LOS ANGELES-A joint venture between locally based Michael Sorochinsky, CEO of Cypress Equity Investments, and Chicago-based Steven Fifield, CEO of Fifield Cos., has promised to bring 1,000 new apartments to Los Angeles. The two companies have formed the joint venture Century West Partners, and have already purchased land for their first project across from the proposed football stadium downtown.
Fifield has extensive experience in building apartment complexes, with more than 50 projects totaling $4 billion in value, including the multi-tower Alta at K Station complex in Chicago. He lives now in Chicago with wife Randy, vice chairwoman and principal of the company, though the couple did live in Los Angeles for a few years in the past decade.
He tells GlobeSt.com that he produced a couple of multifamily projects in the Los Angeles area, including the Californian on Wilshire and Beverly West condo towers. However, he says he wanted to venture into apartment development, and found a good partner in Sorochinsky. “He’s got great local contacts,” Fifield says. “He had more than 50 buildings until 2005, when he sold most of them off at the peak of the market.”
For its debut, Century West is building two seven-story buildings, about 245 units, at 1340 S. Figueroa, near LA Live and the Staples Center. The Washington, DC-based Carlyle Group is providing equity for the development, expected to cost about $95 million.
The site, a parking lot, was supposed to be a condo project but the plan tanked with the economy. The project will include 11,000 square feet of retail and a 252-space parking garage. Construction is expected to start in April 2012 and finish in November 2013.
Fifield says there are two other current Los Angeles projects in the Century West pipeline, including a planned building in the Korea Town district and another in Santa Monica. “We want to try to get 1,000 new apartments under construction in the next 12-18 months,” Fifield says. Each complex will range about 250 units, Randy Fifield tells GlobeSt.com.
Steven Fifield says he wants to expand more in Los Angeles because of the diversity. “In Chicago, there’s just one healthy market, the downtown,” he says. “The suburbs are just not doing much, because the projected rents can’t justify development. In LA, there’s multiple submarkets that are healthy, you’ve got downtown, Korea Town, Santa Monica, West LA, there’s just much more of a buzz, and so many markets that rents are high enough to justify construction.”
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