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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Developer Buys Site of Failed Burbank Office Project

It looks like an ill-fated Burbank media district development site may be back on track. The five-acre site at 3300 W. Olive Ave. is in escrow to be acquired by Crown Realty & Development, sources said, after earlier plans to build a luxury office complex were scrapped. Robert Flaxman, president of Crown, declined all comment when asked about the acquisition, but other sources close to the deal said the company will likely build a mixed-use project of office and retail uses on the site. Beacon Properties acquired the property a little more than two years ago and, with J.H. Snyder Co., planned to build a 585,000-square-foot luxury office complex. But that deal fell apart after Beacon merged with Equity Office Properties, and Snyder was unable to find another financial partner for the development. Interest in Burbank’s media district, which a year ago had been considered a hot development area, has cooled as entertainment companies reined in their expansion plans. Snyder’s development would have leased at rates of about $3 per square foot per month, which many believe is too high for today’s tenants. Lockheed’s Last Piece Zelman Development Co. has been selected to develop a 31.4-acre parcel of industrial property adjoining Burbank Airport. The company plans to build about 690,000 square feet of light manufacturing space on the property, which had been the site of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s A-1 North plant. Zelman was the winner out of a number of developers that submitted bids to Lockheed for the property. The parcel sits near a 103-acre site that Zelman was selected to acquire earlier this year. Zelman is currently seeking city approval to build a 750,000-square-foot retail and office development on that parcel, which is bordered by Empire Avenue and Buena Vista Street. The company is expected to pay close to $20 million for the 31.4-acre site. The property, at Hollywood Way and Empire Avenue, is the last of about 305 acres that Lockheed Martin owned in Burbank. The company moved out of the city in 1989 and has been selling off its properties ever since. North Hollywood Assist PCS and Weiss Development have acquired a five-acre parcel that formerly housed North Hollywood Hospital, and they plan to build an assisted-living complex on the property. The purchase price was not disclosed. The developers have plans to build a three-tiered complex to include a component for active seniors, assisted living and full-nursing care. “We think it’s an excellent opportunity to take advantage of a facility that became antiquated for the community’s needs and redevelop it into what the community’s future needs will be, based upon the obvious demographics underway,” said Paul Jennings, co-chairman and chief executive of Los Angeles-based PCS. The size of the facility has not yet been determined, but Jennings said that in informal meetings with the community, the plan has been well received. The property, at 12629-12729 Riverside Drive, was sold by Tenet Health Systems. It had been severely damaged in the Northridge earthquake. PCS, primarily a telephone services company, has in recent years become active in real estate development, completing more than 40 multifamily apartment projects in the San Fernando Valley. They include the Premiere at Sherman Oaks, a luxury apartment complex on the site of the former Oakwood Apartments, which had been destroyed in the Northridge earthquake. The company is currently developing an 80-unit condominium project at another earthquake-damaged site at DeSoto Avenue and Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, as well as a 35-unit apartment building on Willis Avenue and Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. Jennings said he expects the new North Hollywood project to break ground in the latter part of 2000. PCS subsidiary PCS CalMore Construction will handle the construction, along with Weiss. LAUSD Eyes School Site The Los Angeles Unified School District, having nixed an earlier plan to study a Panorama City site slated for a Latino shopping center for the site of a new school, has turned its attention to an 11.2-acre property that formerly housed a research-and-development operation for Nestle’s Carnation division. The property was sold in May to Selleck Development Group, which is planning to build industrial facilities totaling 255,000 square feet, along with about 18,000 square feet of retail space. Dan Selleck, president of the Westlake Village-based development company, said he has been notified that the school board is considering the site. But because the board seems to be at a very early stage in its search, he is continuing with his planned development. Selleck said he is in discussions with a user interested in occupying 200,000 square feet of industrial space on the property, and is also talking to potential retail and restaurant tenants. He declined to disclose the prospective tenants. “We’ve completed traffic studies and we’re getting our applications together to the city of Los Angeles for approval on the project,” Selleck said. The school district, which must plan for a projected increase of 80,000 students in the next eight years, recently announced a plan to focus new-school construction in the east San Fernando Valley on elementary school facilities, in part because they require less space than do high schools. The district hopes to build 11 new primary schools in the east Valley while shifting some existing middle schools to accommodate grades nine through 12 and some elementary schools to include grades four through eight. Moorpark Sale Litton Systems Inc. sold a 147,260-square-foot industrial facility in Moorpark to financial services company Calabasas BCD for $10.5 million. Calabasas BCD will use the building, located in the Moorpark Business Center at 6101 Condor Drive, for its headquarters offices. The company is currently located in Calabasas. Bob Scullin and Cathy Scullin of NAI Capital Commercial represented Litton in the transaction. BCD represented itself. Shelly Garcia can be reached at (818) 710-2731, ext. 4316 or at [email protected].

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