UCLA alumnus and Westwood developer Jeff Katofsky remembers the
only way he was allowed to stay up late as a kid.
“When I was growing up, I had a bedtime like everyone
else,” Katofsky said. “But if UCLA basketball was on, I
could stay up and watch.”
He added that he remembers watching Brad Holland and Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar play for UCLA, and was so convinced that he wanted to
come to Los Angeles out of high school that it was the only
university to which he applied.
But Katofsky’s love for Bruin basketball and his hatred
for USC are not the only reasons he bleeds true blue.
Katofsky is the mastermind behind one of Westwood’s newest
development plans ““ a 125,000-foot structure planned for the
lot behind Jerry’s Famous Deli that would include a fiveplex
stadium-style movie theater and an entire floor of retail stores,
among other amenities.
Katofsky hopes the new development can help build on a history
and atmosphere that he said Westwood Village seems to have lost
since he was in school.
“I essentially courted my wife while we were at
school,” Katofsky said. “There were a lot of places in
the Village to go that we don’t have now. There were a couple
of places to go hang out, there were a couple more pizza
places.”
Katofsky said he hopes the development will give students a
place to enjoy nightlife in Westwood and an avenue through which
people can go on dates; in short, a reason to stay in Westwood
Village.
“My wife and I had it when we were at UCLA, but it has
since disappeared,” he said.
A 1984 Delta Sigma Phi graduate of history and political
science, Katofsky met his wife, Jyll, at Unicamp, a
university-sponsored camp aimed at mentoring underprivileged
youth.
He traveled north for law school at UC Berkeley and is a lawyer,
not a developer, by trade.
He and his wife dated for six-and-a-half years before marrying
and got engaged while Katofsky was in law school. He and his wife
have been married for nearly 15 years and have two sons, ages 8 and
10.
Westwood Village has always been a close part of
Katofsky’s life, and he said his new development is a way he
can help contribute to the community he loves. In addition to
helping his community, Katofsky said his family’s future also
depends on Westwood investment.
He already owns seven buildings in Westwood Village and hopes
the estimated $60 million development won’t just resonate
with students, but with Village residents as well. He has
approached his development in a way to garner community support
from UCLA as well as Westwood as a whole.
One of his developing associates, Greg Smith, said the Westwood
community sees Katofsky as a community leader and helper rather
than a robber baron.
“I think the community likes him; I think they genuinely
like him,” Smith said.
The community’s relationship with Katofsky contrasts with
recent experiences that Westwood residents have had with
developers.
Over the last several months, homeowners in Westwood have had
heated debates over the potential development of Palazzo Westwood,
an upscale commercial and residential development proposed by
developer Alan Casden that challenges many parts of community
legislation and threatens the preservation of a historic Westwood
building.
Casden has faced criticism for ignoring community
activists’ uproar and outrage at the potential effects of his
development.
Katofsky and Casden seem to have ideologically different
stances, said Michael Metcalfe, president of the Westwood
Homeowners’ Association and co-president of Save Westwood
Village. Metcalfe explained that Katofsky’s respect for
community involvement in the planning of the development has gained
him respect among Village residents.
“Unlike the Casden proposal, which proposes to amend the
law to support its project, the Katofsky proposal amends the
project to conform with the law,” Metcalfe said, adding that
Katofsky’s project is a change in philosophy from
Casden’s.
“They are polar opposites in a number of ways,”
Metcalfe added. “We think it’s very smart, we think it
fits well with the fabric of our village.”
Preserving Westwood’s historic buildings and community
involvement seem to be what Katofsky is all about, and he and Greg
Smith, president of their developing company Atlantis, said they
have been in contact with the Westwood community about their
development plans since step one.
“(Katofsky) wants people to be proud. … He wants the
whole community to say that this is something the community
did,” Smith said.
Katofsky said having the community as an ally makes the
developing easier.
“Developers that have had problems in the Village over the
long haul have dealt with community concerns too late in the
process. The community has legitimate issues, and they have to live
there,” Katofsky said.
Katofsky said the project likely won’t see a shovel for at
least another 18 months, and that he hopes the complex will open
around Thanksgiving 2006.
He said he hopes the development ““ which could have a
Trader Joe’s and a Cold Stone Creamery ““ will help
students get as much out of Westwood and UCLA as he did.
Katofsky laughs when he remembers that UCLA is the only school
he applied to out of high school.
“There was no other place to go,” Katofsky said.
“As naive as I was, everybody applies to 20 colleges, I
applied to one,” he said.
“Both my kids want to be Bruins,” he added, noting
that it is much harder to get into UCLA now than when he
applied.