Since the SoFi Stadium opened in 2020, the new home of the Los Angeles Chargers and Super Bowl champions the Los Angeles Rams, has brought much attention to a revitalized Inglewood. However, that was only the beginning.
Spanning nearly 300 acres, Hollywood Park is the largest urban mixed-use development under construction in the Western United States. Developer and Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s vision for the site when completed will offer new apartment residences, public parks, a lake and entertainment venues, anchored by a retail district and surrounded by creative office space. The long-term final buildout of Hollywood Park will include 2,500 homes, 900,000 square feet of office space, 890,000 square feet of retail and a 300-key hotel. The complex has 25 acres of open space featuring a six-acre artificial lake fronting SoFi Stadium.
“We have about 15 million square feet of entitlements,” said Jason Gannon, managing director of SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. “We’re in our phase one for the project, which is about 5 million square feet whenever you include SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, American Airlines Plaza, the NFL Media, first phase of residential and retail as well.”
The mixed-use development, which billions of dollars is being spent on, is all linked by walkable paseos and plazas and centered on SoFi Stadium.
There are components of the project that have already come online, such as SoFi Stadium, which at 3.1 million square feet and the ability to accommodate 100,000 fans, is the largest stadium in the National Football League. YouTube Theater, a 227,000-square-foot live entertainment venue, meanwhile, opened in August 2021. NFL is also betting on the project and in 2021 relocated from Culver City to 214,063 square feet within a 450,000-square-foot class A office building at Hollywood Park. There is an additional 74,922 square feet of studio and creative space devoted to the brand’s growing digital and programming departments.
“Within five miles of our site, there’s some 900,000 to 1 million people, all of whom constitute a market that anywhere else would be a whole city and yet has been traditionally underserved,” said Christopher Meany, partner at Wilson Meany, Hollywood Park’s development manager. “The real superpower of the place is the incredible cosmopolitan community that surrounds it. This is the one part of L.A. that didn’t have that social retail heart. Our project is actually about creating that.”
Residences ready
The first two apartment buildings totaling 314 units will start leasing this month. The site is entitled for up to 2,500 residences.
The Residences at Hollywood Park, consisting of the Crosby and the Wesley, is walkable to shopping, dining, sports and entertainment venues and public parks within the Hollywood Park complex. The residences were designed by prominent architects Hart Howerton and TCA Architects and interior design firms Kenneth Brown Design and Redmond Aldrich Design. The Crosby, with 213 units, and the Wesley, with 101 units, will offer a collection of residences from studios to three-bedroom units ranging 700 to 1,450 square feet.
“The buildings have different personalities,” Janice Thacher, retail and residential partner at Wilson Meany, said. “The Wesley is the smaller of the two buildings. It has a cozier feel. The Crosby has a nice pool deck. Both buildings are focused on indoor/outdoor living. A lot of outdoor space, roof decks, terraces, highly amenitized.”
Meany said that both were “nearing completion.” He did not disclose how much apartments at the Crosby and Wesley would rent for, but said they would be leased at market rate. According to Rent Café, the average rent in Inglewood is $2,254 at an average apartment size of 772 square feet.
The Crosby’s and Wesley’s combined 314 units remain a long way off from the 2,500 homes entitled at Hollywood Park.
“We’ll build out as the market demands,” Thacher said. “Just depending on the pace of the leasing, we’ll start focusing on future phases of residential development.”
“We are continually evaluating the residential inventory based on demand,” Gannon added. “Trying to balance the amount of construction activity at the site, we think it’s important to finish up our first phase of residential and get the residents here at the site and then turn to additional residential down the road.”
Read the full article in LA Business Journal.