By Amy Higgins
Peninsula News
Thursday, September 14, 2006

RHE - Let the building begin.

On Tuesday, Rolling Hills Estates City Council members met with development partners for a champagne-and-cheese reception at the comer of Crenshaw Boulevard and Silver Spur Road to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Silver Spur Court. The 36,000-square-foot edifice will include 18 luxury, one-to-three-bedroom housing units, a courtyard, a health club with Jacuzzi and two levels of underground parking. It is slated for completion in December 2007.

"This is the first ribbon-cutting for one of our three projects that have been approved said Councilman John Addleman.  "There will be another project [built] on Bruce Soroudi's car wash site, and then a project [will be] developed between the two medical buildings on Deep Valley Drive, though they haven’t started yet. So this is the first of the Mohicans, if you will.”

“We’re very excited about the project. We think it's going to be kind of a landmark for Rolling Hills Estates," said Tim Lefevre of the Lefevre Corp., one of the co-development partners working on the project. "We're under way and we're hoping for a really positive experience and good relationship not just with the City Council, but [also] with the neighbors and citizens. We'll do everything we can do to make sure that happens.”

Silver Spur Court is part of the city's Peninsula Village plan, started by world- renowned architect Stefanos Polyzoides. Officials plan to turn the Deep Valley Drive corridor into a European-style village complete with shops and residential developments.

“[Housing] unit sizes are 1,400 to 2,600 square feet and there will be a variety of amenities including open courtyards, Spanish tile flooring, fountains, fully mature trees, a large outdoor fireplace and enclosed patio," said Greg Brown, managing principal of BH Urban Equities, another co-developer of the project. “It'll be first-class construction that will mirror the quality of the community that we're in."

Jean-Maurice Moulene, vice president of development for Concert Realty Partners, also is co-developing the project.

Silver Spur Court butts up against the post office building, but developers are taking measures to ensure they don't compromise the foundation of the post office, Lefevre said.

"I am extremely pleased with this design," RHE Councilwoman Judy Mitchell told the News last September. "The way it has been designed is exactly what we'd want to have in the commercial area ... This project will be a jewel in our commercial area and an asset to our city."