FIRMS DUE TO BID ON LAND JUDGE WILL CHOOSE BERMITE BUYER.

Byline: EUGENE TONG Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Developers intent on purchasing the contaminated Whittaker-Bermite property in the city's geographical center were due to submit bids Tuesday to an Arizona bankruptcy court.

At least three developers - Cherokee Investments of North Carolina, SunCal Cos. of Irvine and newcomer Selvin Green, a New York-based investment group - were expected to vie for the 996-acre property south of Soledad Canyon Road, where munitions manufacturing occurred until some two decades ago, city of Santa Clarita officials said.

Development plans for the property, which is contaminated with the rocket-fuel chemical perchlorate, has been stymied for about two years after owner RFI Realty of Phoenix declared bankruptcy.

Judge Charles G. Case II of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix will review the bids in a hearing scheduled for May 2, Santa Clarita City Attorney Carl Newton said.

``The city's objective in all of this is to get a responsible developer who has the ability to remediate the property at the earliest possible time, and to pursue responsible development of the property,'' he said.

Rockets and explosives manufacturing and testing occurred on the site for more than 50 years until Whittaker Corp. shuttered it in 1987. But the operations left heavy metals and other contaminants in the soil. This includes perchlorate, a chemical that in large doses has been linked to thyroid problems and has migrated to local groundwater.

Any developer planning to build on the site also must finance decontamination, which is being overseen by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Asked whether the city had a preferred candidate, Newton said that remains to be seen because past development proposals have changed as the bankruptcy is resolved.

``We don't know who that is now,'' he said. ``We're hopeful that it's going to be someone who is very responsible and can objectively clean it up for the city.''

The city in 1995 approved an existing development plan - Porta Bella - which called for Whittaker and, later, RFI to build a business park and nearly 3,000 homes. But the property was a money sinkhole for RFI, which bought the land in 1999 for $15 million. Officials said they spent more than $25 million to clean the property before putting it back on the market in 2002.

The company had said it was stymied by a City Council that refused to amend the old Porta Bella plan to suit its needs. RFI filed for bankruptcy in 2004. Meantime, the DTSC has continued decontamination of the site, with financing from Whittaker.

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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