Primestor Converting L.A.'s Panorama Mall Into Mixed-Use Project

Owner says new city center will bring 4.5M SF of commercial, residential and hotel space to under-served neighborhood.

Primestor Development is converting its Panorama Mall in Los Angeles to a mixed-use project that will create 4.5M SF of commercial, residential and hotel space on the 17-acre property.

Culver City, CA-based Primestor is calling the redevelopment proposal, which it recently filed with Los Angeles City Planning, the Panorama City Center. The property is located on Van Nuys Blvd.

“Panorama City Center will introduce a dynamic mixed-use environment to a 17-acre site that today is significantly underutilized,” Primestor said, in a statement. “The revitalization will deliver quality jobs, investment and economic empowerment to a community that has experienced under-investment over the last 50 years.”

Primestor bought the Panorama Mall, a longtime landmark in the northern San Fernando Valley, from Macerich for $98 million in 2015. The existing 312K retail center currently has a Curacao-oriented department store, a Walmart and a Foot Locker outlet, among other tenants.

According to a report in Urbanize Los Angeles, existing improvements, which include roughly 143K SF of retail and restaurant space, as well as surface parking for 1,305 vehicles would give way to a phased development consisting of 3,544 residential units; another 125K SF of retail space; 70K SF of food and beverage space; 90K Sf for entertainment uses; 125K SF of office space; 230K SF for medical uses and a 100K SF, 120-room hotel.

Excluded from the redevelopment are the retail building now occupied by Walmart and a restaurant adjacent to the property at the intersection of Van Nuys and Roscoe Blvd.

The Urbanize Los Angeles report said findings included with the project application indicated that the new multifamily housing at the Panorama City Center would include a mix of market-rate, senior, low-income, workforce and dormitory units.  

About 20% of the total housing, nearly 700 units, would be reserved for low-income affordable housing, the report said. Proposed commercial uses at the center include a fitness center, a movie theater with up to 2,300 seats, a recording studio and medical offices.

Panorama Mall is across the street from a site, which formerly housed a Montgomery Ward store, that another developer also is planning to build a major mixed-use development.

Developer ICON wants to build a seven-building development including 623 apartments, retail, restaurants and a 17,000-square-foot landscaped plaza, according to a recent report in the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.