Aerospace Firms Turning to Real Estate

One way that some big aerospace companies are trying to make money these days is dealing in real estate--their own. As the companies have shrunk over the years, they have sold or sublet empty factories and offices to generate cash.

The biggest deal now in the works in Orange County involves Hughes Electronics’ 350-acre campus in Fullerton. Hughes spent much of last year shutting down most of the buildings on the property, transferring several thousand workers to other Hughes facilities and laying off about 1,000 more. While 2,400 workers still report to jobs there each day, the acreage is for sale, although no signs have been posted.

Seems that Hughes sees the biggest profit potential in marketing the property for residential development, while the city would like a white knight to come in, buy the whole campus and keep it as a job-producing center by using it for an industrial complex, college campus or office center.

The two sides have worked out a deal, sources say.

Hughes will try for one year to find a single buyer to use the property they way the city wants it used. If that doesn’t work--commercial land brokers familiar with the property say it is too big and its facilities are too run down to draw much interest--Hughes gets to start marketing it at the end of the year for residential or residential-retail development.

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John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and economic issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com.