Rising raises major projects: Nelson Rising's negotiating savvy helps Maguire Thomas get big developments off the ground.

When developer Nelson C. Rising explains that he invariably prefers "negotiated solutions" over those proposed by insistent belligerents, one might assume he's referring to the treacherous real estate development arena.

After all, Rising -- senior partner with Maguire Thomas Partners -- in recent years has lifted "the art of compromise" to lauded heights as he's guided local mega-projects such as Library Square and Playa Vista through intimidating regulatory gantlets.

However, the energetic attorney-turned-developer is just as likely to be talking politics.

Long before Rising joined the prominent Maguire Thomas development team in 1984, the UCLA Law School grad helped run John Tunney's successful 1970 U.S. senatorial campaign in California. Rising also held a senior post in Tom Bradley's 1973 L.A. mayoral campaign and was chairman of Bradley's 1977 and 1981 campaigns, as well as head of Bradley's run for the governor's office in 1982.

He even played an advisory role in the film, "The Candidate," which starred Robert Redford as a long-shot senatorial hopeful. "Contrary to what many people assume, the film wasn't about Tunney or (ex-California governor) Jerry Brown," Rising clarifies.

Rising's background in law, as well as the conciliatory approach he's developed through those political endeavors, have helped as the 52-year-old and a team of talented associates navigated ultra-complex, high-impact developments through choppy public channels.

After helping to redefine downtown L.A.'s high-rise core, Rising took on responsibility for the biggest undeveloped piece of property in any major U.S. city. More specifically, he negotiated the bulk of the deal that made downtown L.A.'s landmark Library Square redevelopment a reality before leading the charge to secure approvals for the 1,000-plus-acre Playa Vista community adjacent to Marina del Rey.

The innovative Library Square redevelopment plan helped finance the renovation and expansion of L.A.'s Central Library through the development of the city's new "signature" highrise -- the 73-story First Interstate World Center -- and the nearby 52-story Gas Co. Tower.

The plan also includes two new "public spaces," the library's Maguire Gardens and the Bunker Hill Steps adjacent to the First Interstate tower. Rising was also intimately involved in planning the redevelopment of another public space adjacent to Library Square -- the Pershing Square makeover -- which includes a parking garage serving the Gas Co. building.

Plans for the $7 billion Playa Vista project's first phase -- which L.A.'s City Council approved in September -- include 3,246 residential units, 1.25 million square feet of office space, 35,000 square feet of retail facilities and 300 hotel rooms.

Rising says his "legal training certainly didn't hurt" as he and the Maguire Thomas crew pursued development agreements for Library Square and Playa Vista, as well as the 1 million-square-foot Plaza Las Fuentes mixed-use complex in Pasadena.

His political talent, business acumen, energetic intensity and genuinely jovial demeanor didn't hurt, either, Rising's peers are quick to add.

L.A. City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district includes the Playa Vista site, says Rising's "willingness to get out and talk to everyone who'd listen" was a major factor in the ultimate approval of the project's inaugural phase. The series of forums Rising and associates held with local residents "demonstrated (Maguire Thomas') commitment to the community," she says.

Galanter and Playa Vista's previous lead developer, Howard Hughes Properties, had come to "a complete stalemate" over the scope and design of the planned community after a year and a half of negotiations, the councilwoman recalls.

But the scaled-back plan that evolved under Rising's more conciliatory course "could become a model for L.A. and perhaps the entire country," Galanter says.

Mid-Wilshire-based developer Wayne Ratkovich, who has known Rising since the day they both enrolled at UCLA on football scholarships, says Rising's personality is right for pursuing premier project entitlements. "He has an intense, serious side, but he's also a lot of fun to be around. He never takes things too seriously," Ratkovich says.

Rising leaves a first impression as "the man with the huge smile, the cracking laugh, the booming voice," adds Fred Port, who is president of the diversified Owl Cos., a construction materials firm in Orange County - as well as a full-time friend and part-time business partner of Rising for four decades. Rising's success negotiating Playa Vista's evolution demonstrates the developer's "practical tenacity," Port says.

"Nelson works smart as much as he works hard," Port elaborates. "He finds ways to utilize his extraordinary energy in pursuits that are viable. If there was a way to get Playa Vista approved, Nelson would get it done. If there wasn't, he's smart enough not to die trying."

Rising is the Maguire Thomas executive responsible for getting Playa Vista out of the waterfront ground -- a process that Rising hopes to physically begin next year.

But he stresses that the firm's talented management team -- and its insightful responsibility distribution -- allows Maguire Thomas to pursue and succeed with a project of such massive scope.

Co-Managing Partners Rob Maguire and Jim Thomas "are involved in every aspect" of Maguire Thomas' operations, and three senior partners are matched with three general areas of responsibility reflecting their individual strengths, Rising explains.

Maguire Thomas is "a big company that's still small enough to have fuzzy (responsibility) boundaries," he says. Rising notes that Ned Fox generally oversees the firm's financial affairs and leasing efforts; Richard Gilchrist manages development and construction activities; and Rising handles entitlements and joint venture relationships and intimately participates in all major transactions.

In addition to his Playa Vista entitlement endeavors, Rising is the point man working directly with Maguire Thomas' two partners in the project: a JMB Realty Corp. affiliate and Howard Hughes Properties' parent, Summa Corp.

As managing general partner of that team, Maguire Thomas -- with Rising at the helm -- is acting as Playa Vista's "master developer." In that role, Rising is responsible for determining the timing of the future community's individual developments and arranging financing for them.

Maguire Thomas will "definitely" handle all of Playa Vista's office, retail and hotel projects in-house, Rising notes. And his "inclination" is to also develop the residential phases, rather than sell the vacant plots to other builders or proceed through joint venture arrangements.

While Maguire Thomas hasn't previously pursued residential development, Rising's background in housing makes the in-house approach at Playa Vista viable. That background is also what originally brought Rising and the Maguire Thomas partners together in the mid-1980s, Rising recalls.

Realizing he enjoyed "being a client more than being a practicing attorney," Rising spent most of the 1970s and early 1980s building houses and apartments in Southern California and Central Florida. He was president of Coto de Caza Development Corp. during the namesake southern Orange County project's early years, and developed independently and with partners through his Rising Co. operation.

Eventually, Rising began discussing potential downtown L.A. residential development joint ventures with his Century City office's landlord -- Rob Maguire.

After Rising joined the Maguire Thomas team in 1984, the firm's downtown development activities focused on Library Square. The demand that Rising had anticipated for downtown residential projects hasn't yet materialized, he laments.

But now that he's finally wrapped up entitlements for Plaza Vista's huge first phase -- after four and a half years of challenging negotiations -- Rising is heading back downtown in a more public capacity.

In January, he follows up his participation on a committee that helped draft the city center's long-term planning blueprint -- the Downtown Strategic Plan -- by assuming the post of chairman of the Central City Association, a high-visibility group that promotes downtown interests.

While he says it's premature for him to discuss plans for the association's 1994 program, Rising's still-evolving "everything's negotiable" philosophy is bound to guide his leadership role at there.

"I become more of a 'radical moderate' the older I get," Rising notes.