$27M Buys High-Rise Condo Site

The Landmark-Fifield venture, called Wilshire Landmark LLC, paid approximately $27 million for the land, which it acquired from Richard Weintraub, a Los Angeles-based developer. The joint venture was represented in the purchase by Michel Hibbert of Charles Dunn Co.'s West Los Angeles office.

Ken Kahan, a principal and CEO of Calfornia Landmark, tells GlobeSt.com that the joint venture expects to begin construction in the late fall and complete the project about 18 to 24 months later. The project will include 93 units in designs ranging from 2,000 sf to 8,000 sf plus 223 parking spaces. It is being designed by an architectural team headed by Nadel & Associates of Los Angeles and including several consulting architects. No general contractor has been announced yet.

The new condominium development is being financed by an $81.8-million construction loan from Chicago-based Corus Bank, the banking subsidiary of Corus Bankshares Inc., according to Keith R. Gibbons, a Corus Bank vice president.

California Landmark, headed by principals Kahan and Steve Erdman, is a 15-year-old development and investment firm that was founded in 1988. It has extensive experience in the West Los Angeles condominium market. Its developments have included more than $250 million in infill attached low- and mid-rise residential condominiums in the past decade. With its partners, it plans to introduce more than $300 million of new residential high-rise and mid-rise projects in the next two years. The firm also has more than 150,000 sf of industrial-use product under development in the rapidly growing Ventura County market.

Fifield is headed by Steven Fifield, president and founder, who established the company in 1977. The firm began as a suburban office building developer and has evolved into a major developer of high-rise urban office and residential buildings. It has completed 48 buildings comprising more than 10 million sf, valued at more than $2.5 billion.