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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

VALLEY RISING: Walkable Hub of the West Valley

If “transformation” comes to mind when you think about the Warner Center area of Woodland Hills and its bordering neighborhoods, then you’re in line with a lot of players in the local economy. Multifamily and retail developers are flocking to the area because of opportunities to build and anticipated population growth. The latest land use and planning document, the Warner Center 2035 Plan, signed in 2013, lays out clear guidelines for how growth should happen in the 1.7 square miles surrounding the center. It has made the area hard to resist for developers by allowing higher density without height limits and a streamlined entitlement process. The plan also encourages infill development and redevelopment connected by public transportation, new streets and walkways. Shopping mall developer and operator Westfield Corp. of Century City has been repeatedly drawn to the area. It already owns three malls there, and just announced a design to replace the Westfield Promenade shopping mall at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Oxnard Street with a massive mixed-use community named Promenade 2035 that could include 1,400 residential units, retail and office space, an entertainment and sports center and two hotels. While not yet entitled, the integrated live/work/play project is the kind of walkable urban project that planners and residents want. Just the announcement of it has attracted businesses to the area. Jay Rubin, a principal with commercial real estate brokerage firm Lee & Associates – LA North/Ventura Inc. in Sherman Oaks, feels employers will likely take new or more space in the area. “If you look at the demographics of multifamily units already online, there’s a large portion of educated young people,” Rubin said, in an earlier interview with the Business Journal about the area. “Clearly, the future opportunities are unlimited.” L.A.’s CBRE Group Inc. has paid attention to the growth trend. The commercial real estate brokerage firm is opening an office in the Warner Center in anticipation of the millions of square feet of office space that it is expecting to be built in the next 10 to 15 years there, the company said. It plans to focus on land sales, development and multifamily activity. Academia is also taking notice. UCLA Extension plans to open a satellite campus next month in one of the Warner Center towers to bring in more mature residents and offer them a facility that’s closer than its Westwood campus. And health care providers are moving here as well. In late 2015, Westwood-headquartered UCLA Health opened a children’s and women’s health and wellness clinic at the Village at Westfield Topanga shopping center around the same time the center opened. It’s one of several health care providers moving out of hospitals and into retail spaces to be more visible to existing and potential patients. “I think the Warner Center is going to be the preeminent downtown area of the Valley,” Rubin said. “It’s already tipping that way. But with current development and future development, all elements are there for an urban hub in terms of an employment pool, amenities and employers. And employers are going to see value of having an employment pool right there.”

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