A mixed-use project envisioned as Playa Vista’s downtown has been sold to a Dallas investment firm for a reported $475 million, cementing the master-planned community’s rise as a residential neighborhood and technology hub.
The steep price for Runway Playa Vista — a retail, residential and office development that cost about $300 million to develop — shows what can happen when tech giants like Facebook, YouTube and Microsoft come to town.
Investors are banking on those companies luring highly educated and highly paid workers to the burgeoning community as it nears completion.
“The tenant roster is kind of a who’s who of big technology and entertainment companies,” said Pete Cassiano, a managing director with buyer Invesco Real Estate, which bought the project from Lincoln Property Co. and two partners. He added that the Runway “is going to be a kind of a hub for the whole area going forward.”
Invesco Real Estate is an arm of Atlanta-based investment manager Invesco. It also has a stake in two other Playa Vista office projects, including one known as the Hercules Campus. It plans to hold the 14-acre Runway for the long term.
The mixed-use project, which developer Rick Caruso of the Grove once held an option on, was delayed for years by legal challenges. That was frustrating for some of the earliest residents of Playa Vista who moved in early last decade but had few of the shops and restaurants that developers had promised.
But the Runway has opened in phases over the last year. It’s now home to a luxury Cinemark movie theater, a Whole Foods market, banks and restaurants. On a recent evening, residents and visitors dined on outdoor patios as classic rock played. Others sat next to fire pits along the public sidewalk.
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