Bob Hope Airport ‘B6’ parcel sells for $72.5M

In a unanimous decision during a closed-session meeting, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority board agreed to sell a 59-acre parcel of land it owns in trust, known as the “Opportunity Site” or “B6 Parcel,” to Gardena-based Overton Moore Properties for $72.5 million.

The property is west of Hollywood Way and south of San Fernando Road. Proceeds from the sale are expected to be used to partially fund a proposed $400-million 14-gate replacement terminal at Bob Hope Airport, which airfield officials have said they would like to build on a neighboring 49-acre parcel known as the “Adjacent Property.”

The airport had proposed zoning changes to the Opportunity Site prior to the sale in order to increase its value and potentially create a specific plan for the area that may have been more attractive to interested developers.

However, airport officials abandoned that proposal earlier this year amid strained negotiations with the city over the terminal project.

“I’m happy with the price that we were able to get for the sale,” said Frank Quintero, president of the airport authority board. “It will now be up to the Burbank City Council and the residents of Burbank to decide what will be developed on the property.”

The airport has chosen to leave the matter of rezoning to the city and the developer — it is being sold unentitled. The sale agreement is subject to review by Bank of New York Mellon, the property’s trustee.

A workshop presentation in September 2013 included a size comparison for the site which showed it could fit LA Live, the Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center’s North Convention Hall inside it.

Overlaid on a map of downtown Burbank, the property’s dimensions would engulf nearly everything between First and Third streets from Orange Grove Avenue to Burbank Boulevard, including both AMC theaters, the existing IKEA and Burbank Town Center.

However, in late 2013, officials had proposed a development strategy that would have divided it into a “mixed-use main street,” an innovation campus, class-A office space and a cluster of light industrial buildings and could have included a hotel from a national chain.

Jason Hines, vice president at Overton Moore, declined to comment on the sale or the company’s plans for the property. The company is ranked 10th among the county’s largest commercial developers in terms of square footage developed in the past 15 years, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal in January.

The property had garnered interest from at least two other bidders — Trammell Crow Co. of Dallas, Texas, and a partnership between Shubin Nadal Realty Investors of Newport Beach and Sudberry Properties of San Diego.

California High-Speed Rail Authority officials had also expressed interest in the property. Michelle Boehm, the rail authority’s Southern California regional director, said in August that the state agency would formally propose an agreement with the airport for an option to purchase some of the land.

Adeline Yee, a spokeswoman for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said the agency submitted proposals that included a preservation offer on the property.

In a statement emailed through Yee on Tuesday, Boehm said that the authority is evaluating high-speed rail station alternatives “in the immediate vicinity of the property” and has started discussions with airfield officials on how to “preserve the widest range of both public and private interests at the site.”

“This is a potential opportunity for high-speed rail and its regional partners to create a one-of-a-kind place that will benefit millions of residents for decades to come,” Boehm said.

The rail authority’s efforts are aimed at safeguarding the chances to create “a transformative multimodal transportation hub and area development that could connect air, high-speed rail, regional rail, local transit, bicycle and pedestrian modes at a key location in the San Fernando Valley,” she said.

Based on his past work with high-speed rail officials in Fresno, Burbank City Manager Mark Scott said the rail authority may be unable to make an actual purchase offer until the environmental review of the bullet-train alignments and station alternatives is completed more than a year from now.

According to an airport statement released on Monday, Mondaym Overton Moore “has expressed a willingness to meet with the California High-Speed Rail Authority regarding a potential station site.”

Hines said he plans to be at a public meeting Tuesday at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, where high-speed rail officials will discuss plans for the Burbank to Los Angeles section of the bullet-train system.

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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland