Landmark developer eyes westside mixed-use project. (Real Estate).

CALIFORNIA Landmark Development, a partner in the development of the Wilshire Landmark high-rise condominium project just east of Westwood Village, is buying the northeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Barrington Avenue in West L.A. for $5 million.

The site, which includes a 14,000-square-foot retail and office building, will be developed into a mixed-use project, according to Ken Kahan, chief executive of California Landmark.

"The project will be primarily residential, but will include a commercial component... (which) will include ground-floor retail and offices above," Kahan said in an e-mail. Kahan wrote that the property's longtime owner, Roy McNeill, "will participate in the future development project after the purchase."

Wilshire Landmark architect Nadel Architeds Inc. will be designing the project. Kahan declined to disclose the project's specifications.

McNeill did not return calls seeking comment.

The purchase marks the latest turn for a property that has been a point of contention over the past couple years. McNeill, who co-developed the Sherman Oaks Galleria and whose family has owned the property for more than 70 years, petitioned the city to build a 17-story office building in late 2001 but was thwarted by the West L.A. Area Planning Commission, which cited a recently enacted ordinance that capped the site's height allowance at 45 feet. The city adjusted the ordinance and approved the project last year.

California Landmark has yet to formally approach the city for mixed-use entitlements, though "we definitely think that kind of project is interesting," said Kristen Montet, planning deputy for District 11 Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski.

Still, the traffic and density issues raised by the planning commission still persist despite the change in use, according to Flora Gil Krisiloff, vice president of the West L.A. Area Planning Commission and chair of the Brentwood Community Council.

"There's certainly a need for more housing," said Krisiloff. "But unless (the potential residents) are not commuting or are working nearby, it doesn't change anything. We'd need to see the project."

A joint venture of California Landmark and Chicago-based Fifield Cos. bought the 1.1-acre. parcel at Wilshire Boulevard and Malcolm Avenue from developer Richard Weintraub in May for about $27 million and are developing 85-unit luxury condominium complex scheduled for completion in 2005.

Hollywood Shuttle

The American Musical and Dramatic Academy has purchased the four buildings along the north side of Yucca Street between Ivar Avenue and Vine Street for a new Hollywood facility.

Though the purchase price was not disclosed, New York-based AMDA paid De Pietro Corp. about $9 million for the two-acre site, according to a source familiar with the deal. The site includes two apartment buildings totaling 13 units and the 74-year-old, 40,000-square-foot building on the corner of Yucca and Vine designed by Henry Gogerty, who also designed The Palace one block south.

"We saw this as an opportunity for the neighborhood and we wanted to pursue other projects," said Dennis De Pietro, a partner in De Pietro Corp., which had owned the property for 32 years. The company is working on an adaptive reuse plan for its Masonic Temple project in Glendale, said De Pietro.

Ramsey-Shilling Commercial Real Estate Services' Frank Buckley represented the buyer while Ramsey-Shilling's Glenn Melnick and John Tronson represented the seller.

Block on the Block

One of Beverly Hills' last vacant lots is back on the market.

The one-acre parcel on the south side of Wilshire Boulevard between Maple and Palm drives will be put up for auction next month by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, with the minimum bid set at $9.6 million.

The site, once home to Hillcrest Motors, received entitlements for a 133-room hotel in late 2001, the first hotel approval since the Peninsula Beverly Hills was approved a decade earlier.

BHG Holdings LLC had had the property in escrow since April 1999 and planned to develop a $43 million hotel, dubbed Hotel Bel Jardin. But it was unable to secure funding to close on the $8.5 million purchase and declared bankruptcy in March, according to Brian Dunne, vice president at Grubb & Ellis Co., who is marketing the site.

BHG retains control of the property until its escrow period, which has been extended until August, expires.

"It's a rare opportunity to develop a full block in the center of Beverly Hills," said Dunne, who said he's received interest from hotel operators as well as mixed-use and medical office developers.

Relativity Theory

Residential is not the only sector of the real estate market enjoying a surge in construction activity.

The value of construction permits in Los Angeles County was up 89 percent and 47 percent, respectively, for office and industrial projects over the first five months of 2003, according to the Construction Industry Research Board. About $120 million in industrial buildings were permitted through May, while about $95 million in offices were started.

More than half the office permit increase is attributable to the 309,000-square-foot Rand Corp. headquarters in Santa Monica, valued at $53 million when permitted in May. The largest industrial project permit so far this year was for the $15 million construction of three buildings totaling about 500,000 square feet at Lowe Enterprises Inc.'s The Exchange mixed-use development in Hawthorne.

The steep increases, said Ben Bartolotto, research director at Burbank-based CIRB, are attributable to a rebound from a weak 2002.

About $2.9 billion in non-residential buildings were permitted in L.A. County last year, down from more than $3.5 billion in 2001.

"It's not even close to a boom," said Bartolotto, referring to the $4 billion-plus values of the late '80s. "If you go back to the 1980s, these figures are dwarfed by those numbers."

Staff reporter Danny King can be reached at [phone] ext. 230, or at [e-mail].