$30-Million Industrial Project Launched

Legacy Partners, formerly the Lincoln Property Co., has begun building a major industrial project for about $30 million on the former Hunt-Wesson Inc. site in Fullerton.

The speculative project, called Fullerton Crossroads, will be marketed to mid-to-large industrial users, such as manufacturers and distributors, said Michael Merk of Grubb & Ellis. Merk and Shawn Kelter are leasing agents for the project.

In all, five buildings totaling 508,000 square feet will be built by summer’s end on the 85-acre site near the intersection of the Artesia and Santa Ana freeways. Those new structures will be added to 739,000 square feet of existing industrial space already occupied by Hunt-Wesson and Cargill Foods.

Legacy acquired the site last year for an estimated $40 million, one of the largest deals involving a North County manufacturing site in recent history.

Hunt-Wesson’s cannery, which once churned millions of pounds of tomatoes into paste, catsup and spaghetti sauce, was closed in 1997 by parent Con-Agra Inc., for newer plants in Northern California, closer to the tomato fields.

The Fullerton plant was the late billionaire Norton Simon’s first food-processing business, which grew to include the multibillion-dollar Hunt-Wesson operation, featuring such household brands as Wesson oil, Peter Pan peanut butter and Orville Redenbacher popcorn.