Wayne ratkovich biography

  • Upon graduating from UCLA in 1963,

    • Wayne Ratkovich, developer who saved some of L.A.’s best-known architectural gems, dies at 82.

    Real estate developer Wayne Ratkovich, who saved the Art Deco-style Wiltern theater and several other aging landmarks from the wrecking ball while changing attitudes about Los Angeles’ historic structures, has died at 82.

    He died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from an aortic aneurysm, his family said.

    Ratkovich renovated some of the city’s best-known architectural gems that had fallen on hard times in an era when ever-evolving L.A. wasn’t much interested in preserving buildings that had grown old and were considered obsolete. Structures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were routinely razed, including the 1929 Richfield Building downtown that was widely considered an Art Deco masterpiece.

    In the mid-1980s, “developers and preservationists were almost at war with each other, developers claiming property rights and preservationists saying, ‘This is the heart of our city,’” Ratkovich told The Times in an interview.

    Early in his career after buying and restoring glamour to the Oviatt Building, a former fancy men’s clothing store and office tower from the 1920s containing literally tons of Lalique glass and other artistic flourishes, Ratkovich garnered a reputation as a developer who could bring faded stars back to the fore.

    Among them were the elaborately decorated Fine Arts Building downtown and a cluster of buildings in Playa Vista that were once the base of Howard Hughes’ aviation empire, including the hangar where Hughes built his infamous Spruce Goose airplane.

    Many of his makeovers were financially successful, but others didn’t pay off for him.

    Developer Wayne Ratkovich is seen at one of his former projects on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in 2008.

    (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

    “Development is like oil wildcatting or farming,” he once told The Times. “There are some good years and some th

  • Wayne Ratkovich was born on

    • Real estate developer Wayne Ratkovich, credited with saving landmarks throughout Los Angeles, died on Sunday, Sept. 24, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center due to complications from an aortic aneurysm. He was 82.

    Ratkovich’s real estate firm, The Ratkovich Company, for which he is best known, announced his death. The company said Ratkovich “saw the future in a piece of the past,” and that his reach extends from the San Gabriel Valley to the skyscrapers of Downtown L.A., and from the coastline of Playa Vista to San Pedro.

    Wayne Ratkovich was born on May 29, 1941, in Los Angeles, and attended UCLA, where he played defensive end for the football team. He founded and was CEO of The Ratkovich Company, through which he reimagined and restored numerous landmark projects, including 18 historic buildings throughout the Los Angeles area. 

    The firm started in industrial real estate until Ratkovich got the opportunity to buy the 12-story Oviatt Building from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for about $5 per square foot in 1977. Rather than demolish the structure and operate the property more profitably as a parking lot — which is what the sellers expected — Ratkovich determined the building should be renovated. The upgrades were successful in attracting new tenants, including the renowned Rex Il Ristorante, and the project put The Ratkovich Company on the map. 

    “The experience with the Oviatt changed forever my role as a developer,” Ratkovich said in 2020. “I no longer had interest in factories and warehouses. I realized that my little company could make a positive difference in the city, and it was something I wanted to continue to do.”

    Ratkovich also saved the historic Pellissier Building and adjoining Wiltern Theatre, which opened in the 1930s as the flagship movie house for Warner Bros. on Wilshire Boulevard, but fell into disrepair by the late 1970s. Preservationists saved the property from the wrecking ball until Ratkovich could purchase it in 1981 and begin a fo

    Interviewee Biography: Gene Kolinchak was born on December 21, 1938 in a small coal-mining town called Rockingham, Pennsylvania. Gene joined the Marine Corps in 1956 and served until 1962. He continued to live in California after being discharged where he met his wife, Suzanne. He began his 42-year long career in the aerospace industry for Douglas Aircraft on December 17, 1962. Gene retired from Douglas in 2004 and currently resides in Huntington Beach, CA., with his wife.

    Wayne Ratkovich

    President and CEO of the Ratkovich Company
    Interview Date: April 26, 2016
    Interviewed by: Tawnie Fotter

    Topics: Army Reserves, Wende Museum, psychological warfare, Soviet relations
    Interviewee Biography: Mr. Wayne Ratkovich was born May 29th, 1941 - living the majority of his life under the Cold War. He was the sixth child of Serbian immigrants. He joined the U.S. Army Reserves- serving in the psychological warfare, artillery and army intelligence units. In 1967, Mr. Ratkovich married his wife JoAnn Calkins, and they would have three children. In 1977, Mr. Ratkovich formed his own company- The Ratkovich Company- purchasing the Oviatt Building in downtown Los Angeles as his first project in the urban market and historic preservation area. In 2011 he was named a life trustee of the ULI. He is also an Emeritus Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
  • Wayne Ratkovich was born on
  • Biography: Wayne Ratkovich is

    • Wayne Ratkovich is the founder and CEO of The Ratkovich Company (TRC), a Los Angeles development firm whose mission is “to profitably produce developments that improve the quality of urban life.” Specializing in urban infill and rehabilitation projects, TRC’s accomplishments range from large-scale entitlement endeavors to retail, office, entertainment and mixed-use projects. His company engages in both new development and the imaginative reuse of existing buildings including seventeen buildings that are historic landmarks.

    TRC is the developer of The BLOC, a massive remodeling of the former Macy’s Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. The property consists of a 496 room Sheraton Hotel, 430,000 square feet of retail stores, a 700,000 square foot office building and parking for 2,000 cars.

    TRC developed the Hercules Campus, an eleven building complex of former Hughes Aircraft Company Buildings that have historic status. The eleven buildings total 525,000 square feet and are located on 28.3 acres of land in the Playa Vista area of Los Angeles. The project was originally developed in association with Penwood Real Estate Investment Management. Seven of the buildings are now owned in association with Invesco. The project is fully leased to two tenants, Google and the advertising firm 72 and Sunny.

    The firm owns and continues to develop The Alhambra, a 45-acre and 1.0 million square foot urban community consisting of office, retail and residential uses in Alhambra, California. TRC is also the developer of the prominent landmark, 5900 Wilshire, a 30-story, 491,000 square foot high-rise office tower situated directly across from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles. The City of Los Angeles recently selected TRC to develop a 31-acre waterfront site as the San Pedro Public Market.

    In total, Ratkovich has developed over 16.0 million square feet of office, retail, industrial and residential properties. Projects the company has to its