BURBANK PROJECT GETS NEW BUILDER; ZELMAN TO TAKE OVER PLAN FOR HUGE COMPLEX ON LOCKHEED LAND.Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer Zelman Cos. will take over Vestar Development's plan to build a massive retail office and car dealer complex on 103 acres of vacant Lockheed land in Burbank, officials said Tuesday. The ambitious project stalled in December when Phoenix-based Vestar Development dropped out of escrow escrow Instrument, such as a deed, money, or property, that constitutes evidence of obligations between two or more parties and is held by a third party. It is delivered by the third party only upon fulfillment of some condition. after nearly two years of negotiations to buy the property from Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. . The aerospace giant then upped its asking price and started soliciting proposals from other developers. Vestar attempted to get back into the deal this month but was outbid out·bid tr.v. out·bid, out·bid·den or out·bid, out·bid·ding, out·bids To bid higher than: We outbid our rivals at the auction. by Zelman, said Gail Rymer, a Lockheed Martin spokeswoman. Rymer called it an ``as is'' deal, saying the new buyers are required to develop the same project that had been proposed by Vestar with no changes. ``We had gone so far with Vestar and with the city in the entitlement process. We didn't want to have to start over,'' Rymer said. The project is slated to include 585,000 square feet of big-box retail stores, such as a Target or Home Depot The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. Headquartered in Vinings, just outside Atlanta in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, Home Depot employs more than 355,000 people and operates 2,164 big-box , a 300,000-square-foot office park and 10 car dealerships This article is about car dealerships. For the indie pop band, see Dealership (band). A car dealership or vehicle local distribution is a business that sells new cars and/or used cars at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or . The site is one of the largest pieces of undeveloped commercial property in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . Zelman, which is based in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , and Lockheed Martin are expected to work out the terms of the sale over the next several weeks. The price Zelman is going to pay was not disclosed, but with land in the area selling at $14 to $16 a square foot sources estimated the price from $62 million to $71 million. Zelman officials could not be reached for comment. The property, located just southeast of Burbank Airport, was for decades the center of Lockheed's aircraft manufacturing operations Manufacturing operations concern the operation of a facility, as opposed to maintenance, supply and distribution, health, and safety, emergency response, human resources, security, information technology and other infrastructural support organizations. in Burbank. The company shut down its local plants in 1990. Since then Lockheed Martin has been preparing its large Burbank land holdings for sale, embarking in recent years on a massive cleanup of volatile organic compounds volatile organic compound Environment Any toxic cabon-based (organic) substance that easily become vapors or gases–eg, solvents–paint thinners, lacquer thinner, degreasers, dry cleaning fluids that contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. soil and groundwater because of the company's manufacturing activities. Shortly before Tuesday's announcement that Zelman would come on board, Burbank Councilman Ted McConkey said at a meeting of the city's Environmental Oversight Committee that he was concerned the property has not yet been totally cleaned of contaminants. McConkey demanded access to documents regarding potential health risks and the progress of the cleanup that are being prepared by a city consultant as part of the environmental review of the project. ``I'd feel a hell of a lot better with access to the base line report,'' McConkey said. ``This is a public health issue. It's not a development issue.'' Bob Tague, the city's community development director, told McConkey the city consultants on the project are working on a report regarding Lockheed's cleanup at the site, but that their study is still in draft form. ``We are extremely concerned that this site be clean and that it be safe and there is no danger to anyone,'' Tague said. ``Lockheed will tell you today the land is clean. We have no documentation to prove that. We're asking them for that documentation.'' Rymer disputed Tague's statement that Lockheed had not provided proof that the land has been environmentally cleared for development. While the company is still cleaning soils 50 feet below the ground with its vapor extraction system, the property is clean to 10 feet below the ground, a standard which makes it eligible for development, she said. ``The site is clean. We've met all the regulatory requirements Regulatory requirements are part of the process of drug discovery and drug development. Regulatory requirements describe what is necessary for a new drug to be approved for marketing in any particular country. . There isn't an inch of that place that hasn't had something done to it,'' Rymer said. She said the company did a health risk assessment in 1994 and updated it in 1996 and has submitted those documents as part of the environmental review process. The company does not see a reason to update those reports because they were done when health risks were higher because contamination had not yet been cleaned up, Rymer said. ``It's not getting worse,'' she said. CAPTION(S): map Map: New Developer Zelman Companies will take over plans for retail, office and car dealer complex on 103 acres of vacant Lockheed land in Burbank. |
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