LOS ANGELES—Vestar has launched a major renovation of Peninsula Center, a 300,000-square-foot retail center in Rolling Hills Estates. The renovation project will cost $12 million, and has already landed the investor four new credit tenants: Sports Authority, Ulta Beauty, Chipotle and the Habit Burger Grill. The renovation project will be completed by the end of 2016, while the new tenants will all be open by early 2016.

“We bought the property because there were a lot of large vacancies and the anchor tenant leases had expired, and that gave us the ability to do some real meaningful changes to the center by combining a few smaller spaces together to create some new anchor-tenant spaces, bringing in some national chains and bringing in some new pad buildings,” Jeff Axtell, EVP at Vestar, tells GlobeSt.com. “The main focus of the renovation is going to be changing the physical structure; we are adding a two-way drive aisle and we are tearing down a roof structure canopy to connect two different pieces of the structure to create better circulation and visibility. Then, we are combining spaces and bringing in our new anchor tenants, and we are building some new pad buildings, which are under construction now.”

Vestar is still under negotiations on one remaining 35,000-square-foot anchor space. Once that transaction is complete, the property will be 95% leased. Vestar was looking for a mix of national tenants and local tenants to serve the surrounding community. “The Peninsula has really good demographics, and we really wanted this to be the neighborhood center, serving all of the demographics,” says Axtell. “We wanted to bring in a sporting goods store because there is no sporting goods on the peninsula, and you have to drive five miles to get to the nearest one, and there are no cosmetic options. We are trying to fill the void and bring in the retailers that don't have anything in the trade area.”