Robert D Voit

About a quarter-century ago, when what is now Warner Center was cornfields and cow pastures, a young real estate developer named Robert D. Voit heard about the Warner family's plans to turn its land into an urban center with shopping malls, offices, condominiums and manufacturing. "I thought, 'Isn't that a bizarre idea? How could one be so crazy as to dream of high-rises in the middle of cornfields?' " Voit recalled.

Developer Robert Voit is once again focusing on investment and development in Orange County after a 20-year hiatus. His Voit Development Co. recently purchased two multi-tenant industrial parks near Anaheim Stadium for $12.1 million. It's his first purchase here since he got wrapped up in the massive Warner Center project in Woodland Hills during the early 1970s. Voit's brokerage and property management companies have been operating here for some time.

Robert D. Voit got into commercial real estate development more than 20 years ago, back when someone who had never owned a piece of property could tie up huge tracts of land in the path of development and get a major ownership stake in the ensuing development. That's just what Voit did in Warner Center. A former commercial real estate broker with Coldwell Banker, Voit, now 52, started Voit Cos. in Woodland Hills in 1971 as a commercial development and property management firm.

In a transaction seen as breathing new life into the moribund commercial real estate business, Warner Center Corporate Park, a 343,458-square-foot office complex, has been sold for $51.5 million to CarrAmerica Realty Corp., a Washington, D.C. real estate investment trust. The sale also represents the end of an era for Robert Voit, the 56-year-old developer who transformed the face of the west San Fernando Valley by building a large chunk of the gleaming high-rise district known as Warner Center.

Developer Robert Voit is once again focusing on investment and development in Orange County after a 20-year hiatus. His Voit Development Co. recently purchased two multi-tenant industrial parks near Anaheim Stadium for $12.1 million. It's his first purchase here since he got wrapped up in the massive Warner Center project in Woodland Hills during the early 1970s. Voit's brokerage and property management companies have been operating here for some time.

In a transaction seen as breathing new life into the moribund commercial real estate business, Warner Center Corporate Park, a 343,458-square-foot office complex, has been sold for $51.5 million to CarrAmerica Realty Corp., a Washington, D.C. real estate investment trust. The sale also represents the end of an era for Robert Voit, the 56-year-old developer who transformed the face of the west San Fernando Valley by building a large chunk of the gleaming high-rise district known as Warner Center.

Scher-Voit Commercial Brokerage has opened its offices at 2415 Campus Drive, Irvine. The two principals are Lawrence M. Scher, formerly president of Business Properties Brokerage Co., Newport Beach, and Robert D. Voit, president of the Voit Cos., Woodland Hills.

Woodland Hills real estate developer Robert D. Voit said he and several partners of a joint venture that built 40 buildings in Warner Center agreed to divide up their ownership of the properties. The properties include six office towers and the Warner Center Marriott Hotel. The last of them opened three years ago. Voit said the venture partners had been discussing how to restructure the development's ownership since then. Previously, the joint venture owned the entire development.

Newport Beach-based Voit Development Co. acquired a $39-million industrial portfolio of five multi-tenant and three single-tenant properties in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties from Fujita Corp., according to a Voit announcement. The purchase is Voit's third acquisition from Fujita in the last 15 months. The two previous acquisitions included a $38-million portfolio in March 1999 and a $125-million portfolio in December 1999.

Robert D. Voit of Woodland Hills-based Voit Cos. is stepping aside as president and turning over the day-to-day operations of the company to a new president and chief operating officer, Alan G. Epstein, the company said. Voit, who founded the company in 1971, will remain as chairman to focus on new business, according to the announcement. Epstein was most recently a senior vice president of Knowledge Universe. His background includes positions at Tooley & Co.

About a quarter-century ago, when what is now Warner Center was cornfields and cow pastures, a young real estate developer named Robert D. Voit heard about the Warner family's plans to turn its land into an urban center with shopping malls, offices, condominiums and manufacturing. "I thought, 'Isn't that a bizarre idea? How could one be so crazy as to dream of high-rises in the middle of cornfields?' " Voit recalled.

Robert D. Voit got into commercial real estate development more than 20 years ago, back when someone who had never owned a piece of property could tie up huge tracts of land in the path of development and get a major ownership stake in the ensuing development. That's just what Voit did in Warner Center. A former commercial real estate broker with Coldwell Banker, Voit, now 52, started Voit Cos. in Woodland Hills in 1971 as a commercial development and property management firm.

Akins Development Co., a Newport Beach home builder, said it had acquired 14.6 acres in the planned community of Rancho Santa Margarita in southern Orange County. Akins plans to build 95 single-family detached homes as the eighth phase of its Vista Ladera neighborhood. . . . Construction begins this week on Park Place Apartments in Anaheim, a Mediterranean-style apartment complex near West Lincoln Avenue and Dale Street developed by Newport Pacific Development Corp.

In a major revamp, Scher-Voit Commercial Brokerage Co. in Irvine will get a new name and a new president by year's end, and co-founder Lawrence M. Scher will resign. As part of a strategy to integrate the real estate brokerage with a sister operation, Voit Cos. in Woodland Hills, Sher-Voit will become Voit Commercial Brokerage Co., officials said Friday. Robert D. Voit, president of Voit Cos., will act as president of the brokerage until the position is filled.