Four Questions With LA Developer Steve Soboroff

Picking up trash at The Park at Cross Creek in Malibu was like a reflex for Steve Soboroff.

But the managing director of shopping center developer and leasing firm Soboroff Partners isn’t so sure he’ll do that anymore, given the property’s sale earlier this month for a reported $80 million.

The retail center — which counts a Whole Foods Market, Blue Bottle Coffee and Howdy’s Sonrise Café among its tenants — came online in 2019, offering newness to a Malibu market that hadn’t seen retail development for some time.

Saying good-bye is bittersweet, Soboroff said.

“Now, it’s on to the next,” he said. “I want to take something controversial and make it cool.”

What that ends up looking like is anyone’s guess given Soboroff’s diverse resume: chair and CEO of Playa Vista, 10 years as Los Angeles Police Commissioner, five years as president of the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission, key proponent of the Staples Center — now Crypto.com Arena — and vice chair of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Soboroff spoke with The Real Deal after The Park at Cross Creek’s sale was announced in a conversation that touched on his next project and his approach to development.

What’s the takeaway from the Malibu project?

This was, I feel, my best work and I think that some of my partners feel it was their best work. It was a very difficult project to get entitled. The proof in the pudding is the number of letters I got from people who were opposed to the project that later apologized and said, “This is really cool.”

I do believe it takes a big person to be as opposed as they were, and sometimes untruthful, to come out and say, “You know what? You did what you said you were going to do and my kids, my grandkids and I love it. Thank you.”

I really like the community and I understand the community — by understanding it, that means you listen to both sides. So, I understand both sides of it and I hope to get involved in doing something else there because I think that I have shown you can make real estate about public policy and you can make real estate about making communities better, in addition to ROI and IRR.

What’s key to successfully bridging real estate with public policy?

Well, what’s often lacking is that developers believe that they can do whatever they want, and real estate development is as close to benevolent dictatorship as anything. But benevolent dictatorship ain’t even working in real estate now.

So, what it involves is talking to the owners and being frank with them and saying, “You’re doing this wrong. You don’t understand this. If you think about real estate more as public policy than real estate, that’ll give you some really cool ideas and I believe that will help you get something not only controversial approved, but get it leased.” My entire life has been about having tenants who are happy. They are my customers and I believe in customer service.

Will you stay with retail on your next project?

I feel whatever skills I have in retail, which is where I spent most of my time, were interchangeable in other real estate businesses. Playa Vista was the largest private residential project in America and that is hugely successful and that included tech [and] industrial.

I feel the skills are interchangeable, not just for me, but for anybody. If you’re honest, if you’re fair, if you don’t look in the mirror and see a hotshot, I think that there will be opportunities.

For me, I’m so concerned about the lack of the middle class, the disappearance of the middle class, that I’ve always liked doing things for the masses versus the classes.

As far as looking at other projects, there are a number of projects where I feel that I could add value. I know how to take things from controversial to cool, which is what we did at Playa Vista. Playa Vista was upside down $700 million and now it’s one of the great communities in America. So, I think that there are a number of projects in L.A. that are controversial that could be cool, and I wish people would feel free to call me if they want me to help them.

I have the time and the energy. I have the relationships built on trust with Angelenos, with decision-makers. I’m not 38 years old and I’m not 48 years old and I’m not 58 years old. Nobody’s ever lost a nickel with me in 50-something years. I believe that that makes up for the fact that I take naps.

With regards to turning controversial projects cool, if someone approached you about Oceanwide Plaza in Downtown L.A., would you consider it?

Yes, except for the fact that I have read stories from a lot of smart people that it’s got negative value and needs to be torn down. And I have read stories from other people who say it needs to be changed.

The Oceanwide project, to me, is not symbolic of Los Angeles. I like to work on projects that are in the core of the entertainment industry, in the core of the aerospace industry, [and] in the core of making retail different and great for communities because retail should be the new city hall.

Retail should be places where people go to talk about issues and that’s what we did in Playa Vista. The Coffee Bean there should be called city hall. We need places where people can come together to talk and listen and, yeah, they need to be entertained and all that other stuff.

There’s a lot of things that need to happen to downtown to further celebrate the Arts District, to further celebrate what’s hugely successful, to further celebrate the museums, to celebrate the next generation of what’s going to happen at, I call it, Staples Center [now Crypto.com Arena] and our convention center and housing for the masses.

There are incredible things all over Los Angeles.