Rocketdyne Workers to Relocate
About 175 Conejo Valley workers along with 100 in Simi Valley will be relocated as part of one of the San Fernando Valley’s largest leasing deals in several years.
The Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power Division, which operates the Santa Susana Field Lab outside Simi Valley, has rented a new site in West Hills Corporate Village, the former home of Hughes Missile Systems.
The deal will consolidate nearly 500 workers from Westlake Village and other surrounding areas into a 30-acre site that was once one of the San Fernando Valley’s defense-industry hubs.
Much can be made of the symbolism of an aerospace company coming back to fill an aerospace vacancy after a long recession, but more important, said Rockard Delgadillo, deputy mayor of economic development for Mayor Richard Riordan, “is that good quality jobs are coming back,” he said.
In terms of the number of jobs created by a real estate deal, Boeing’s plans are surpassed only by the total expected for a new shopping center development on the old General Motors site in Panorama City, Delgadillo said.
Boeing is leasing the West Hills site from Regent Properties/Shamrock Holdings. Regent/Shamrock purchased the property with the aid of a nonprofit group launched by Riordan called the Valley Job Recovery Corp., which helped secure a favorable price on the earthquake-damaged buildings Hughes had left behind, Delgadillo said.
“That public-private partnership was helpful in making the deal come together,” said Boeing spokesman Dan Beck.
Beck said the company will renovate the existing Hughes buildings on the site, creating a 170,000-square-foot complex to help consolidate 175 Boeing workers now in Westlake Village, 100 from the Santa Susana Field Lab and 220 from another facility at 8900 De Soto Ave. in Winnetka, which will remain in operation.
The Westlake Village site will close.
Beck said the new complex will house units working on advanced programs in aerospace, as well as research and development on lasers and electro-optics for defense and space applications.
The $35-million, 10-year lease marks a new era for the Hughes property, which has had a mixed history since Hughes left in 1994, depriving the west San Fernando Valley of 1,500 jobs.
Coast Federal Bank moved into the site, in another deal aided by the mayor’s Job Recovery Corp. But the bank fell victim to mergers and its workers were moved out, Delgadillo said. Meanwhile, a city 911 police dispatch facility and DeVry Inc., a company that runs engineering and business schools, made plans to use part of the site, and those plans are proceeding.
Delgadillo said Boeing is expected to expand on the site, but Beck was more circumspect.
“There are no plans immediately to expand, but there is room,” he said. “Business is good, and that’s always a possibility.”
Boeing is expected to move into renovated buildings on the site next March, he said.
