Ratkovich Company, among Los Angeles’ most active development firms, this week announced a changing of the guard at the top.
Chief Operating Officer Brian Saenger will take over as CEO, succeeding founder Wayne Ratkovich, who started the firm more than four decades ago, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.
Wayne Ratkovich will become chairman and serve an advisory role.
Saenger has been with the company for a decade, first as a vice president of acquisitions and corporate counsel, then as chief operating officer and general counsel, according to the report.
He said his immediate goals were to continue the firm’s existing development projects, including the estimated $150 million West Harbor, recently renamed from San Pedro Public Market. That project will redevelop 30 acres of land belonging to the Port of Los Angeles. Officials approved the work about a year ago. The company is still a general partner in the 930,000-square-foot Alhambra office campus.
Wayne Ratkovich founded the company in 1977, the year it bought the aging Oviatt Building in Downtown L.A. for $500,000. Ratkovich Company renovated the landmarked property. The restoration prompted the firm to change its focus from industrial real estate to urban development and renovations, Ratkovich said, according to the Business Journal.
[LABJ] — Dennis Lynch