FILLING NEIGHBORHOODS WOODLAND HILLS FIRM LETS CUSTOMER FLIP THROUGH A CATALOG TO FIND RIGHT HOUSE FOR THE LOT.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer

WOODLAND HILLS - Robert Kleiman and Mark Sapiro, partners in Structure Development, take a Lands' End approach to residential redevelopment in Los Angeles. Their customers flip through a catalog and pick everything for a new home, from the architectural treatment to cabinet handles.

It's one-stop shopping for building a new home - but not a cookie-cutter approach.

The end product is a home rich in custom details like marble and fine hardwoods, and oftentimes it comes with a price tag in excess of $1 million.

Woodland Hills-based Structure Development has carved out a niche by targeting 50-foot wide to 60-foot wide lots that are found throughout Los Angeles. Since the company was formed in 1996, it has built a few more than 100 homes.

Structure operates in a target-rich environment.

``Thirty percent to 40 percent of Los Angeles is divided into 50-foot wide lots in most of the flat areas,'' Kleiman said recently while touring a project site in Brentwood.

Structure Development has built homes in Northridge, Encino, Calabasas, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.

The company now has 10 homes under development.

Encino attorney Jason Litt and his family just moved into a 3,550- square-foot Structure Development home near the Grove in Los Angeles that cost about $750,000. They had spent a year looking for a bigger house and eventually decided to tear down their old 1,850-square-foot house and start from scratch.

``I'm really glad we made the decision we did because we really love our neighborhood, and everything is customized exactly the way we want it,'' Litt said.

The new home is probably the biggest in the neighborhood, but it doesn't look out of place.

``It's not boxy looking. It sort of flows back and doesn't look as big as it is. It really fit in well with the area,'' he said.

Structure Development is a low-volume business, to be sure, but that's the way the partners, former executives at home builder The Braemar Group, like it. They are not trying to take on big players in the home building sector.

``It puts us into the mindset of how (to) do it better the next time,'' Kleiman said of the company's business model. ``It's a whole new way of doing business, and one we enjoy immensely.''

The homes typically range in size from 2,400 square feet to 5,000 square feet and are designed to fit in with existing neighborhoods. But a Structure Development home would not be out of place on Italy's Amalfi Coast, the Maine seashore or old Mexico.

Architectural styles include Santa Barbara Mission, Tuscan, American Cottage, Spanish Colonial and Coastal Cottage. Custom designs are also available.

Structure Development does speculative projects - buying up old homes to tear them down and put up one of their styles. A development of Spanish-style homes clustered together in Brentwood will retain something old. Kleiman is restoring an ornate chandelier that had been left behind in a house the company tore down to make way for its project.

The company will also raze a client's home to put up a completely new one on the lot.

It's a fast-track process. Kleiman said it takes about seven months to tear down a house and put up a new one. That's about how long a major remodel would take.

The process is speedy because to a large degree the floor plans are standard - Structure Development homes typically contain such features as a ``media center'' where children can do homework, covered rear porches that serve as outdoor dining areas, large kitchens with islands and family rooms with fireplaces. And the builders are familiar with the products to be used.

Customers also receive the services of an architect, interior designer and landscape architect.

For example, when it came time for the Litts to pick out the granite for use in their home, they accompanied the architect on a visit to the granite yard.

Kleiman said the speculation homes typically are on the market for about a month. For example, in one Brentwood neighborhood the company paid about $1 million for a house, tore it down, and is building a cottage-style home that will sell for more than $2 million.

Kleiman expects it will be on the market for about 30 days. He might be right. Last Sunday he held an open house even though the home is still under construction. Kleiman expected between 30 to 40 people - nearly 100 showed up.

``We had a lot of people from the neighborhood expressing interest in exploring what could be done to replace their home with a new home,'' he said.

Gregory J. Wilcox, [phone]

greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Structure Development, an in-fill construction specialist in Woodland Hills, has a Connecticut farmhouse-style home in progress in Brentwood.

(2 -- color) Robert Kleiman of Structure Development Group walks through the family room of a new farm-style home in Brentwood.

(3 -- color) A restored crystal chandelier is the something old to be retained in Structure Development's project in Brentwood.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer