May 19, 2022: Bisnow: You Need More EV Charging Spaces Than You Think: Greener Additions Becoming Easier To Get Into Projects

Sonnenblick Development’s Bob Sonnenblick
May 10, 2022 BISNOW: Construction, Development and Design in Los Angeles
see on BISNOW

 

 
 
 
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Brownstein’s Diane De Felice, McCullough’s Benjamin Arcia, AvalonBay Communities’ Mark Janda, PACE Loan Group’s Ed Wlodarczyk and BLVD Hospitality’s Margaux Rotter.

Southern California’s car culture is changing, and developers and architects are laying the framework in their projects for a near future where there are fewer cars but more need to be charged.

“You need more EV charging spaces than you think you do,” AvalonBay Communities Southern California Senior Vice President Mark Janda said at a Bisnow construction and design event last week.

Ten years ago, he said, it was a struggle to get AvalonBay’s investment committee to approve 10 new EV chargers on a project, but as electric vehicles began to hit the road and become a more common sight on city streets, that has changed. Now, Janda said, AvalonBay is considering putting an EV charger in as many as 25% of parking stalls.

At one transit-oriented development, parking is being considered as temporary, according to McCullough senior associate Benjamin Arcia.

“We designed everything under the parking podium as retail space that’s temporarily occupied by parking,” Arcia said. “We’re going to remove parking and insert retail modules under these residential buildings as the neighborhood becomes more and more ready for it.”

Sustainability in general was a theme throughout the conversation, with speakers touching on the rise in consumer interest in supporting sustainable companies and products.

“Every one of the deals that we do at PACE Loan Group, we require an energy audit,” PACE Loan Group Vice President Ed Wlodarczyk said. “I want to make sure and our partner, who’s actually giving us all the money to put out there, wants to make sure that we’re doing something that actually works.”

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Geneva Street Partners’ Michael Lowinger, Related California’s Jonathan Shum, Sonnenblick Development’s Bob Sonnenblick, Hackman Capital’s Mike Racine and McCarthy Building Cos.’ Daniel Stafford.

Project delays and challenges because of the coronavirus were also discussed.

AvalonBay has partnered with Abode Communities on a massive redevelopment of the West LA Civic Center that will involve 926 residential units, roughly half of them income-restricted affordable at a variety of levels.

That project once anticipated a 2023 groundbreaking, but that has been pushed to late 2024, Janda said. The delay, which Janda said “isn’t that unusual for projects of this scale,” was chalked up to the complex nature of the deal. The property has two owners, the city and county of Los Angeles, and the county bought the land from a state entity.

Janda pointed to AvalonBay’s Arts District project, which is under construction but took five years to get to groundbreaking.

“It’s not uncommon in LA, and it’s one of the reasons why there’s a housing shortage, because it’s so difficult to build,” Janda said.

BLVD Hospitality’s Margaux Rotter detailed how Covid-19 slowdowns took the citizenM Downtown LA hotel, a modular design, from being six months faster than conventional construction to taking just about as long as the project would have taken with traditional construction.

State-level approvals of the modular units shaved off time and avoided some of the red tape that might have come with seeking city approvals for the project, Rotter said.

Brownstein shareholder Diane De Felice moderated the panel.

Mon. June 20, 2022: Bob Sonnenblick to speak at InterFace Southern California Desert Commercial Retail Real Estate Conference

June 20 2022, from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm at University of Redlands Orton Center

 

June 20 2022 Commercial real estate conference

The in-person event is hosted by Western Real Estate Business, Shopping Center Business, California Centers, and Western Multifamily & Affordable Housing Business magazines, along with the InterFace Conference Group.

The conference will attract attendees from throughout Southern California and surrounding areas, including owners, developers, property managers, economic development executives, buyers and lenders who are active in the retail, industrial and multifamily sectors.

Topics for discussion include:

  • What is the economic outlook for the next 12 to 24 months?
  • How has demand for industrial properties grown and what is the outlook for new development?
  • What is the availability of industrial land? How are land prices affecting future development?
  • Who is developing and who is buying industrial properties?
  • How have changes in e-commerce and advances in logistics impacted industrial development and design?
  • How has the retail sector fared through the pandemic? Where are the strengths and weaknesses as the retail sector recovers from the pandemic?
  • What retailers are opening and closing in the market?

What is the market seeing in terms of experiential retail, pop-ups, and nontraditional tenants?

Tue May 10, 2022 BISNOW: Construction, Development and Design in Los Angeles

Bisnow Conferences Inc. has selected Los Angeles-based real estate developer Bob Sonnenblick, Chairman of Sonnenblick Development LLC, to moderate the keynote panel at their upcoming Real estate & Construction Conference in Downtown Los Angeles on May 10th, 2022.

BISNOW IN-PERSON

Los Angeles

CONSTRUCTION, DEVELOPMENT
AND DESIGN IN LOS ANGELES

LOCATION

The Westin Bonaventure
404 S Figueroa St
Los Angeles, CA 90071

Ballroom: San Gabriel & Santa Anita, 1st Floor

SPEAKERS

KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND AMIDST CONSTRUCTION SETBACKS
Working Through Supply Chain Issues, Labor Shortages, and Construction Costs

Bob Sonnenblick

BOB SONNENBLICK

Chairman, Sonnenblick Development

MIKE RACINE

MIKE RACINE

Executive Vice President, Hackman Capital

JONATHAN SHUM

JONATHAN SHUM

SVP, Related California

DANIEL STAFFORD

DANIEL STAFFORD

SVP, McCarthy Building Companies

For more information, please go to: www.Bisnow.com

Press Release: November 2, 2021. Los Angeles, Calif. Bob Sonnenblick to moderate IMN 3rd Annual Distressed Hotels Forum

Press Release: November 2, 2021. Los Angeles, Calif.

IMN Conferences, Inc. has chosen Los Angeles-based real estate developer Bob Sonnenblick to moderate the keynote panel at their upcoming 3rd Annual Distressed Hotels Forum, to be located at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday November 16th.

IMN Information Management Network

Mr. Sonnenblick is the Chairman of both Sonnenblick Development LLC and Sonnenblick Resorts LLC.. His panel will feature institutional hotel lenders and investors who are active in today’s post-Covid hotel investment marketplace. The panel title is: “Private Equity Outlook-Hotel Industry Fundraising and Capital Structuring”.

Moderator and speakers

For more information on this conference, please go to www.IMN.org or to www.SonnDev.com

9-2-2021-Press Release: Bob Sonnenblick named as moderator: Crittenden Real Estate Finance Conference

Crittenden Real Estate Conference Sept 22-24-2021

Conference Details

September 22-24, 2021
Miami, FL
18 educational sessions – 65+ speakers – 5 networking events
Don’t forget to register! See you there!

PRESS RELEASE: Miami, Florida for Monday Sept 20,2021

    Crittenden Real Estate Conferences Inc. has announced that Los Angeles-based real estate developer Bob Sonnenblick, Chairman of Sonnenblick Development LLC, has been named as Moderator for their keynote panel “The Post-Covid Real Estate Finance Marketplace” at their upcoming Crittenden Real Estate Finance Conference to be held at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Thursday Sept 23 in Miami, Florida at 9am.  See www.crittendenrealestatefinance.com