Beverly Hills-based developer Regent Properties just added another project to its already busy schedule for the year.
The city of Burbank’s redevelopment agency selected Regent to build a retail/office project in downtown at the former police headquarters site.
Regent’s proposal for the three-acre site calls for about 180,000 square feet of class A office space, 25,000 square feet of retail space and an art-house cineplex. Glendale-based architectural firm Feola Carli & Archuleta designed the project, called Burbank Metropolitan Plaza.
Bob Tague, Burbank’s community development director, said the city selected Regent’s submission from seven proposals because it had the strongest potential to “bring some activity to that side of Olive” Avenue and bolster the city’s tax revenue.
Regent and the city still have to purchase some of the site, which in addition to the vacated police headquarters contains a small office building and Masonic temple. Tague said he hopes the project can have its development agreement and building approvals within six months.
Regent is completing construction on its Glendale Marketplace retail project and its 600,000-square-foot West Hills Corporate Village office park. It is also working through the permitting process to build an entertainment/retail project in Westwood Village and has an office/retail project planned for Hollywood.
In more Burbank news, the City Council this week will consider a proposed agreement between Boeckmann/Ford and the redevelopment agency to build a “superstore” auto dealership on the former site of the Zero Corp. manufacturing facility.
The proposal calls for a three-level dealership totaling 103,700 square feet, with the possibility of adding a fourth-level restaurant. The required density of the facility adds to the development’s costs, making the estimated $40 million project one of the most expensive in Southern California. The project is expected to bring in an estimated $54 million in total tax receipts to the city and Redevelopment Agency during the next 25 years as well as create 150 jobs.
Glendale has been trying to recycle the abandoned Zero facility ever since the electronics packaging company left for Utah in 1991. The 12-acre site is located west of the Golden State (5) Freeway and south of Burbank Boulevard.
Suburban offerings
After months of rumors, two noteworthy suburban properties are officially up for sale.
Marketing packages went out last week on the Prudential HealthCare campus in Woodland Hills, two one-story buildings with a combined 450,000 square feet of space. Prudential intends to lease back the west building once the complex is sold, according to Mark Williams, senior vice president of Secured Capital Corp.
Prudential developed the campus itself as an owner-occupant, but decided to sell after signing a 300,000-square-foot lease at the Garland Center building in downtown L.A. last year.
Farther north, the first independent studio built from the ground up in L.A. County in the past 50 years is officially on the block. The owners of Santa Clarita Studios are asking $15 million for the 110,000-square-foot facility.
Herman David, who designed the facility and is one of three co-owners, said they are selling so that he can transition into semi-retirement as a film consultant.
“I really enjoyed the business there were so many different personalities and productions coming through, but it’s time to move on,” said David, who had been a studio manager at 20th Century Fox Film Corp. before deciding to open his own studio.
The facility, located in the Valencia Commerce Center, is where the television show “Melrose Place” and feature film “True Lies” were produced. The six-sound stage studio is undergoing an expansion, with two 16,000-square-foot stages being added, according to Dave Maron of Maron Commercial Inc., who along with Craig Peters of CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. is representing the seller.
Oil field metamorphosis
Santa Monica-based residential developer New Urban West Inc. has closed on its purchase of an 11-acre oil field in Long Beach, where it intends to build 60 luxury homes.
The property, located at the intersection of Bellflower Boulevard and Colorado Street, has been an oil field for the past 50 years and is still producing today.
New Urban cobbled together the land from 30 different owners, but each individual parcel was already zoned for housing, according to Adam Browning, director of acquisitions.
The property, about a mile from the posh Belmont Shores neighborhood, is within Long Beach’s Redevelopment Zone. New Urban must complete assemblage of the site, negotiate a development agreement with the redevelopment agency and clean up environmental hazards on the site before it can proceed with construction.
The developer plans to build detached homes ranging from 2,000 to 3,200 square feet and priced at about $400,000, according to Tom Zanic, vice president.
New Urban currently has a 300-unit residential development under construction in West Hills.
Conejo construction
The Conejo Valley made news recently both on the development and acquisition front.
San Francisco-based TriNet Corporate Realty Trust Inc. announced that it purchased two office properties in Thousand Oaks. TriNet paid $22 million to buy two seperate 100,000-square-foot buildings located in the Conejo Corporate Center, a 50-acre master-planned research/industrial park. Both facilities have long-term leases with the managed health care company WellPoint Health Networks Inc.
And in Westlake Village, Dole Food Company Inc. broke ground on its 160,000-square-foot corporate headquarters last week. The company expects to have its facility complete by fall of this year, according to a company spokesperson.
Joyzelle Davis covers the real estate indusry for the Los Angeles Business Journal.
