General Dynamics Selling Research Site
Apparently abandoning its plan for a huge new San Diego County research facility, General Dynamics has quietly put up for sale a 59-acre site near Rancho Bernardo that it acquired late last year.
General Dynamics executives were unavailable for comment Monday on the reasons for selling the property, which was to have been developed by the company’s Electronics Division. Paul Brister, a San Diego real estate broker who represents General Dynamics, would neither confirm nor deny the reports that the property was for sale.
But sources said Monday that the property has been on the block for a month or more. Asking price on the property is $23 million, up from the $17 million that General Dynamics agreed to pay last December. The property is in the 4S Ranch Business Park, a 235-acre development just west of Rancho Bernardo in North San Diego.
Last week, General Dynamics announced a huge second-quarter loss totaling $240 million, a loss that reflected a special charge against earnings of $500 million for contract overruns.
Although the defense contracts of General Dynamics’ San Diego-based Convair and Space Systems divisions have so far been relatively untouched by defense-budget cutbacks, the outlook for defense contractors in general has dimmed significantly in recent months with the winding down of the Cold War.
St. Louis-based General Dynamics had planned to build 800,000 to 1 million square feet of buildings in four clusters as high as four stories each, said Bob Hallock, a partner in 4S Ranch Business Park.
Hallock declined comment on whether General Dynamics had decided to sell the land. Including the General Dynamics parcel, about 200 acres of the 235-acre business park have been sold.
