Brookfield OK for 350 units at shopping center

Plans to replace parking lot, one-story retail building with new 300K structure in San Fernando Valley

Brian Kingston, chief executive officer, Brookfield, in front of a rendering of the planned building at 9450 North Shirley Avenue in Northridge (Brookfield, TCA Architects/Photo Illustration by Steven Dilakian for The Real Deal)
Brian Kingston, chief executive officer, Brookfield, in front of a rendering of the planned building at 9450 North Shirley Avenue in Northridge (Brookfield, TCA Architects/Photo Illustration by Steven Dilakian for The Real Deal)

Brookfield has scored city planning approval to build 350 residential units at a shopping center in Northridge.

The company can demolish an existing one-story retail building and a parking lot to build a five-story apartment building, according to documents filed with the City planning commission of the City of Los Angeles.

Located at 9450 North Shirley Avenue, the planned building is expected to include a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, ranging from 536 to 1,035 square feet in size. Amenities will include a fitness center, lounge and outdoor deck.

Two members of the community have appealed the Department of City Planning’s decision, arguing the plans “consumes a major portion of parking” for the Northridge Fashion Center, which is needed by current visitors, according to letters filed with the city.

Once an AMC movie theater and a Longhorn Steakhouse opens at the shopping center, “demand for parking is anticipated to exponentially increase.”

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“Our neighborhood needs affordable housing inventory, and this project offers none,” wrote one objector, claiming that the plan “only serves to increase the amount of money Brookfield earns.”

None of the units will be classified as affordable, according to the project’s plans.

The city’s planning department determined the project “will provide new higher-density, multifamily housing options to meet growing housing demand” in the area.

Brookfield acquired the Northridge Fashion Center as part of a larger portfolio acquisition in 2018. The Toronto-based firm then took advantage of the pandemic’s hammering effect on retail and decided to turn part of the lot into residential through an adaptive reuse project.

“Like we are doing with a number of our top malls across the country, we are identifying new ways to enhance the site as a thriving, sustainable community hub,” Brookfield spokesman Andrew Brent said in a statement in September.