Northrop Seeks OK to Divide Property
Northrop Corp. is asking the city of Thousand Oaks for permission to subdivide its former Newbury Park plant into 28 separate parcels in order to help the aerospace company sell all or part of its 100-acre property.
The company, which shut down local operations in 1991, also is requesting that the city expedite its proposal to divide its property so it can begin marketing the individual parcels as soon as possible. The City Council is scheduled to consider the request at its meeting Tuesday night.
If approved, Northrop would jump ahead of other projects that have already received priority scheduling before the Planning Commission. There are about a dozen priority projects, including the proposed Janss Mall renovation and numerous Amgen development projects.
Northrop spokesman Jim Hart said it is not certain if the company will divide the property and sell it in sections. But he said Northrop believes having the ability to do so could make it easier to market.
“It gives us more flexibility, more options,” he said, adding that there are several prospective buyers for various portions of the property. He declined to name them.
Hart said having the ability to divide up the property would also be appealing to buyers who might be interested in acquiring the entire tract, which Northrop wants to sell for between $25 million and $30 million.
Councilman Frank Schillo said he is sympathetic to the company’s position and favors subdividing the land if it helps attract new businesses to the vacant property in the city’s industrial area.
But, he said he would be hard-pressed to agree to push Northrop’s request ahead of others, because the city’s Planning Department is already overburdened with work on other projects.
“Pretty soon everything’s going to be a priority,” he said. “Everybody wants to get on the bandwagon and get it done fast. But we have a responsibility to the public not to increase the workload of the Planning Department.”
Schillo said he knows of no prospective buyers for the Northrop property. And, he said, he sees no sense of urgency unless the company can prove it has potential buyers who are serious about acquiring a portion of the property in the near future.
But the councilman said he has no problem if the company wants to market the property based on its plans to subdivide it.
The Northrop property is at the corner of Lawrence Drive and Rancho Conejo Boulevard. The company is proposing to divide up 52 developed acres into four parcels, each with an existing building and ranging in size from six to 25 acres. It also wants to divide 48 undeveloped acres into 24 separate parcels, ranging from 1.5 to 2.6 acres.
For years, Northrop’s Newbury Park plant was the largest employer in the city, with 1,800 workers at its peak.
The plant operated for 28 years before it was closed down in 1991 during a company consolidation spurred by cutbacks in government contracts and a sluggish economy.
