LOS ANGELES—The Laurus Corp. is planning to invest an additional $30 million into the Howard Hughes Center, which it purchased last week from Passco Cos. for $111 million, GlobeSt.com reported at the time. The renovations will aim to open and energize the center to provide a shopping and entertainment haven for the growing community in Playa Vista. Laurus purchased the 250,000-square-foot retail complex noting that it was rare to find a high-quality asset with vacancy.

“Playa Vista is becoming one of the most incredible success stories. Immediately in the area around the center, you have 3,200 apartment units going up, and groups like Yahoo, Google and a lot of other high-tech and media companies that are moving in or expanding their footprint,” Austin Khan, chief investment officer at the Laurus Corp., tells GlobeSt.com about why the property was a good acquisition opportunity for the company. “What that means for a retail center is that there is a lot of new demand filling in that has not historically been there. We look at that as creating an opportunity to really reinvent the center into being a destination for L.A. at large and for that new community that is forming around it. It is very rare in Los Angeles to find this type of well-located, high-quality center that has vacancy in it. Generally, in West L.A., vacancy rates are in the very low single digits. With Nordstroms deciding to move out due to a corporate strategy, it opened a space for us that had not been on the market in close to 10 years.”

The investor is currently working with architects on the plans for the property, and will begin the renovations in the next couple of months. This will be the first major renovation to the property since it was constructed in 2001. “Ultimately, we would like to continue to make this property a destination for entertainment, lifestyle and dining-type retail. We want it to be the place on the Westside of L.A. that offers a unique combination of options and that will serve this new and burgeoning community,” says Khan. “There will be some fundamental changes to the property to improve the circulation and the flow. We are looking to energize the central courtyard by adding more entertainment and more opportunities for people to have an open air shopping experience.”

The property is located near the 405-freeway at Sepulveda Blvd., and it sits on six acres.