Final Accord on Lockheed Sale Nears

Countrywide Credit Industries Inc., the nation’s largest home mortgage lender, cleared a major bureaucratic hurdle on the road to moving into Lockheed’s former corporate headquarters this week when the Calabasas Planning Commission unanimously approved its conditional use permit.

“I think 5-0 is a very positive vote from the city Planning Commission,” Rich Lewis, Countrywide’s chief administrative officer, said Friday.

“It speaks of resounding approval of Countrywide and that’s good.”

He was cautious with his enthusiasm, however, as the company still has to wait through a 10-day appeal period during which residents may contest the commission’s decision before the City Council. If there is no appeal, the decision is final.

Planning Commission Chairman Frank Rich said having the Countrywide office in the city could attract even more businesses.

“You will get some kind of support service groups and companies that will work in conjunction with Countrywide,” he said. “It’s the trickle-down theory. There are always some drawbacks, but on a balance scale, I think we came out the winner.”

Lewis declined to disclose how much Countrywide plans to pay for the building, saying only that the sale is in escrow, waiting for city approval.

Steven Harris, Calabasas planning/environmental programs director, said that from his standpoint, the purchase would have very little effect on the city.

“In terms of planning, this is really a benign use,” he said. “There are not too many impacts on us, since it’s an existing building. . . . It wouldn’t be a concern at all if Countrywide had come in with the same amount of employees as Lockheed had.”

Before Lockheed consolidated with Martin Marietta and moved out of the facility in March 1995, the aerospace company was Calabasas’ largest private employer, with nearly 300 workers.

But it remains to be seen whether Countrywide would have as many. Company executives are still deciding which of its operations would be housed in the 353,700-square-foot facility, although it has been determined that the capital marketing group would be one of them.

Lewis said these employees, who deal with major banks on the East Coast, were somewhat of a selling point for the company, because they have staggered hours that often begin at 5 in the morning and end at 5 in the afternoon.

“We viewed it as a plus for the community, in that the traffic would be done over a large period of time,” Lewis said.

Traffic and parking problems were major worries of homeowners in the primarily residential area.

Countrywide had to do some last-minute negotiating Thursday night with representatives of the Oak Park Homeowners Assn. who were concerned about noise at the facility under a new owner. The company is expected to build a sound wall to limit the impact on the Oak Park condominiums, Harris said.

And to soothe other homeowners’ worries, the company would ensure that only 750 employees are on the site at one time. It also would build a three-story, mostly underground, parking facility with 725 spaces so that employees would not park on the surrounding streets.

“We didn’t view the building as one that could hold more than 750 people anyway,” Lewis said. “So the cap is not something that limits Countrywide in any way. And this building is in a residential community, so it seems to make sense to be responsive to reasonable community needs.”