January 1978
Howard Hughes heirs’ management company, Summa Corp., initiates plan to develop $1 billion high-rise community on Playa Vista site.
September 1984
Summa receives government approvals to build high-rise project.
December 1984
Environmentalists file lawsuit challenging approval of project.
February 1989
Maguire Thomas Partners buys into project and takes over as managing general partner.
October 1992
Environmental impact reports released, detailing dramatic expected rise in traffic congestion, energy use, noise and air pollution. Public outcry ensues.
May 1993
Maguire Thomas Partners announces downsized plan.
September 1993
L.A. City Council approves first phase.
October 1993
Environmentalists file suit in Santa Monica Superior Court contending project review was inadequate.
August 1994
Superior Court judge rules that L.A. authorities acted properly in approving environmental impact report.
December 1995
DreamWorks SKG announces plan to build studio campus.
March 1997
Chase Manhattan Bank initiates foreclosure after developer defaults on $150 million loan.
May 1997
Chase sells project loan to Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Oak Tree Capital Management.
June 1997
Morgan/Goldman/Oaktree proceeds with foreclosure, filing notice of sale.
October 1997
Morgan/Goldman/Oaktree takes ownership. Group including Union Labor Life Insurance Co. and Pacific Capital Group indicates intention to buy major equity stake.
November 1997
U.S. District judge lifts bulldozer ban on grading of site, dismisses environmentalists’ claim that project violated U.S. Clean Water Act.
April 1998
Robert Maguire’s new firm, Maguire Partners, increases equity stake in commercial portion of Playa Vista to 11 percent.
June 1998
U.S. District judge orders that filling of wetlands be halted until U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts more thorough review.
November 1998
Union Labor Life and Pacific Capital buy major equity stake. DreamWorks signs definitive agreement to build $250 million studio.
July 1999
DreamWorks abandons plan to build studio. Maguire Partners assumes responsibility for developing 114 acres of commercial buildings.
December 1999
City of L.A. issues first building permits.
February 2000
Construction of first phase begins with first 1,600 residential units.
August 2000
U.S. Appeals Court lifts ban on filling wetlands. Building & Safety commissioners vote to allow construction, despite methane concerns.
June 2001
L.A. City Council approves more than $168 million in public bonds for infrastructure and housing. Equity Office Properties Trust buys major stake in Water’s Edge office complex.
July 2001
Maguire Partners secures right to buy land to develop 2.2 million square feet of commercial space. Architect Frank O. Gehry named as designer of 114-acre studio office campus.
August 2001
Trust for Public Land signs exclusive option to buy 193 acres, to be retained as open space.
October 2001
U.S. Supreme Court lets stand lower-court ruling permitting construction of freshwater marsh. Steve Soboroff named as new project head, effective Nov. 1.
Environmentalists may still be screaming “Stop Playa Vista,” but it’s too late. The 1,087-acre project one of the largest and most controversial in L.A. history is out of the gate and accelerating rapidly. No longer is activity on the massive site confined to bulldozers pushing around huge mounds of dirt, as subterranean infrastructure (telecom wires, sewers, storm drains and more) gets installed.
Actual structures houses, apartments and office buildings are sprouting. The stucco coating already is being applied to the project’s first apartment building, with residents slated to start moving in sometime in February. The other four buildings in that first Playa Vista apartment complex, called Fountain Park, are not far behind. They are set to be completed a few months after the first building opens.
On an adjacent plot, the 450,000-square-foot Water’s Edge office complex is taking shape and on track to be done next fall.
“It feels absolutely terrific totally thrilling to actually be building something that has been planned for too long,” said Robert F. Maguire, whose firm Maguire Partners is developing Water’s Edge in partnership with Sam Zell’s Equity Office Properties Trust.
All the structures under construction at Playa Vista are on the relatively small parcel at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Lincoln boulevards. Meanwhile, across Jefferson on the project’s main site, homes will begin rising from the ground over the next few weeks.
Several homebuilders have completed excavation work, installed methane “blankets” to keep subterranean gas from seeping out, and are now pouring concrete foundations. “Those holes are beehives of activity, even though you can’t see it from the street,” said Peter Denniston, president of Playa Capital LLC, the project’s primary developer.
Those 800 or so homes, combined with the 705 Fountain Park apartment units across the street, mean that more than 1,500 residences are under construction.
Despite that progress, environmentalists remain as committed as ever to their long-sought goal of seizing control of all or much of the project site and restoring it as a wildlife habitat.
Maguire, who has been butting heads with environmentalists since he first got involved in Playa Vista back in 1989, said he has developed “kind of cordial relationships” with the opposition.
Weathered warriors
“We’ve all known each other for so long we’re kind of aging together,” he chuckled.
Upon hearing that characterization, Marcia Hanscom, executive director of the Wetlands Action Network, tersely replied, “That’s an interesting perspective.”
Whether or not acrimony is mellowing, some progress is being made by environmentalists. In August, the Trust for Public Land signed an option to buy 193 acres of the Playa Vista site, so it can be restored as wildlife habitat. (See story on page 36.) The first half of that two-part deal is expected to close next August, with the second half to close a year later.
Such momentum is reinvigorating environmentalists who have been dealt a series of court defeats in their unending stream of lawsuits challenging the project. (Just this month the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower-court ruling allowing construction of the project’s freshwater marsh.)
“I think we are closer than ever to achieving our goal, which is getting the entire site turned into open space a functioning ecosystem,” Hanscom insisted.
The current hopes center on a California Coastal Commission hearing set for the week of Nov. 12 in downtown Los Angeles. On the agenda are two roadway improvement projects that Playa Capital must undertake as part of its traffic mitigation requirement. Coastal Commission staff had initially recommended various modifications to the roadway projects, and Hanscom sees that chink as an opportunity to pull down the entire project.
“We just have to win one of these (roadway project votes) and then (Playa Capital) may have to go back and redesign their entire traffic mitigation report, which would mean a whole new EIR (environmental impact report) for phase one,” she said. That, in turn, might trigger an order to demolish all phase one construction, she said.
Denniston, who is stepping down at the end of this month to be replaced by real estate consultant Steve Soboroff, said his team has been working closely with Coastal Commission staff and that their concerns have been addressed.
“I would be extremely surprised to get an unfavorable staff report on those improvements,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the eastern edge of the project site, Maguire Partners is in escrow to purchase what many observers consider to be Playa Vista’s crown jewel the studio campus parcel.
The land in escrow is only about 70 percent of the total 115-acre campus site. It is entitled for 2.2 million square feet of commercial space, leaving adjacent land entitled for another 1 million square feet of campus development unspoken for, at least for now.
Maguire said he expects escrow to close by year-end. For that to happen, he will need to come up with a substantial amount of additional cash, about $100 million, according to sources familiar with the deal. Maguire is negotiating to bring on a joint venture partner to provide much of that financing, which he said he hoped would be in place before year-end.
If escrow closes as planned, construction would begin early next year on the first 450,000-square-foot building designed by Frank O. Gehry. Simultaneously, major rehabs would be undertaken of the 11 pre-existing Hughes Aircraft buildings, including conversion of the cavernous Spruce Goose hangar into a movie soundstage. The 550,000 square feet of rehab space is expected to take eight months to complete, Maguire said, with the new campus construction taking about 14 months to complete.
Even before Gehry was hired as designer, the campus site drew national media attention when DreamWorks SKG bought it to develop a $250 million studio. DreamWorks abandoned that plan in July 1999, amid reports of personal friction between Maguire and DreamWorks principal Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Will Katzenberg be invited to the campus grand opening?
“Absolutely,” said Maguire. “He’ll be able to see what he missed.”
Meanwhile, environmentalists continue their quest to keep that grand opening from ever happening.
Besides the California Coastal Commission, other government entities they hope will assist them in shutting down the project are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Toxic Substances, L.A. Regional Water Quality Board and others that are monitoring contamination cleanup efforts on the site. (Playa Vista formerly housed Hughes Aircraft Co.’s manufacturing, testing and airport operations.)
“They’re continuing to find new contamination problems,” Hanscom said.
Again, Denniston scoffed.
“For years, Marcia and her people characterized this as a greenfield a pristine ecosystem,” he said. “Then, when people came out and saw that very little of the site is that way, her group started calling it a brownfield.”
Regardless of tactics, project opponents have succeeded in getting Playa Vista dramatically downsized over the years. It was originally designed by Summa Corp. in 1978 as a dense high-rise community. That proposal was approved in 1984 by state and local governments. Over the ensuing years, various proposals called for a deep-water harbor with more than 800 boat slips, a golf course and more. Just as those plans have faded away, so have several ownership groups. The current development entity, called Playa Capital, is comprised of Morgan Stanley Group, Goldman Sachs & Co., Oaktree Capital Management, Pacific Capital Group and Union Labor Life Insurance Co.
