Lulu’s Place Is Coming to Westchester — And It’s Great News for the Neighborhood

Lulu's Place Is Coming to Westchester — And It's Great News for the Neighborhood

Some stories in Los Angeles real estate are about numbers — price per square foot, days on market, year-over-year appreciation. This one is about something that started with love and loss, and is now becoming one of the most meaningful community investments West LA has seen in a generation.

It is called Lulu's Place. And if you own a home in Westchester, Playa del Rey, or the surrounding South Bay corridor — or if you are thinking about buying in this area — it is a development worth understanding deeply. Not just for what it means to the families and children it will serve, but for what it signals about the long-term trajectory of one of our favorite neighborhoods.

The Story Behind the Name

Lulu's Place is more than a project — it is a living legacy and a testament to Carol "Lulu" Kimmelman. Carol was a USC women's tennis national champion, a beloved LAUSD elementary school teacher at Raymond Avenue Elementary in South Los Angeles, and a passionate advocate for giving underserved children access to sports, education, and opportunity. Her dream was always to bring tennis to underserved children like those she taught. Lulu passed away in January 2017, at age 53, after a courageous battle with ovarian cancer.

Her husband, Doug Kimmelman — a Goldman Sachs veteran and founder of Energy Capital Partners — spent the years after her death turning that dream into something real and lasting. Doug and his four children set out to honor her legacy as a devoted mother, educator, California native, and collegiate tennis champion who believed deeply in the transformative power of education, sports, and wellness. Seven years of searching for land, building partnerships, and raising philanthropic capital later, Lulu's Place is now under active construction — and it is genuinely extraordinary in scale and ambition.

What Is Being Built

Lulu's Place will offer state-of-the-art facilities in Los Angeles, north of LAX airport between the communities of Westchester and Playa del Rey. The campus sits on 34 acres of long-vacant land that LA World Airports leased to Lulu's Place for 50 years — land that for decades contributed nothing to the surrounding community and will now become one of its defining assets.

Set to open in mid-2027, the state-of-the-art academic and athletic complex is a $170 million investment in the future of Los Angeles youth, being funded entirely through private donations. That number is remarkable on its own. But what is equally remarkable is who is behind it.

The project represents an unprecedented collaboration among leading national nonprofits, including the United States Tennis Association and its charitable arm, the USTA Foundation, TGR Foundation, and several other prominent institutions and foundations. Tiger Woods' TGR Foundation will operate a STEAM learning lab on the adjacent St. Bernard High School campus. Cedars-Sinai and Providence will deliver sports medicine and wellness programming. Winward Academy will provide academic enrichment. The USTA is relocating its West Coast headquarters to the site.

The facilities themselves are exceptional. The campus will feature state-of-the-art facilities including a STEAM learning lab, 24 tennis courts, multi-use athletic fields, sports medicine and wellness facilities, and vibrant community spaces. There will also be soccer fields, basketball courts, sand volleyball, a playground, a dog park, picnic areas, and walking paths — all open to the public.

Programs at Lulu's Place are expected to serve more than 10,000 students each year from up to 52 schools within a 10-mile radius of the site. And critically, all of this is available at little or no cost to families.

Where Things Stand Right Now

Construction is well underway and moving fast. In February 2026, Lulu's Place celebrated a major construction milestone — the placement of the final beam atop the Welcome Center, one of the signature buildings on the campus. Since breaking ground in April 2025, construction has advanced significantly across the 34-acre campus.

The project is currently nearly 30% complete and remains on schedule for its mid-2027 opening. For neighbors who drive along Westchester Parkway near LAX, the transformation of that long-empty parcel is already visible. What was a flat, vacant stretch of land is becoming a genuine campus — and it is only going to become more striking as construction progresses over the next year.

Why This Matters for West LA Real Estate

The real estate angle here is not incidental. It is central. And it works at several levels simultaneously.

Major amenity additions drive neighborhood desirability. One of the most consistent findings in real estate research is that neighborhood amenities — parks, recreational facilities, quality schools, community gathering places — have a direct and measurable impact on surrounding property values. A 34-acre world-class campus with tennis courts, athletic fields, a learning lab, walking paths, and a dog park, operated by nationally recognized nonprofits and open to the public, is an extraordinary addition to any neighborhood. For Westchester and Playa del Rey specifically, where the inventory of public recreational space has historically been limited relative to the density of families who live there, this fills a genuine gap.

It signals serious, long-term institutional confidence in the neighborhood. A $170 million philanthropic investment does not happen in a neighborhood that institutions have written off. It happens in neighborhoods where serious, thoughtful people see long-term potential and community value. The involvement of the USTA, TGR Foundation, Cedars-Sinai, Mayor Bass, the City of Los Angeles, and LA World Airports is a statement about where Westchester is headed — and that kind of institutional vote of confidence has real meaning for buyers and sellers who are evaluating long-term trajectories.

Families will specifically seek out proximity. Westchester is already a neighborhood that families love for its community feel, its schools, and its relative value compared to the coastline communities nearby. The addition of a world-class youth campus — one that offers free or low-cost tennis lessons, STEAM education, sports medicine, athletic programs, and community spaces — makes Westchester even more specifically attractive to families with children. Buyers who are choosing between Westchester and comparable neighborhoods elsewhere on the westside now have a compelling, tangible reason to choose Westchester. That additional demand, concentrated on a neighborhood with limited inventory, will be reflected in prices.

It activates land that was doing nothing. The 34 acres where Lulu's Place is being built were vacant and contributing nothing to the surrounding community. Activated land — land that draws people, creates energy, supports community programming, and generates daily foot traffic — changes the character of the surrounding blocks. The streets nearest to the campus will feel different when the facility opens. They will feel more alive, more connected, and more desirable. That shift in character is one of the most powerful drivers of neighborhood appreciation there is.

The Story That Makes This Different

We have written about a lot of developments in this market. New construction projects, park conversions, transit expansions, major employers arriving or relocating. All of them have real estate implications, and we cover them because our clients deserve to understand what is shaping the neighborhoods they are buying into or selling from.

But Lulu's Place is different, and it would feel incomplete not to say so.

This project started with a man who lost his wife and decided that the most meaningful thing he could do with his grief was to build something that honored everything she stood for. Carol Kimmelman spent her career teaching children who needed more than what the system was giving them. She believed that sports and education together could change the arc of a child's life. She did not live to see the facility that bears her name. But her husband and four children, along with an extraordinary coalition of partners, are building it anyway.

"We want the community to embrace this; it's integral to put the education and athletic pieces together. For these kids to be surrounded by excellence is such a motivating thing," said Doug Kimmelman.

That purpose — genuine, sustained, and backed by $170 million in private philanthropy — is what will make Lulu's Place more than an amenity. It will make it an anchor. The kind of place that a neighborhood defines itself around for decades.

What to Watch Going Forward

The campus opens in mid-2027. Between now and then, construction will continue to be visible from Westchester Parkway. Community programming announcements, partnership expansions, and enrollment details will begin rolling out as the opening approaches. You can follow progress at SMACproject.com and lulusplace.org, where the team provides regular construction updates and program information.

For buyers who are currently looking in Westchester, Playa del Rey, or the surrounding South Bay corridor — Lulu's Place is part of the neighborhood story you should be hearing about now. It is the kind of development that buyers who purchase in the next 12 to 18 months will look back on as a meaningful part of why this neighborhood made sense when it did.

For buyers and sellers in Westchester and the surrounding area, reach out to the Stephanie Younger Group at stephanieyounger.com/contact or call 310.499.2020. We know this neighborhood block by block — and we would love to help you understand everything that is shaping its future.

Sources: Lulu's Place official website (lulusplace.org); TGR Foundation groundbreaking press release, May 2024; Lulu's Place topping out press release, February 2026; PGA Tour; LA Sentinel. Stephanie Younger Group, Compass DRE 01365696.