COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE : Kitchell Contractors Lands Deal to Build JPL’s $10-Million Lab

Today, Orange County. Tomorrow, the universe.

Kitchell Contractors Inc. is reaching for the stars these days with its project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Irvine construction management company is building a $10-million Observational Instruments Laboratory for the Pasadena-based space center.

“It will house several ‘clean rooms’ and other laboratories,” said JPL spokesperson Mary Hardin. A “clean room” is a dust- and contaminant-free laboratory used to make sensitive equipment for spacecraft, she said.

The four-story, 73,000-square-foot facility is scheduled for completion in March, 1993.

Nabbing a government contract is a coup in today’s tightfisted environment, said Kitchell spokesperson Barbara Bean. “We typically do a lot of defense-related projects, so we have been hard hit by defense cutbacks,” she said.

JPL is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration center that specializes in robotic exploration of the solar system--including satellite Voyager II’s brush with Neptune in 1989.

On a more down-to-earth note, Kitchell was selected recently by R.H. Macy & Co. of New York to provide general contracting services for the conversion of the former Buffums store in San Diego’s Fashion Valley Center to an I. Magnin.

Construction will begin in January with completion scheduled for August. The renovation is estimated to cost $3.5 million.

Kitchell Contractors, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Kitchell Corp., won the JPL project in a competitive bid.