ROLLING HILLS ESTATES : Northrop Property to Go on Auction Block

Northrop Grumman Corp. has a new tactic to get top dollar for its 34-acre site here: The company has hired an auctioneer to sell the property.

The Century City-based aerospace company “wanted to get more offers,” said Jim Hart, Northrop Grumman spokesman. The auction firm of Kennedy-Wilson will take offers through sealed bids.

The Crest Road property has been vacant since 1991, when Northrop closed a research and technology center there. Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes reportedly bid between $14.5 million and $15 million for the property, but was outbid by a spa company, which offered about $17 million. That deal later fell through.

Hart would not comment on previous offers, and did not know if a minimum bid had been set.