Apartments Planned Across From Village at Topanga Mall

Canoga Park residential developer California Home Builders has bought a Topanga Canyon Boulevard property across from The Village at Westfield Topanga shopping mall aiming to turn the property into luxury apartments. California Home Builders bought the 2.76-acre Woodland Hills property currently occupied by Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse at 6263 Topanga Canyon Blvd. The deal closed Feb. 8, according to L.A.’s CBRE Group Inc., which brokered the deal on behalf of California Home and the seller, El Segundo’s retail developer Paragon Commercial Group. California Home Chief Executive Shawn Evenhaim said he bought the property for more than $27 million as part of his vision to bring luxury apartments to the area. He has plans to build apartments on a nearby lot as well, he said, and the uses are allowed at both sites as part of the Warner Center 2035 Plan. The plan intends to bring transit-oriented and mixed use development to the area. “I’m a true believer in the Warner Center plan,” Evenhaim said. “I want to give the experience of a lifestyle that does not exist in the Valley. Lots of people in this area are looking for this value, and often have to leave the Valley and go to the Westside for this lifestyle.” The building would hold about 300 units and have common areas, a pool, barbeque pits, a rooftop lounge and co-working office space, he said. Parking will be ground-level and underground. Evenhaim said he hopes to break ground before the end of the year. Jim Dillavou, principal at Paragon, said the company, which still owns other property surrounding the parcel as part of the Woodland Hills Shopping Center, sold the parcel because the Warner Center plan calls for additional density – in other words residential development – for the site. “When they put a zoning overlay as is contained in the Warner Center plan, it changes the inherent value of property – it now has additional value – because that’s what over the last 10 years the community wanted to see there,” he said. “We’re not the group who can do that.” CBRE’s Executive Vice President Laurie Lustig-Bower and Senior Sales Director Kamran Paydar represented both the buyer and seller in the deal.