Torrance : $110-Million Project OKd

The City Council gave a developer the go-ahead to begin a $110 million industrial, commercial and hotel project that city officials say “will change the face of Torrance.”

The project will be located on 36 acres on the eastern edge of the city in the industrial redevelopment project area. The site is bounded by 213th and Carson streets and Border and Western avenues.

Plans for the site, formerly the location of an Armco Steel Co. factory, include a 250-room hotel with room rates averaging $72 a night, 409,000 square feet of office space, 84,000 square feet of industrial and research and development space and 80,000 square feet of retail and commercial buildings.

The project, Torrance Center II, is just south of a 12-acre, $35.6-million mixed-use project approved earlier by the council that is known as Torrance Center I.

Both are being developed by Gascon Development of San Diego. Neal Gascon, president of the firm, told the council that he hopes to complete both projects in five to six years.

The initial phase of the projects, which are being developed in tandem, has been complicated by the discovery of underground crude oil and a subterranean cistern from an old water treatment plant.

Gascon said cleanup costs could reach $9.3 million. The city will channel up to $5 million from the increased property taxes stemming from the developments to reimburse the cost of cleanup.