Woodland Hills is a wealthy neighborhood in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley region. Locals can enjoy hiking the Santa Monica Mountains or visiting one of the nearby Malibu beaches. An important business development in Woodland Hills is Warner Center, which was originally envisioned as a master-planned community. Today, more than 40,000 people work in Warner Center in a variety of industries; important industries are healthcare, financial services, and professional services. The center is still under development; in fact, the Warner Center 2035 plan indicates that by 2035, Warner Center will have an additional 14 million square feet of nonresidential building area and 49,000 more jobs.
Fortune 500 companies Health Net Inc—an American health care insurance provider—and Farmers Insurance Exchange—a home, automobile, and small business insurance provider—are both located in Woodland Hills.
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Woodland Hills is considered part of the Los Angeles North commercial real estate sub-market. The area offers plenty of commercial space located both inside and outside Warner Center. Woodland Hills has both Class A and Class B properties available. Right now, about 11% of Class A properties are vacant and available to rent; office space seekers will find asking rents averaging $31 per square foot. About 11% of the Class B office spaces in Woodland Hills are also available to lease and cost an average of $25.5/sqft to rent.
Overall, office space rental pricing in this area is comparable to prices in Mid- Wilshire, West San Gabriel Valley, and Downtown Long Beach, other popular districts in Los Angeles. Office space rental prices in Woodland Hills are cheaper than prices in the Downtown area, where asking rents are closer to $40 per square foot.
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West Hills, Canoga Park, and Winnetka border Woodland Hills to the north, and the Santa Monica Mountains border it to the south. Like most neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Woodland Hills was designed to be navigated by car. U.S. Route 101 (Ventura Freeway) and Ventura Boulevard both run through the district east to west.
However, public transportation is available in Woodland Hills as well. For example, the Los Angeles Metro Orange Line, a bus rapid transit line that operates between Chatsworth and the North Hollywood Metro Station, has multiple stops in Woodland Hills and surrounding neighborhoods. The Orange Line stops in this district are Canoga, De Soto, and Pierce College. One of Woodland Hills’ main business centers, Warner Center, has its own transportation hub, Warner Center station, which is served by shuttles. The closest airport to Woodland Hills is the Van Nuys Airport, which is only 10 miles away; other choices are the Bob Hope Airport and the Los Angeles International Airport. The area is fairly suitable for pedestrians but does not have many bike lanes.
Once a company has found the right office space and officially moved into the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, company leaders and employees alike will probably become curious about what the area has to offer. Woodland Hills does not disappoint. Whether locals and visitors need a location for a business lunch or just want to get food somewhere after work, they have a variety of choices, such as Tomato Patch, Pedalers Fork, Leo & Lily, Blue Table, and the Six Chow House. One of the perks of living here is the opportunity to enjoy both mountains and beaches in close proximity. The district also has several park and recreation areas found in a typical neighborhood. For example, the Woodland Hills Recreation Center has an auditorium, a baseball diamond, basketball courts, a play area for children, a soccer field, tennis courts, a pool, and picnic tables. Serrania Park has both a play area for children and hiking trails for everyone. Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve has even more hiking opportunities, as well as mountain biking and equestrian rides.
Like many areas of Los Angeles, it’s common to see celebrities walking around in Woodland Hills. In fact, many Hollywood celebrities choose to move here to retire. One reason is that the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital is in Woodland Hills; this is a private retirement and hospital facility intended only for industry professionals.
Woodland Hills History
The Fernandeno-Tataviam and Chumash-Venturano tribes of Native Americans first lived in the Woodland Hills area. In 1769, the Portola Expedition first came to the area in search of new Spanish settlements. They named the area El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de Los Encinos, which means Valley of St. Catherine of Bononia of the Oaks. The area was not known as Woodland
About 100 years later, San Fernando Valley Ranch Company owner Isaac Lankershim gained ownership of the area, originally calling it the San Fernando Farm Homestead Association. The area changed hands a few times until Victor Girard Kleinberger purchased 2,886 acres of it and founded the town of Girard in 1922. When he got ahold of the land, it had been used almost entirely for agricultural purposes for a long time. However, he had other plans for it.
Girard decided to change the land he had purchased into “small hillside country estates.” First, he planted more than 120,000 trees and began constructing a town center. A talented and tenacious salesman, he managed to build and sell many properties, beginning to make his dream town a reality. To attract even more buyers, he purchased ads in the Los Angeles Times and even started his own newspaper, Girard News. He also spearheaded a project to construct a scenic highway along the Santa Monica Mountains; eventually, it was called Mulholland Drive.
Even in the early 1900s, Girard guessed that Los Angeles would have a great future in real estate. The Los Angeles Times quoted him saying, “I’ll tell you what I see; I see a Greater Los Angeles solid to the Pacific and reaching back to the valleys.”