Mixed-use development is driving many of Southern California's most significant transactions offering stronger economics, diversified revenue streams, and greater resilience than standalone projects. As market demands evolve, developers are increasingly creating integrated destinations that combine residential, retail, hospitality, entertainment, and public spaces.

This month’s panel, moderated by Donna Shen Tripp, Co-Managing Partner at Craig Lawson & Co, focused on a conversation that discussed transformative mixed-use development in Southern California. Panelists included: Alan Lee, Vice President of Development at Cain; Tom Veje, Executive Vice President at Caruso; Bill Shopoff, President & Chief Executive Officer at Shopoff Realty Investments; and Melissa Cohen, Vice President of Development and Regional Director at BXP, Inc.

Resilience as a strategy

Alan Lee of Cain spoke about One Beverly Hills, a 17-acre redevelopment combining the Beverly Hilton, the Waldorf Astoria, and a former nursery site into what he called a “city within a city.” The project passed through multiple owners before Cain's team stepped in, and he credited its progress to the trust built with the City of Beverly Hills over the years. He said she could not imagine reaching this stage so quickly in another municipality, pointing to staff, the city manager, and the council as genuine partners rather than obstacles.

That same patience defined Bill Shopoff's account of Bolsa Pacific, the redevelopment of the former Westminster Mall in Orange County. Shopoff Realty Investments spent nearly eight years tracking the 83-acre site before finally consolidating ownership earlier this year. The project will eventually include about 2,250 homes, 240,000 square feet of retail, 150 hotel rooms, and 15 acres of parks. Shopoff described surveying the surrounding community and finding close to 90 percent support, a number he attributed to genuine nostalgia for the old mall and a willingness to listen before any design elements were put in place.

Community first, always

Caruso's Tom Veje offered a version of that same philosophy from the retail side. He traced the company's evolution from The Grove to Americana to Palisades Village and explained how residential components entered the mix almost by accident. After The Grove opened, community members kept asking why nobody lived there. That question eventually led Caruso to build its first residential project in Glendale, which passed a public referendum by a narrow margin.

Veje's larger point was ownership. Caruso has never sold a completed property, which he said forces the company to think in decades rather than quarters. The company keeps reinvesting in its properties to keep them relevant for the next generation, he explained, describing an approach built on service, upkeep, and small-scale tenants who bring character rather than chain uniformity.

Let’s rethink what a site could be

Melissa Cohen of BXP brought a different case study to the table: the decision to demolish, rather than renovate, an aging office building at Santa Monica Business Park. The 1970s structure needed a costly seismic retrofit and sat on land with a floor area ratio well below one, meaning it was underbuilt for its location. Cohen's team ran the numbers and found that ground-up multifamily housing produced far better returns than an office renovation ever could.

Facing the headwinds

None of the panelists downplayed the challenges ahead. Higher interest rates, construction costs, and regulatory complexity came up repeatedly, along with concerns about California's ability to retain capital and talent. Shopoff was blunt about the toll of interest rate volatility on investment decisions, while Cohen pointed to permanent shifts in office use as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Several panelists credited recent state housing laws, including AB 2011, with giving developers real leverage in slow-moving jurisdictions. Shopoff described using the threat of a by-right project in Fullerton to push a stalled approval forward, a tactic that would not have existed a decade ago.

The takeaway from the panel was less about any single project and more about a shared approach. Every developer on stage emphasized long term ownership, early and sustained community engagement, and a willingness to rethink a site's highest use rather than defaulting to what was there before. In a market defined by tighter capital and slower approvals, patience is the real competitive advantage.