The Honor Ranch Development Project — a 1.8-million-square-foot project that is designed to include an industrial park, bioscience research offices, retail, and parking and transportation infrastructure — is moving forward in Santa Clarita.
The proposed project would be located on approximately 206 acres of undeveloped Los Angeles County land between Interstate 5 and the Castaic Creek Wash. Of that land, 160.5 acres will be developable.
On June 14, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved moving forward with talks with the project’s developer, Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co.
“We are excited that the County of L.A. awarded us this important development opportunity,” Philip Tsui, senior vice president of Trammell Crow, said in a statement. ”
The goal is to create a business infrastructure that will complement the 32,000 new housing units and other millions of square feet of commercial and retail space coming to the Santa Clarita Valley in the near future, according to a statement by Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. That includes the FivePoint Holdings development off of Highway 126, which will soon see the completion of the 21,500-home Valencia master-planned community.
Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Works will manage the pre-development phase of the project, including working with Trammell Crow in the coming months to finalize an agreement that will lay out the long-term development of the property.
Barger says the project has great potential as an economic engine for the area.
“We have 200 acres of county-owned, undeveloped land,” Barger said. “It has the ability to anchor all of the incoming housing in the area. It’s wasted space that could really be used to help the economy in the Santa Clarita Valley, particularly the Castaic Lake area.”
The county released a request for proposal in October 2021, and Trammell Crow was selected amid a competitive field of developers to enter into an exclusive negotiation.
Barger said it could take six months to a year to come to a development agreement, but added that she was enthused about the prospects of the proposal, in which Trammell Crow wants to include 1.5 million square feet of industrial space.
“They’re proposing 250,000 square (feet of) life science and 55,000 square feet of retail,” Barger said. Once the final development plan is worked out, the complex should take about a decade to create.
Trammell Crow has already seen success in Santa Clarita Valley with its collaboration with Clarion Partners on The Center at Needham Ranch, a sprawling 850,000-square-foot industrial park off State Route 14. Tenants at the property already include Amazon.com Inc., LA North Studios, Illumination Dynamics and DrinkPak.
The joint venture is currently creating the site’s phase two, which will bring another 725,000 square feet online.