Hackman Capital Partners veteran Zach Sokoloff is likely to lose the race for Los Angeles city controller, based on early results. Incumbent Kenneth Mejia will probably keep his watchdog spot, an office seen as a motherlode of political potential, despite Sokoloff’s industry ties and financial backing.
As of Wednesday morning, Mejia tallied about 59 percent of the vote, while Sokoloff trailed behind at 41 percent, per the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder.
Sokoloff’s real estate donors included Ben Ashkenazy, CEO of Ashkenazy Acquisition, Hackman Capital people — including boss Michael Hackman — and LA Realty Partners’ Gary Weiss, plus Compass and Sotheby’s brokers. And, his mother bankrolled his campaign.
“The controller’s office is the independent auditor and fiscal watchdog for the city of Los Angeles, and so there are countless programs that touch real estate where I think there has been no accountability and no oversight,” Sokoloff previously told The Real Deal, calling the city and its budget “broken.”
This is his first foray into elective politics, and it’s unclear if he’ll make another bid. Sokoloff was on leave while on the campaign trail, but now that that’s close to over, it seems he can return to Hackman as senior vice president of asset management. And, there’s a lot to come back to.
The landlord is suing its luxe tenant Erewhon over unpaid rent at its Culver Steps, a mixed-use campus on the market. That comes after Hackman defaulted on a billion dollar mortgage on Radford Studio Center earlier this year, then lost it to Goldman Sachs, which is now in talks with Netflix — who could purchase the real estate for a lot less than Hackman’s price. The company defaulted on a $100 million loan on what once was its Sony Pictures Animation campus located in Culver City, too, which now faces foreclosure. And, Deutsche Bank is reportedly recruiting a broker to market Hackman’s Television City.
When asked to comment on the studio operator’s recent distress in May, Sokoloff deflected, and said, “Hollywood is maybe as clear an example as any of how the city and the state acted too late and did too little.” Production has fled Los Angeles in search of cheaper costs elsewhere, and shoot days are hitting new lows, which is hurting all studio owners, not just Hackman.
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Politics
Los Angeles
Real estate fuels Hackman vet Zach Sokoloff’s fundraising lead in LA City Controller race
Commercial
Los Angeles
Primary perspective on the politics of real estate in California