Los Angeles, CA— CGI+ Real Estate Investment Strategies (“CGI+”) has delivered its first stand-alone retail development, a 31,000-square-foot grocery in Los Angeles’ Los Feliz neighborhood to tenant Lazy Acres Natural Market. Located at 1841 N Western Ave., it is the sixth store for the Santa Barbara, CA-based grocery purveyor in Southern California and the first in the City of Los Angeles.
The Lazy Acres market is the culmination of more than three years of planning, land assemblage and development. The project started two months into the Covid-19 pandemic when CGI+ entered into separate contracts to purchase an existing 23,000-square-foot Rite Aid and two adjacent properties at the heavily trafficked intersection of Franklin and Western Avenues.
After reducing the existing building to its shell and core, CGI+ rebuilt the structure with 8,500 square feet of new construction, and added a new parking lot to meet the specifications of Lazy Acres, which signed a long-term lease with CGI+.
“As an owner of multiple properties in the area and a firm believer of investing in our communities, we saw an opportunity to bring to area residents the first grocery offering organic and healthy products,” said Andre Soroudi, Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Development for CGI+. “Lazy Acres will be a great amenity for the Los Feliz neighborhood for decades to come.”
Lazy Acres Natural Market offers a wide variety of natural and organic grocery items, local, seasonal, and organic produce, full-service meat and seafood departments, bakery, coffee & juice bar, full-service deli and prepared foods, as well as an extensive selection of health supplements and beauty products.
“We are excited to open our sixth store in the community of Los Feliz,” said Forrest Gonsiewski, Senior Vice President of Lazy Acres Natural Market. “This is a really unique neighborhood and we think the shoppers here share many of our core values like nourishing from the inside-out with organic foods, living a lifestyle focused on health and wellness, and making our decisions with the good of the community in mind. Lazy Acres is a special kind of community market, and we look forward to sharing that with the Los Feliz neighborhood.”
As part of the development CGI+ preserved a 1,740-square-foot building that once served as the studio for artist Mary Corita Kent. The “Pop Art Nun” was considered one of the great contributors to the Pop Art movement in Los Angeles. CGI+ participated in the community effort to have the building listed as a Los Angeles historic monument.
“Understanding the importance of the structure to both the community and the history of Los Angeles, we had no issue with amending the original plan and to not only keep the building intact but renovate it to honor the history it represents,” added Soroudi. The building has been leased by Motivate Studios for use as a fitness facility.
Lazy Acres expands CGI+’s footprint in the Los Feliz neighborhood that includes Villa Carlotta, a fully furnished 50-unit extended stay rental property, The James, a 75-unit multifamily property, The Baxter, an 86-unit multifamily development that is scheduled for completion later this year, Los Feliz Bliss, a 78-unit apartment building and a 248-unit, 22-story apartment tower in entitlements at the corner of Franklin and Cahuenga.
About CGI+ Real Estate Investment Strategies
CGI+ Real Estate Investment Strategies is a Los Angeles-based multifamily investment and development firm with more than $2 billion in assets under management. Our portfolio of multifamily and mixed-use assets are located primarily in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and Florida.
