Former Macy’s Site Makes Way for Massive Mixed-Use Project

The former Laurel Plaza shopping center is making way for a new massive mixed-use project. NoHo West re-imagines the retail site with 300,000 square feet of new retail space, 235,000 square feet of creative office—located inside the former Macy’s—and 600 apartment units. Merlone Geier Partners is developing the office and retail portions while Trammell Crow is tackling the apartment units. The office and retail portion of the project is set to open early next year, while tenant build outs could start as early as August.

“If you were looking to find a development site in Los Angeles for the ultimate live-work-play mixed-use environment, this is it,” Patrick Church, a broker at JLL who is handling leasing at the project, tells GlobeSt.com. [It is challenging] to find a project that could deliver 235,000 square feet of brand new creative office space and 300,000-square-feet of support retail along with multifamily.”

Development sites, particularly of this size and scale, are difficult to find and even harder to secure in Los Angeles. To close the deal, Merlone Geier Partners moved quickly and quietly. “It was a long process to acquire this site from Macy’s. It is a large parcel with a single Macys,” Stephen Logan, VP at Merlone Geier Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. “We tried to get this done under the radar without the community knowing that this was an opportunity that would be available for purchase.”

Construction started in 2017 and couldn’t be delivering into any better of a market, particularly for creative office space. “The site is located right at the 170 freeway next to the Burbank Media District and is a 10-minute drive from Hollywood,” says Church. “This site lent itself to the entertainment angle to provide space that no one else can provide. Nothing like this exists in Hollywood or the Media District.”

With construction nearing completion on the office and retail portion, Church is fielding requests from prospective tenants. The team is looking for single-floor or multi-floor tenants. “We are talking to a handful of prospective tenants,” he says. “Activity is there, and based on what is going on in Burbank—Netflix signing a lease at Burbank Studio and Disney taking everything at the Tower—vacancy is going to be 5% at the end of the third quarter. In Hollywood, there is no space. So, we are starting to see a lot more activity.”

Converting former retail space into mixed-use is becoming more and more common, particularly in markets with limited development space. “We are already seeing it, especially in the Tri-City market,” says Church. “As a lot of the big box retailers close their doors, we are seeing a lot of activity to convert the space to creative office. One of the biggest issues for office is parking, and retailers already have the parking.”