Future Benefits Promised by Commercial Renovation Project
Accommodating growth in a county where growth is less than welcome has presented cities with a vexing problem: how to develop their economies with less available land.
In Thousand Oaks, which is nearing 100% build-out, the answer is in redevelopment projects like the one underway at the old Northrop-Grumman site on Rancho Conejo Boulevard.
It’s been about 15 years since the defense contractor vacated the site, and now a Los Angeles development company is sinking more than $50 million into a major renovation that will add more than 1 million square feet of commercial and industrial space to the city’s largely stagnant commercial real estate sector.
Dubbed the Conejo Spectrum, the project will include the renovation of three existing buildings on 50 acres of land and the development of 17 lots on another 50 acres that are currently vacant.
The site had stood unused for so long, in part, because years of defense manufacturing by Northrop-Grumman had resulted in soil and ground-water contamination. The company has since cleaned the property.
When complete, the development will have 1.13 million square feet of mixed-use space in a campus setting for industrial manufacturing, research and development, and offices.
“The city considers this one of the last prime developments in the area,” said Gary Wartik, the city’s manager of economic development. “This is going to be a real benefit to the industrial sector of the community because it will provide a level of additional quality facilities that have not been available for businesses to expand.”
Last week, after more than a year of planning, Investment Development Services received final approval from the city to move ahead with the project.
The development is purely speculative, meaning that owners have yet to secure any tenants for the property and will include several build-to-suit units--those customized to a tenant’s needs.
However, the owners are confident that as the project moves ahead, the space will fill. They expect to have the first phase completed by October.
“The world has really changed,” said IDS Director David Mgrublian, comparing the current real estate climate to leaner times a decade ago, when such developments were untenable. “We know there’s a demand, a real demand, for space, and none of us thinks finding companies to lease the property will be an issue.”
Since approval was secured from the city, he added, several companies have expressed interest in the property.
Michael Slater, a real estate specialist with CB Richard Ellis in Ventura, said he too has received several calls from businesses interested in the property, and he doesn’t expect there will be many problems finding tenants.
“Even though there is some space out there, the market is still very tight,” he said. “I think that when this is really going to make a difference is in 10 or 20 years, when there really is nowhere left to build.”
As part of a long-term economic development plan, the city is hoping the complex will be leased by a variety of growth industries, including high-technology development, biotechnology and biomedical firms and light manufacturing.
“We’re looking very closely at what kinds of businesses are coming to Thousand Oaks and what kinds of businesses we want,” Wartik said. “The Conejo Spectrum, I think, is going to attract those kinds of businesses and will be a real asset to the community.”
* SCANNING SUCCESS
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