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- Rams owner Stan Kroenke plans to build a state-of-the-art team headquarters as part of a residential and retail project at Warner Center in Woodland Hills that could cost more than $10 billion.
- Kroenke and global architectural firm Gensler plan to submit its proposal to Los Angeles city officials within the coming weeks.
- Work on the 100-acre site could begin as early as 2027 and could take about a decade to complete.
For the Rams, a house isn’t necessarily a home.
There’s the Sunday sanctuary of SoFi Stadium — also known as Rams House — but the franchise that returned to Los Angeles in 2016 has turned its attention to creating a permanent home in Woodland Hills, where it will spend the other six days of the week.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who built the $5-billion stadium in Inglewood, has provided The Times a detailed and exclusive first look at the next major project for his NFL team: a state-of-the-art team headquarters, surrounded by a glistening new residential and retail community intended to be the long-awaited centerpiece of the San Fernando Valley.
In bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles and constructing a state-of-the-art venue — a place where the Chargers also play — Kroenke provided a proof of concept. SoFi Stadium renderings were more than pretty pictures; they came to life.
Now the billionaire developer is focusing more sharply on a 100-acre, L-shaped site at Warner Center, roughly 30 miles northwest of the Inglewood stadium. He plans to create a permanent home for the Rams — replacing their temporary digs there — surrounded by a high-end residential and retail district with apartments, offices, stores and restaurants, parks and other green spaces, and two new entertainment venues.
“We are well positioned to get going,” Kroenke told The Times last week at the annual NFL meetings. “We’re working hard on it and it’s exciting.”
Why unveil the plans now? Kroenke, with the help of global architectural firm Gensler, plans to submit initial plans to Los Angeles city officials within the coming weeks, and informing the public is part of that process. Developers hope to put shovels in the ground by early 2027, and once underway, the entire project should require about a decade to complete all phases.
“I’m excited about it,” said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents the northwest corner of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, including Woodland Hills. “That space that they’re taking over is such prime real estate and has been so under-utilized, dormant even, for the last decade or more. It is so ripe for becoming a centerpiece for the West Valley and the city of L.A., an anchor.”
Although the Hollywood Park site is three times the size of the one in Warner Center, and Kroenke is continuing to develop that massive district in Inglewood, the latest endeavor likewise will command an investment of more than $10 billion.
“If you look at what we’ve done in Inglewood, this is a piece of cake,” said Otto Maly, president of Kroenke Holdings, citing the wealthier demographic of Woodland Hills and the surrounding areas.
Football is only one aspect of this project, albeit a major one. The Rams, who relocated to the site from Thousand Oaks last year, will keep their two existing outdoor fields and add an indoor practice field and permanent offices. The plans call for a swooping design complementary of the stylish curvature of their stadium.
Just as the YouTube Theater is sidled next to SoFi Stadium, two smaller entertainment venues — with capacities of 5,000 and 2,500 people — will neighbor Rams headquarters. Those will host concerts and similar events.
“You start to think about, ‘Hey, how do we get more live entertainment so that the people in that part of the Valley don’t always have to drive 45 minutes to an hour to go to a concert?’” said Kevin Demoff, president of the Rams. “This project provides that.”
The 100 acres are broken into three parcels, with Topanga Village, an existing open-air shopping center to the north that will remain as is, and two square parcels to the south. The Rams’ facility, both the current temporary one and the future permanent one, sit on the eastern parcel. In addition to team headquarters, that piece of land is home to the 13-story former Anthem building, which will be “re-skinned” to look like a new structure.
The western parcel contains the defunct Promenade mall and will be entirely redeveloped to include apartment buildings, playgrounds, band shells, alfresco dining, a large grocery store and another featuring specialty foods, all surrounding a 1?-acre central gathering space.
The renderings for the Warner Center redesign feature buildings that are sleek and modern but not outlandishly daring or unconventional. Lots of balconies and outdoor spaces, including park-like green spaces on the tops of structures.
“We’ve been very selective in the design of our buildings so that they’re not faddish,” Maly said. “You see some people go out and build a building, and in three years it’s very dated because of the colors, or they try to get cute. It becomes dated very quickly.”
Even though this will significantly reshape the landscape, this plan doesn’t come out of the blue. This type of redevelopment was first approved and entitled in 2013 for the entire Warner Center area and proposed a dense urban environment.
Seven years later, mall developer Westfield rolled out plans for an economically viable community to replace the outdated Promenade. In later purchasing that site, Kroenke essentially bought those entitlements.
But with more people working from home, and increasing reliance on shopping online, the original Westfield plans needed updating. What’s more, Kroenke’s goals for the site are different, including building team headquarters onto the site and infusing the Rams brand throughout.
“When we did Hollywood Park, it was revitalizing what was once a great sports area from the heyday of the Forum and the racetrack,” Demoff said. “That was bringing that back to life and rekindling the community. It wasn’t unfamiliar to that area.
“Here, it’s really investing in the Valley for the first time ever by a sports team and really by a major community. There’s never been a hub of the Valley.
“By all of our metrics, if the Valley were its own NFL city, it would be the 14th-largest NFL city, and that’s if you got rid of the rest of Los Angeles. When you think about that opportunity to go bring a sports-and-entertainment district hub to the Valley, which has its own heartbeat, lifestyle and culture, it’s really unique.”
The original Westfield plan called for a 10,000-seat venue, which could mean crowds and congestion — or crickets — depending on the day. Kroenke’s plan breaks those 10,000 seats into three venues (including 2,500 lining the indoor practice field) and locates them in the neighboring parcel, a short walk from the residential district.
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“The larger the venue, the more infrequent the events,” said Eric Stultz, Gensler design principal. “With smaller venues, you have more events and you can syncopate the energy level of the area, keeping it more consistent. As a result, the disruption of the neighborhood is lower. It’s more of a steady hum than an infrequent lurching of people.”
Medical facilities are often part of NFL team headquarters, and there’s a strong likelihood there will be that component for the Rams, particularly with their team doctor being Neal ElAttrache, among the world’s preeminent sports surgeons.
There’s plenty of room for Rams headquarters at Hollywood Park, but that’s not optimal for multiple reasons. In approving the Rams’ relocation from St. Louis, the NFL stipulated that the Chargers, were they to move there from San Diego, would get equal representation on that site. So there’s no turning that whole place royal blue and yellow. (The Chargers subsequently built their futuristic practice facility, “The Bolt,” on 14 acres in El Segundo.)
Creating a second epicenter in Woodland Hills allows the Rams to significantly increase the size of their footprint in the market.
“When you’re looking to do a practice facility, you don’t need to be right in the middle of everything, and typically that real estate is very expensive,” Kroenke said. “We built an identity in the Valley, with Cal Lutheran, and a lot of our players and families are up there. Our experience was really good.”
The new honor would recognize the best of the best with the “Shield Award.” Some worry left tackles would win most of the time, but some centers disagree.
Stultz was design director for the Star in Frisco, Texas, headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys. Specifically, he oversaw the Ford Center, the athletic center that consumes roughly a third of the 91-acre project. The Cowboys are at the cutting edge of NFL marketing, and the Star, which opened in 2016, is as much a crown jewel to the franchise as AT&T Stadium.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said having a signature practice facility, one fans can visit and tour, is a force multiplier when it comes to marketing a franchise.
“It’s like the Sistine Chapel being something that all Catholics think about all over the world,” Jones said. “Many of our fans that know about the Star have never actually been there, but they’re aware of it through just following the Cowboys and our games. It gives you another way to tangibly have another church house to preach in.”
In that respect, Kroenke is ready to step up to the pulpit.
“The master plan was to bring some kind of central core to the Valley,” the Rams owner said. “This is definitely fully capable of creating that.”
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