Bass Appoints Developer Steve Soboroff to Rebuild LA

One leading Los Angeles developer has been tasked with leading the rebuilding of Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas after the L.A. wildfires: Steve Soboroff.

Mayor Karen Bass named the managing director of Soboroff Partners and former president of the L.A. Police Commission to serve as chief recovery officer to raise Los Angeles from the ashes, City News Service and the Los Angeles Times reported.

The multiple weeklong fires that began Jan. 7 destroyed or damaged more than 16,000 structures and killed at least 27 people across 45 square miles of Los Angeles County, causing the evacuation of more than 100,000 residents.

The two largest fires, the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades and the Eaton Fire near Pasadena, remain active.

“Steve Soboroff’s name is attached to hope,” Bass said, when naming him as L.A. fire recovery czar.

Bass said “no one is better equipped to create a rebuilding plan” than Soboroff, the businessman who spearheaded development of Playa Vista and the Crypto.com Arena, formerly Staples Center, in Downtown. He recently sold The Park at Cross Creek retail center in Malibu for $80 million

The longtime civic leader also led the complicated move of the space shuttle Endeavour through Los Angeles to the California Science Center in Exposition Park.

He was a senior advisor to former Mayor Richard Riordan and has served on the harbor and parks commissions. He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in the 2001 election.

Soboroff will work directly with the mayor with the help of city departments to come up with a comprehensive strategy “for rebuilding and expediting the safe return of residents, workers, businesses, schools, nonprofits, libraries and parks” in fire-ravaged areas, according to the mayor’s office.

“People in L.A. are hurting,” Soboroff, who raised his family in Pacific Palisades, said. “They are frustrated, like the mayor said. They’re confused. They want to know what they can do today. They can’t get back to their homes to find the pictures of their loved ones. And a whole lot of people are out of work, as a community has been wiped off the face of the Earth. A community that’s about 120 years old. I lived in it. My kids grew up in it for 40 years.”

“What we need, and what I hope people will start out with today, is hope,”

The choice may be a consequential one for Bass, who has faced criticism for her handling of the firestorm. She issued an executive order that aims to speed up the rebuilding of homes and businesses.

Bass said the city will launch a full investigation into the handling of the fire disaster, after criticism ranging from the preparedness of the fire department to the availability of water in the Palisades.

— Dana Bartholomew