Northrop Puts Up Warner Center Parcel for Sale

Northrop Grumman Corp. plans to sell a portion of its property in Woodland Hills. “Per company policy, we are unable to disclose details of pending real estate negotiations. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance,” Joyce Chang Weinstein, who works in Northrop Grumman’s communications department, told the Business Journal in a July 6 message. However, a June 27 email from Fernando Catta-Preta, the company’s manager of communications based out of Charlottesville, Va., confirmed that, in recent months, the company has developed a new strategy for its site at 21240 Burbank Blvd. in the Warner Center neighborhood, where Northrop Grumman Navigation Systems is based. “To improve business efficiency and overall affordability, Northrop Grumman began to pursue opportunities to sell surplus property located at its navigation systems site on Burbank Boulevard in Woodland Hills,” Catta-Preta said. According to Catta-Preta, a Los Angeles city advisory agency “has approved a parcel map splitting the site into two separate lots, enabling Northrop Grumman to retain a portion of the land and facilities for continuing operations.” The company has retained Canoga Park-based construction firm Parker Brown Inc. to handle the demolition of buildings on the parcel. “The surplus portion of the property is currently on the market,” Catta-Preta said. “In anticipation of the sale, two unused buildings on the property are being taken down. The demolition area is contained within Northrop Grumman’s site and should not affect traffic flow or the surrounding community.” He added that the redistribution of property will not affect Northrop’s business at the site. “We do not anticipate any impacts to current programs, supplier base or the workforce with the sale of a portion of the property,” he said. The land being put up for sale has yet to be submitted to the city, and according to Jake Flynn, communications director at the office of Council District 3 Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, any such property, under the tenets of the Blumenfield-championed Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan, could be repurposed in a variety of ways. “Anything from mixed use to corporate office to industrial,” Flynn told the Business Journal. “There are a lot of options under the plan. The very few things that can’t be done (include a) strip club, drive thru or gas stations.” In addition to the Woodland Hills site, Northrop, based in Falls Church, Va., has a large manufacturing facility in Palmdale.