Rodeo Realty Plans Return to Via De La Paz

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

The Rodeo Realty office in Pacific Palisades is aiming for a December 2025 reopening at 839 Via De La Paz after its rebuild is complete.

“We’re almost completely framed,” Syd Leibovitch told the Palisadian-Post on Wednesday, June 4. “We’re going to be completely framed probably Wednesday or Thursday of next week.”

Leibovitch—who has owned the building since 2013—described the rebuild process as “smooth.” They started work on May 1. The electrician, plumber and HVAC teams have begun their work, Leibovitch said: “So we’re moving along pretty quickly.”

He said working with the city, the permit process was “pretty good.” He said the “fees were expensive” but “less than they would have been normally,” estimating that he has paid about $30,000 for permits so far.

There might be a bit of a hold up, he added, because he said Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said it could take up to six months to get permitted electrical in the space. But when the building is open, he said it’s going to be “nicer” than it was before.

“It used to have a really cool deck,” Leibovitch explained, “but we took that deck out and we made a really neat pitch ceiling … so it’ll be a more modern look inside.”

With decades of experience in the real estate industry, Leibovitch founded Paramount Properties at the age of 25 in 1986—which evolved into Rodeo Realty. The company has since expanded to more than 1,200 agents across Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties.

Garnering several awards and recognitions in the industry, Leibovitch has sold more than 1,000 homes and supervised more than 150,000 real estate transactions.

Leibovitch lives in Beverly Hills, but has a home in the Highlands where his son lives with his wife and child, which is being remediated.

He detailed returning to the community the week of the Palisades fire, saying the first time he went up there “was really disturbing” because of the devastation. And though he is “sad” that rebuilding has been “going so slow,” there has been “tremendous progress in the last moth or so.”

“I was up there within a few days after the fire and it just was like total devastation,” Leibovitch said. “I’ve never seen anything like it, and I probably never will again.”

When the rebuild is complete, he said the Palisades is going to be “something we’ve never seen,” with 6,000-plus new homes in “the most pristine location.” In the meantime, he said as people move back, it will “repopulate pretty nicely.”

“We want to get back to serve the community and get the office open,” Leibovitch said of rebuilding. “I think the Palisades is a very special place, and I think it’s going to be better than ever, actually, when it gets all rebuilt.”