CEO pay in the world of Los Angeles’ commercial real estate got a jolt, with a big pay cut for Hudson Pacific Properties boss Victor Coleman detailed for public consumption via the company’s 2025 proxy.
In 2024, his total compensation was valued at about $25 million. Coleman was granted $22 million of upfront equity awards sized to cover two years of grants in order to encourage retention, stockholder alignment and stock price recovery. It was a threefold compensation boost despite his company losing $364 million that year.
Shareholder sentiment appears to have changed things in 2025.
“Investors expressed concern regarding the level of reported compensation, particularly in light of company performance and market conditions,” the proxy reads.
Coleman’s 2025 total compensation was valued at less than $3 million. He voluntarily forfeited his 2024 performance-based equity awards and was not granted replacement awards, the company said. So, the value of his 2024 stock awards became $7.5 million and he received no equity awards last year, when the office and studio REIT posted a $572 million loss.
2026 will look different, too. The board of directors eliminated the front-loaded equity award structure, instituted more rigorous performance requirements for maximum payouts, reduced that payout potential and reduced target compensation.
“Compensation opportunities were meaningfully reduced, particularly for our CEO,” the proxy notes about 2026. HPP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Elsewhere around L.A., Douglas Emmett’s Jordan Kaplan’s total compensation was valued at $9 million — no material change.
Macerich CEO Jackson Hsieh’s total compensation increased to $15 million, compared to $14 million in 2024, thanks to a higher base salary and cash bonus. His comp included $140,000 for the use of a private aircraft, the best perk I’ve seen after reviewing L.A. REIT proxies this year.
Spoiler alert?
Another L.A.-based REIT, Rexford, posted first-quarter earnings that were strong and uneventful, with net income of $88 million compared to $68 for the same period million last year.
There weren’t any real updates after an earlier April 1 announcement that the REIT disposed of five properties for a total sales price of $127 million, had another $170 million in dispositions in talks and purchased its common stock for $200 million, during the first quarter of the year. (That April 1 announcement ushered in the Laura Clark-era, post-Elliott stake).
The only new disposition news was that the industrial outfit sold a Brea property for $16.5 million once the quarter ended. It was in the near-development pipeline, so the land sold to a merchant builder for about $56 per square foot, and the company can now save $31 million it anticipated spending on the development.
We know Rexford wants to sell $400 million to $500 million worth of real estate this year, but the executives were tight-lipped on what specifics to expect next. If the $170 worth of deals currently in talks go through, it would be at more than $300 million in dispositions.
Word on the lot
Netflix is in talks to buy the Radford Studio Center, which is being shopped by Goldman Sachs after Hackman Capital Partners defaulted on a billion-dollar mortgage. Various sources have put the price tag between $330 million and $400 million. We are hearing the same, though closer to the lower end of that range. Either way, it is nowhere near the almost $2 billion Hackman paid for the studio space five years ago. Here is what sources in the industry told us and what they’re thinking.
- The lot is restricted to studio-use, so that really cleared out the buyer pool. It had to be a studio operator or someone with enough political will and clout to make the zoning change to make it a mixed-use community of sorts.
- Netflix is the best buyer for the entertainment industry. The streaming giant would have more skin in the game and that sends a message to the production crowd leaving Los Angeles.
- The sale structure is unclear, but Measure ULA could come into play, which would add millions of dollars to an already heavy loss.
- It is a sign Netflix wants to take control. Netflix is one of Hudson Pacific’s largest office and studio tenants. There is a lot of chatter about what that could mean for Coleman, whose lease with Netflix expires in five years and has an almost $1 billion loan maturity (with Blackstone) this summer. The sources said Netflix may buy the real estate they occupy — or buy from Hudson’s lender if it comes to that, one said.
In other studio news, shareholders put their stamp of approval on the Paramount-Warner Bros takeover. Take a look at the real estate the two companies own and occupy in Los Angeles here, and consider, the Ellisons are known to hold onto real estate.
Read more
Tudum: Netflix moves to buy Radford Studio Center for fraction of 2021 price
Victor Coleman’s Hudson Pacific posts $572 million annual loss