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Kroenke confirmed as buyer of LA zombie mall
His Rams reportedly want to build practice facility at diminished retail center
Stan Kroenke, the owner of Super Bowl champion the Los Angeles Rams, has been confirmed as the buyer of a Woodland Hills mall that his team reportedly wants as a site for a practice facility.
TRD verified Kroenke’s involvement in the deal through records that were recently filed with Los Angeles County. Kroenke bought the 34-acre site, at 6100 North Topanga Canyon Boulevard, through Missouri-based firm TKG Management. TKG is a subsidiary of The Kroenke Group, a real estate investment firm that Kroenke owns.
The property recently traded for $150 million. The identity of the buyer was previously undisclosed. The seller is French retailer Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.
The mall was built in 1973 as the Woodland Hills Promenade with tenants such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bullocks Wilshire and J.W. Robinson’s. Recent years have seen the mall’s occupancy dwindle to a movie theater, a post office and a few restaurants.
Recent plans envisioned a $1.5 billion redevelopment into a mixed-use complex with 1,432 residential units, 244,00 square feet of retail space, and 629,000 square feet of office space. That previous proposal for the site, called the Westfield Promenade 2035 plan, also included a 15,000-seat sports complex.
In February, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Rams planned to build a practice facility at the site. The team currently practices at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, and has held training camp at UC Irvine in recent years The Times report speculated that Kroenke might build a practice facility and team headquarters at the site then turn the surrounding area into a mixed-use development. That strategy would be similar to what Kroenke did with SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, which is the home field of the Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers, a tenant. The stadium is also the centerpiece of a larger mixed-use project.
Aside from the Rams, Kroenke and his family have interests in the English Premier League’s Arsenal F.C., the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, along with other several franchises and esports teams.
Kroenke married into the founding family of Wal-Mart stores –his wife is Ann Walton Kroenke. He made his first fortune developing shopping centers anchored by the retailer.