William Witte just gave Matt Mahan more money. The Related California chairman emeritus donated another $10,000 to Mahan’s California governor campaign. Witte has doled out $20,000 on his latest choice for governor. (He gave to Antonio Villaraigosa before Mahan’s entry). A representative for Witte did not respond to a request for comment.
Mahan is rolling in Los Angeles real estate money. He has collected more than a million dollars via Rick Caruso — and thousands of dollars from Angela Aman, Jordan Kaplan, Victor Coleman, Jason Oppenheim, D. Michael Van Konynenburg and more. But the San Jose mayor is generally polling in the single digits, which has been the case since his late-entry in a very crowded race (though a recent poll he commissioned put him at 10 percent).
In back-to-back debates, it’s become clear that Mahan is almost too normal. It’s hard for him to have standout moments. But, he fields questions skillfully, keeps calm in contentious moments, repeatedly reminds watchers he is mayor of the third largest city and takes jabs at his rivals like everyone else.
To save, or not to save
In other debate news, during the Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman fight off, which my colleague Kari Hamanaka wrote about here, an interesting question about downtown Los Angeles was posed: “Can we afford to let it die?” Well, first, none of the candidates — the mayor and councilwoman — denied it was dying. Second, their answers were more of the same.
Bringing city workers back to their desk more than three days a week, keeping businesses from fleeing, making it clean and safe was Raman’s answer. Pratt just stressed how unsafe downtown is — and said Raman doesn’t care about safety whereas Bass at least pretends to care. Bass said we can’t afford to let it die among other platitudes.
Operation Oceanwide
Speaking of downtown, let’s talk graffiti-covered eyesore: Oceanwide Plaza. The bankrupt, unfinished three-tower development recently filed a couple operating reports. The latest had some enlightening financials. Its balance sheet as of March 31, put total assets at $565 million — real property was about $434 million. Liabilities, a.k.a debt, was $781 million. Because the ill-famed complex is making no money, but still has expenses, losses for the month amounted to $745,000. Since it’s been in bankruptcy court, losses appear to total $21 million. An Oceanwide representative declined to comment.
A hearing to confirm KPC and Lendlease’s $470 million purchase, mostly via a credit bid, is scheduled for later this month after being pushed due to a plea for more time by the city. The latest on what we know here.
Q1
Earnings season is over. Here are some highlights from the latest L.A REIT calls.
Douglas Emmett
- The company, which owns offices and some apartments, inked the most 10,000-plus square feet leases ever. Tenants include companies in entertainment and legal industries.
- CEO Jordan Kaplan said Los Angeles feels like it’s coming back and he hopes it holds up. His portfolio is mostly on the Westside and in the Valley.
- CEOs rarely say exactly what they’re thinking, so hearing Kaplan say he was “frightened” when Warner Brothers moved out of Studio Plaza was definitely a highlight. After Warner Brothers, the sole occupant, moved out, the company did a multimillion dollar renovation in 2025 to make it a multitenant office campus. He wouldn’t say when he expects it to be completely leased but touted the mix of tenants thus far.
Hudson Pacific Properties
- The studio and office owner is still in the red, but losses were less than a year earlier at $53 million.
- Victor Coleman appears to be making good on a promise to eliminate the Quixote earnings drag, even if that means making “difficult decisions.”
- Netflix is one of the REIT’s largest tenants. There’s been talk about what it means for Coleman if Netflix buys Radford Studio Center (post-Hackman default and Goldman takeover), but he didn’t appear concerned. “Our relationship is intact, and it’s positive … it won’t interfere with our relationship with them, and our conversations with them going forward,” he said.
- HPP and Blackstone are still having conversations with their lender on a billion-dollar maturity this summer.
- The company found a buyer for 10950 Washington Boulevard in Culver City.
In case you missed it, more on Kilroy and Rexford earnings here and here.
Whispers
One last thing. Bloomberg reported a group of lenders led by Deutsche Bank is recruiting a broker to market Hackman Capital Partners’ Television City. Stagerunner, a media platform run by a former Disney exec, said it heard a rumor that Caruso was eyeing the lot — we have heard similar whispers but Caruso has not confirmed or denied. In case you forgot, his mall, the Grove, is suing to block the expansion of Television City.
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