Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield continues to offload its U.S. portfolio with the sale of the 34-acre site of the former Westfield Promenade shopping mall to a group of private investors for an undisclosed price. Â
The buyers may be connected with the Los Angeles Rams. The Super Bowl champions have been in negotiations to purchase the site of the former Westfield Promenade shopping mall in Woodland Hills for its team practice facility, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
The football team and mall owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield have been in talks regarding the nearly empty mall site, according to the report. The Rams could pay more than $150 million for the property, which would be large enough to maintain a summer training camp with fans in attendance.
Since 2016, the Rams have been practicing at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks and have staged training camps at UC Irvine. The team’s business offices are located in Agoura Hills.
The Rams will continue to practice at Cal Lutheran at least for the next season.
“From the time this relationship was forged, both parties knew that Cal Lutheran would serve as the Rams’ temporary training site,” Karin Grennan, media relations manager for Cal Lutheran, said. “We are pleased that they have been here since 2016, and just this week the Rams exercised their option to stay another full year for the 2022-2023 season.
“Once the organization vacates the space, we will use the high-quality practice fields, parking lot and infrastructure they constructed for our future athletic facilities,” she continued. “This has always been the plan, and it remains so today.”
If the Promenade deal materializes, the property in Warner Center could accommodate a practice facility, training camp and team headquarters at one site with enough land for a surrounding mixed-use development in the same vein as SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where the Rams play. It was the site of its team’s Feb. 13 Super Bowl triumph over the Cincinnati Bengals.
“That sounds like a really great opportunity and would be good news if true,” L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents Woodland Hills, said. “There is a plan in place for a venue at the site that protects the community and could let our Super Bowl champs get something up and running in my district pretty soon, which is incredibly exciting.”
The sale represents a reversal of plans for the property. URW recently completed the city’s planning and development process, securing approval for a 3.2 million-square-foot mixed-use development called Promenade 2035. The $1.5 billion overhaul of parcel between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Oxnard Street would have brought 1,400 apartment units, retail, a 572-key hotel, a 25-story office building and a 10,000- to 15,000-seat sports arena.