Hughes Reaches Tentative Deal on Fullerton Site
A Toronto developer has reached a tentative agreement to build more than 1,000 homes and a large commercial project on a 270-acre Fullerton site where 13,000 people once worked for Hughes Electronics Corp., city and Hughes officials said Monday.
Brookfield Homes Inc. has agreed to pay Hughes more than $50 million for the property, sources said.
While the development would generate some jobs, it is disappointing to Fullerton officials, who had hoped to keep the entire parcel as a job-producing industrial site.
But a year’s worth of efforts to find a big industrial user to replace downsized Hughes weapons businesses proved fruitless, said Marcy Garber, a Hughes spokeswoman.
Garber described the agreement with Brookfield, which has built several Orange County projects in the past, as “very preliminary.”
Jeffrey Proston, Brookfield’s president for Southern California, could not be reached for comment Monday.
About half of the site near affluent residential neighborhoods is undeveloped. Brookfield plans to build 1,000 to 1,350 homes on that portion, said Kay Miller, Fullerton’s economic development manager.
On the other half are the Hughes buildings, mostly vacant now, where engineers once labored on ground and sea radar, communications gear and air-traffic control systems.
Brookfield wants to redevelop that part to include about 1.5 million square feet of commercial and light industrial space, 130,000 square feet of retail space and 80,000 square feet dedicated to public uses such as a library and child care.
Most of the existing buildings are outdated and will probably be torn down, Garber said. But a 500,000-square-foot building housing Hughes’ Naval and Maritime Systems, along with an office complex known as Building 618, probably will remain, Miller said.
Hughes, which is owned by General Motors Corp., still employs more than 2,500 people in Fullerton--1,100 at the Naval and Maritime Systems business on the 270-acre site and 1,400 in buildings leased nearby for Hughes Information Systems and other smaller units.
Miller said current plans are for those operations to remain and continue leasing the space. But Garber said nothing is certain because Hughes’ defense businesses are being sold to Raytheon Corp.
The city’s top priority had been finding a large industrial user willing to move onto the site, Miller said.
But the current proposal, with its mix of uses, would generate a significant number of new jobs at its commercial and retail sites, she said.
Miller said several local companies are eyeing the site for expansion, and other light industrial users have expressed interest in moving in.
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Development Due
Brookfield Homes has reached a tentative agreement to purchase the Hughes Electronics site for the proposed construction of 1,000 or more homes on a residential development and some commercial development.
