beauty Supply. The third is a three-story medical office building at 17750 Sherman Way in Reseda. Venture Buys for Conversion Venture Corporation, of Larkspur, Calif., purchased a four-story 46,244-square-foot multi-tenant office building at 5900 Canoga Ave., in Woodland Hills. The total consideration for the property built in 1979 was $14.2 million. The firm plans to convert the Class-A office building suites into for-sale office condominiums and has renamed the project Venture Warner Center. The commercial real estate brokerage firm Colliers International, orchestrated the deal, said Roger Beck, vice president in Colliers International’s Encino office. It was Colliers’ second transaction with Venture Corporation. The first was for a Roadside Drive location in Agoura Hills. John DeGrinis, SIOR, senior vice president at Colliers International’s Encino office and Beck represented both buyer, Venture Corporation, and seller, Ashrad LLC, a consumer electronics trading company, based in Van Nuys. Office Condos 83 Percent Sold at Opening The Vantage at Westlake, an $18 million office condominium project in Westlake Village developed by TR Funding of Westlake Village, opened with more than 83 percent of its space sold. A two-story structure comprising a total of 34,000 square feet, the building was designed by Neil Scribner Architecture of Thousand Oaks and occupies a two-acre site at 2629 Townsgate Road. Tony Principe, president of Westlake Village-based Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services, is the exclusive agent for the project. Principe reports that 19 of the 23 individual units have been sold to a variety of professional service firms with some buyers purchasing as many as three units. Remaining units range from 973 to 4,532 square feet. The project is within walking distance from the Westlake Hyatt Hotel, restaurants, financial services, and entertainment-related facilities. Decorative metal canopies hang over window areas and the building’s two-story glass entry fa & #231;ade, which is flanked by decorative masonry columns and stacked stone. Senior reporter James Hames can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or at [email protected] .

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