Menlo Equities Takes Up Empire Center
Expansion-minded Menlo Equities will take over the commercial office portion of the big Empire Center mixed-used development, long planned for land near the Burbank Airport once occupied by Lockheed aerospace plants.
Palo Alto-based Menlo on Friday bought 17.2 acres at the same time Empire Center’s primary developer Zelman Cos. and other related groups closed escrow on the balance of the 103-acre site between the airport and the Golden State Freeway.
Menlo will start construction immediately on Empire Center’s office campus at the intersection of Empire Avenue and Buena Vista Street. Plans include 390,000 square feet, to be built in two phases. The first phase slated for completion late next year will include low-rise steel-frame buildings totaling 231,000 square feet, said Wayne Brandt, managing partner of Menlo’s Southern California division. He declined to disclose information about the project’s cost, financing or prospective tenants.
Empire Center is one of several former aerospace properties in Southern California being converted to other business uses. The acreage has seen various prospective plans and development teams come and go over the last few years. The old Lockheed buildings have been demolished and industrial toxins were extracted from the soil.
Los Angeles-based Zelman had cut a deal to acquire the property from what is now Lockheed Martin Corp. and secured approvals for a mixed-use development including a major “power” shopping center, other retail projects, a hotel and the low-rise office complex.
Menlo Equities, founded by Henry Bullock and Richard Holmstrom, has been most active near its Silicon Valley home base while expanding south into San Diego and Orange counties. Menlo also recently acquired two downtown Los Angeles office buildings considered ripe for at least partial telecommunications uses.
The company has so far declined to discuss its plans for the Wilshire Boulevard towers.
Media and entertainment operations as well as some technology companies are potential renters in the Burbank vicinity. Brandt said he is seeing increasing demand in the area from financial services and high-tech companies.
Burbank-area landlords should not be troubled that a new wave of development is moving forward just as many technology companies are experiencing financial troubles, said veteran office broker Todd Doney at Insignia/ESG. That’s because the area hasn’t attracted as many of the “new-economy” tenants that gobbled up much Westside office space before the so-called tech wreck forced several of them to reduce requirements substantially.
“There’s enough demand to fill up the projects that are breaking ground” in Burbank, Doney said.
