Whittaker

whittaker/bb/6″/mike1st/mark2nd Aerospace company Whittaker Corp. has sold its corporate headquarters campus in Simi Valley through a sale-leaseback transaction valued at more than $29 million. Charles Dunn Co., which represented both the seller and the buyer, declined to identify the buyer. But Ventura County property records indicate that the new owner is the Fritz B. Burns Foundation, a Burbank-based charitable group named after a prominent Westchester homebuilder. The property includes three buildings totaling about 280,000 square feet on 15 acres. It houses Whittaker’s headquarters offices, along with two recently consolidated aerospace units safety systems and electronic resources. In a typical sale-leaseback transaction, the company that owns and occupies a property sells it to an investor and then leases it back, usually through a long-term arrangement. The buyer gets a predictable return on its investment and a relatively low-risk one, assuming the seller’s credit and business prospects are reasonably strong. This particular deal is expected to help the charitable foundation plan its ongoing activities because it provides a consistent income stream. The seller frees up substantial cash to deploy as needed, and might get some accounting and tax benefits as well. The Burns Foundation paid just under $18 million for the campus, and Whittaker has agreed to make lease payments totaling more than $11 million over the next 15 years. Brad Berton