Mixed-use moves east as MJW eyes Boyle Heights site.

SANTEE Court developer MJW Investments is negotiating to buy or lease the massive Sears site in Boyle Heights as the centerpiece of a mixed-use project, according to a source close to the deal.

MJW has already purchased a number of small parcels adjacent to the site, according to the source.

Mark Weinstein, president of Santa Monica-based MJW Investments, would only confirm that the company was looking at the Boyle Heights site as a potential development project. He declined to say whether MJW has purchased property there.

"We've been offered a variety of opportunities to do mixed-use and transit-oriented projects in Boyle Heights and other areas," said Weinstein. "We haven't decided on any one in particular."

Originally built as a distribution center in 1927, the 23-acre site, anchored by a 1.8 million-square-foot building, was converted into a store shortly thereafter, marking the first time a national chain retailer opened in Boyle Heights.

"Sears plans to continue operating and has no plans to close the store," said Cheryl Ann Lambert, a spokeswoman for Sear Roebuck & Co. Officials of the building's owner, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Univest, did not return calls either.

Adriana Martinez, director of L.A. City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa's Boyle Heights field office, said there had been discussions between MJW and Villaraigosa's staff about redeveloping the site, at the southwest corner of Olympic Boulevard and Soto Street, as well as a small parcel cater-comer. She said Villaraigosa had been meeting with community groups about the proposed project.

Univest had also floated plans to the city to redevelop the site in recent years, said Martinez, but none came to fruition.

Downtown Deal

Ratkovich Co. has purchased the 214,000-square-foot building at 800 Wilshire Blvd., marking a return to downtown Los Angeles after two decades away and continuing the investment activity in downtown's financial district.

The company paid about $30 million for the building, which was constructed in 1971. The largest tenants are law firm Clark & Trevithiek and architects Johnson Fain. Twenty percent of the space is vacant, though Ratkovich will move its offices from Mid-Wilshire to take about 4,000 square feet in the building.

"We've been watching downtown pretty closely over the last couple of years and have really been encouraged," said Clare De Briere, chief operating officer at Ratkovich Co. "For us, it was a natural."

Ratkovich, whose past projects include the Wiltern Theater, was last invested in downtown in the early '80s, when he sold his interests in the Oviatt Building and Fine Arts Building, the latter to former Mayor Richard Riordan.

The Wilshire Boulevard building sale marks a 21-month flip for the seller, a joint venture of New York-based Praedium Group and Portland, Ore.-based ScanlanKemperBard Cos. The partnership bought 800 Wilshire in May 2002 lot $21.9 million.

Jumping on 'the Hill'

Manhattan Beach may have retained its place as the home of the million-dollar home in California, hut Rancho Palos Verdes is making the big strides into that territory, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

During the fourth quarter of 2003, 381 Manhattan Beach homes, most in the state, sold for more than $1 million. That's a 22 percent increase over the 313 in the year-earlier quarter. La Jolla was runner-up for the second straight year, chalking up 307 homes in the seven-figure range.

The biggest jump, however, was recorded by Rancho Palos Verdes, whose 173 $1 million-plus homes during the quarter marked a 94 percent jump from the October-December period in 2002. Only Encinitas, with a 103 percent increase, had a larger increase.

"I'm not surprised," said Gary Fleishman, sales manager at Coldwell Banker Palos Verdes Beach Cities, who noted that the city's median home price still trails Rolling Hills Estates and Palos Verdes Estates. "Rancho Palos Verdes is catching up with the rest of the hill."

With Donald Trump planning 56 ultra-luxury homes near the Ocean Trails Golf Course on the city's southeastern border, that figure is likely to rise, said Fleishman.

Statewide, 19,080 California homes sold for more than $1 million, up 38 percent from 2002. For Southern California (L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and San Diego counties), the seven-figure figure jumped by 48 percent, versus 21 percent for Northern California, according to DataQuick.

"The Bay Area saw a huge jump (in $1 million-plus homes) from 1999 to 2000 and then the market leveled off," said John Karevoll, an analyst at DataQuick. "We're seeing a lot of statistical trends in Southern California that the Bay Area saw three years ago."

Retail Detail

Covina Marketplace and Pacific Square in Gardena have each changed hands as the retail investment market has remained active.

Covina Marketplace LLC, paid $13.5 million, or about $128 a foot, for the retail center at West Arrow Highway and North Azusa Avenue in Covina.

The 105,000-square-foot center, anchored by a 49,000-square-foot Gigante supermarket, was built in 1988 and renovated and expanded four years ago. It is 94 percent occupied.

Meanwhile, in Gardena, Rich Development Co. bought Pacific Square from longtime owner Kataoka Inc. for more than $11 million. The project on Redondo Beach Boulevard near Western Avenue includes a 90,000-square-foot retail center, a 28,000-square-foot office building and a 46-room hotel. The 32,000-square-foot anchor space is now home to a Kataoka-operated supermarket, and will be replaced by Asian specialty foods seller Marukai Pacific, according to Richard Rizika, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis. Rizika represented the buyer and CB's Rick Moil represented the seller.

D.M.C. Real Estate Co.'s Mike Chalem represented the buyer of Covina Marketplace while Sperry Van Ness' Cheryl Pastor represented the seller, Marketplace Covina.

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