REAL ESTATE

Leason Pomeroy Associates in Orange, the county’s largest architectural firm, has landed two big contracts in Los Angeles County.

The firm will serve as lead architect on the $200-million Burbank Gateway Center, a big shopping mall, hotel, restaurant, office and retailing center that’s said to be the largest such project in the city’s history. Burbank chose as developer the Alexander Haagen Co. of Manhattan Beach, Southern California’s largest retail developer.

Leason Pomeroy will supervise all the design work and actually design the mall and some parking structures. But the firm says it doesn’t yet know exactly what the entire job could be worth because the firm will also be in the running to design other buildings in the project.

Leason Pomeroy will also transform a former May Co. department store in Arcadia into a headquarters for Vons Cos., parent company of the Vons supermarket chain. About 1,000 people will work in the building.

Leason Pomeroy made news late last year when it admitted that it was responsible for underestimating the cost of the new passenger terminal at John Wayne Airport by nearly $20 million. The two Los Angeles deals, however, were concluded after the airport flap hit the front pages, says the firm, which contends that the airport problems have not hurt its business.