Cox, Castle & Nicholson Closes $170M Shores Marina del Rey Sale Following 40 Years of Counsel

Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP, a law firm specializing in domestic real estate, has served as counsel to Shores LLC in its sale of Shores, a landmark 544-unit multifamily community in Marina del Rey for $170 million. The property was sold to Jackson Square Properties affiliates. The transaction is one of the largest commercial real estate transactions in Los Angeles County in 2026.

Completed in 2013, Shores is a residential community in Marina del Rey that features 544 contemporary residences across 12 interconnected five-story buildings. The marina-adjacent property primarily offers one- and two-bedroom residences with premium finishes, expansive views of the Pacific Ocean and marina, landscaped courtyards and a resort-style amenity program centered around a 2.5-acre park-like courtyard with a pool, dual spas, fire pits, barbecue areas, bocce court and sky terraces.

The community represents the successful redevelopment of an underutilized 1960s-era garden apartment property into one of Southern California’s premier coastal multifamily communities, designed to meet the growing demand from professionals throughout Silicon Beach and the surrounding Westside.

Cox Castle partner Ira Waldman has advised on the Shores property for nearly four decades, providing legal counsel throughout every stage of the asset’s evolution. His work began in the late 1980s with negotiating and documenting the ground lease extension with the County of Los Angeles, the owner of the underlying land, and continued through multiple redevelopment scenarios, the financing and development of the existing community – including what was, at the time, the largest HUD-insured loan in the United States – ongoing leasehold and operational matters with the County, and ultimately the property’s sale.

“Having the opportunity to advise on Shores over the course of nearly 40 years has been incredibly rewarding,” said Waldman. “This transaction marks the culmination of decades of planning, redevelopment, financing and stewardship of one of Southern California’s most distinctive waterfront residential communities. We are proud to have helped guide the project through each chapter of its history. It has also been an honor to have worked for decades with the legendary Jerry Epstein, a founding father of Marina del Rey, in his tireless efforts to bring the Shores project to completion. It’s a fabulous development – and my son lives there.”

Waldman added, “It really took a team effort at all stages to bring the project to fruition and ultimate sale. We worked closely with the Jackson Square team and its counsel at Rutan & Tucker, especially Vijay Pai; the County of Los Angeles and its counsel at Glaser Weil; JLL, which brokered the sale transaction; David O. Levine and his team at Shores; and the team at First American Title Insurance Company. For a variety of reasons, the transaction had to close on June 30, 2026 – and it did.”

Information for this article was sourced from Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP.