Jeff Axtell overseas Vestar’s retail shopping center acquisition and development strategies in the Western states. He has helped develop several retail centers in Tustin, Long Beach, Cerritos and Orange, and is now responsible for the Peninsula Center in Rolling Hills Estates. He graduated from UCLA in Economics and has been active in local youth sports programs.

The Peninsula Shopping Center is on the southwest corner of Silver Spur Road & Hawthorne Boulevard in Rolling Hills Estates (see map). Jeff says the previous owner was an investment company that did not do much to develop the shopping center’s potential, rather than a real estate management company.

He sees new opportunities there now with some leases expiring. The Center has 300,000 leasable square feet and is anchored by Pavilions, Rite Aid, T.J. Maxx, OSH, Sports Authority and Ulta, surrounded by signalized corners in the principal commercial district of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Daily vehicular traffic is 21,000 on Silver Spur Road and 35,000 on Hawthorne Boulevard, with 86,000 population within a 3-mile radius, having $138,000 average household income.

Although the Sports Authority company has gone bankrupt, its local store here has done well. An Orchard Supply Hardware store will open in early 2017. He is looking for more upscale full-service restaurants and some missing retail stores to complete a well-coordinated neighborhood shopping center. Different parts of the Center are being combined with some stores relocated, opening it up for more street-visibility and better parking lot access. (The Center is not big enough to accommodate a major chain department store, which would require 100-140,000 ft².)