Officials Shocked by Lockheed Relocation : Economy: Burbank calls the announcement of the move to Georgia a bombshell, but Palmdale does not expect the impact to be devastating.

Lockheed’s announcement that it is relocating much of its activities from Southern California to Georgia surprised officials in Burbank and Palmdale, who had been expecting some bad news from the aerospace company, but not that much.

Both cities will be heavily affected by the company’s move, although Palmdale officials said they do not expect the impact to be devastating.

Burbank officials have known for several years that Lockheed was planning a massive reduction of activities in the 1990s, but Mayor Tom Flavin called news that the company would pull out all its operations there a bombshell.

Although Lockheed’s announcement Tuesday burst what had been one of the brightest job hopes in

the Antelope Valley, Palmdale Mayor William J. (Pete) Knight said he was not worried or alarmed, saying it meant only that the area will get fewer additional jobs than had been projected.

The company announced in April, 1988, that it would relocate virtually all manufacturing, parts fabrication and engineering activities to newer facilities in Palmdale, Rye Canyon and Marietta, Ga.

The biggest blow to the Antelope Valley was Lockheed’s announcement that two major aircraft that it had been proposing to build in Palmdale--the Advanced Tactical Fighter and the P-7A maritime patrol aircraft--would be constructed instead at its Marietta facility.

With the latest restructuring, Lockheed officials said they still expect the Antelope Valley work force to grow somewhat in the coming years. Spokesman Jim Ragsdale said that would depend on the business generated by the company’s top-secret “Skunk Works” operation, now based in Burbank.

Company officials had been predicting Lockheed’s Antelope Valley work force, now about 2,100, would increase to as many as 7,000 by the mid-1990s, and those workers were expected to be many of the 9,500 now employed in Burbank.

“They were forecasting jobs and apparently that’s not going to materialize,” said Knight, a former Air Force officer and test pilot. “But that doesn’t mean that some other jobs may not materialize between now and then to take their place.

“I don’t think it’s going to have a significant impact” on the economy of the Antelope Valley, he said. “Those were anticipated jobs that may not materialize. If we don’t get what we anticipated, it doesn’t mean we’ve lost the economy.”

But Burbank officials had expected some corporate and administrative jobs to remain in the area. However, Ragsdale said that “by the end of 1994, the expectation is that there will be no activities of the aeronautical systems people in Burbank.” He said the Lockheed Air Terminal will not be affected by the restructuring.

Flavin said a company abandoning “325 acres of industrial property in a single city the size of Burbank cannot be expected to leave the city government and our operations unscathed.”

“No doubt that the city will feel a financial shock,” he said.

Last year, the city had been in negotiations with Price Co. and Kornwasser & Friedman Shopping Center properties for a shopping complex, and had been developing a master plan for the area in anticipation of the move.

But in his prepared statement, Flavin said negotiations between city officials and Lockheed over use of the property have “bogged down for a number of reasons, including the toxic conditions of the property and price.”

Ragsdale said the move will not affect the Rye Canyon facility near Valencia, which now employs 1,000 people.

MAIN STORY: A1