Janss Corp. real estate firm closing down.

Partners take over some properties, others sold

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Janss Corp., the real estate firm through which four generations of the prominent Janss family developed some 100,000 acres of Southland property.

But for its president and CEO, Dr. William Janss Jr., and the rest of the modern-day Janss Corp. team, the centennial is no cause for celebration. Rather, a series of developments represent the end of an era.

Janss Corp. is closing up shop and letting its partners and lenders take over responsibility for the firm's still-formidable properly portfolio, several sources confirmed. And Bill Janss is endeavoring to re-launch his medical career.

As Janss and its partners faced a foreclosure against the Janss Court mixed-use complex along Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade (see related story page 1), the Janss headquarters office relocated from that property to leased space at Santa Monica Business Park. That's where the firm's former chief financial officer is currently overseeing what amounts to an orderly liquidation of the operation.

Neither Bill Janss nor the CFO-turned-president, Jerry Scharlin, has returned the Business Journal's calls since prior to a March 13 Business Journal story about Janss Court's financial troubles and the firm's relocation.

Bowing out

However, Janss recently told the L.A. Daily News that the Janss brain trust is "liquidating the company and basically going out of business." The firm's projects have "too much leverage" and are "not profitable," Janss told the newspaper.

Janss was also quoted saying the firm is letting its partners take over management of some properties, while others are to be "sold or turned over to creditors."

Bankruptcy court and title records indicate Janss Court is about to be taken over by mortgage lender Bank of Montreal - and perhaps sold immediately to a new investor.

Other sources confirmed that management of the big Holly Street Village/Civic Center West mixed-use complex in Pasadena is being taken over by Janss' partner in the project, Irvine-based The Housing Group/Golden State Developers. That group is affiliated with Chicago's prominent Pritzker family, of Hyatt Hotels fame.

At the opposite end of the Metrorail Blue Line in Long Beach, PM Realty Group is taking, over property management at the Pine Square mixed-use facility - which Janss developed in partnership with TYS Associates.

Out in Thousand Oaks, where Janss Corp. purchased 10,000 acres early this century, an affiliate of Westside Pavilion developer/manager Westfield Corp. Inc. has assumed management of the Janss Mall. The Goldman Sachs & Co.-led Whitehall investment fund had already restructured the mortgage debt it held into majority ownership of that property - which is being renovated, expanded and renamed Janss Marketplace.

Westwood creator

The family firm was founded by Peter Janss, an immigrant doctor from Denmark. It was the original developer of the 3,300-acre Westwood Village community in 1920s, and donated land for the UCLA campus. The firm's mark on that part of town is indelible; Janss Investment Co. "stamps" embellish sidewalks in many Westside residential neighborhoods.

The firm has also played a prominent role in developing Southland communities such as Boyle Heights, Monterey Park, Delano, Imperial Valley, Yorba Linda and parts of the San Fernando Valley.

Janss was also the original developer of the Snowmass ski resort in Colorado and Sun Valley in Idaho - both of which were sold in the late 1970s.

Since William Janss Jr., M.D., took over the family business and became Janss Corp.'s president in 1980, the firm has developed some $160 million worth of projects.

Perhaps ironically, USC's School of Architecture recognized Janss' contributions earlier this year with its 1995 Parkinson Spirit of Urbanism Award.