Real estate titans lock horns at Van Nuys Airport

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Two of real estate’s biggest operators, Rob Maguire and David Murdock, are knocking heads in a turf war that will determine whether Van Nuys Airport is big enough for both of them.

Maguire, who built some of the best-known buildings on the Los Angeles skyline, including the 72-story U.S. Bank Tower, wants to be the only official ‘fixed-base operator’ at the airport. Fixed-based operators service aircraft owners with fuel, maintenance and hangar rentals.

Maguire has the title and claims that Murdock is a ‘rogue operator’ selling fuel and poaching other business. He has sued Murdock in an effort to get him to stop. But Murdock, the chief executive of massive Dole Food Co., is not without resources and hopes to get airport authorities to make him a fixed-base operator too.

Murdock’s company, Castle & Cooke Aviation Services Inc., ‘could potentially be elevated to a full-fledged fixed-base operator without ever being held accountable for disregarding the rules it should have played by,’ Maguire said.

Murdock has also developed real estate including the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village and Murdock Plaza in Westwood, which is considered one of the best office buildings on Wilshire Boulevard.

-- Roger Vincent