Freight Facility Planned for Northrop Site

Prompted by the planned expansion of Los Angeles International Airport, a local real estate partnership said it plans to redevelop the Northrop Grumman Corp. electronics complex in Hawthorne into an $80-million air freight facility. Kearny Real Estate Co., a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund, and developer Overton Moore & Associates, have agreed to purchase the 60-acre site where it will build the 1-million-square-foot facility, said David Drummond of the Seeley Co. in Torrance, which is brokering the deal. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall on an initial phase of as many as five buildings to handle overflow freight storage from the airport, Drummond said. This first phase is scheduled to open in 1999.