The Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge Los Angeles, California

Challenge

For well over 100 years, the Sportsmen’s Lodge has been an important cultural destination for residents of the San Fernando Valley. When Midwood Investment & Development, owner of the iconic Ventura Boulevard destination, decided to transform the property’s meeting and convention facilities into a new mixed-use development with 23 high-end shops and restaurants, the company tapped Whiting-Turner to serve as General Contractor on the project.

Almost immediately, the project came up against a variety of obstacles. The Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission pushed back against the development, citing the need for the project to reflect the rustic spirit of the original property, and various neighborhood and civic groups weighed in regarding their concerns about the proposed retail center.

Asbestos abatement was an ongoing issue, and the project schedule had to be adjusted repeatedly to accommodate pop-up environmental rehab work. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) maintained a robust and ongoing relationship with the project, providing input that frequently shifted individual work scopes and timeline priorities.

The project even had to endure the city designating the adjacent hotel property a temporary homeless shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic, effectively transforming a normal construction site into an extraordinary logistical challenge for Whiting-Turner.

For this high-profile and challenging project, Whiting-Turner had to partner with reliable, professional subcontractors who could stay focused on the project and deliver results despite all the changes. To execute the full electrical construction work scope, Whiting-Turner turned to FSG’s Los Angeles branch.