WHAT A BLAST : IDLED MUNITIONS PLANT CONVERTS TO SOUNDSTAGE.Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer Marquardt Co. in Van Nuys produced cluster bombs before it closed four years ago. With its rebirth as a film production center, avoiding bombs is now the top priority. ``When I came here in 1957 as an associate engineer, I never dreamed that I'd be the last employee and that I'd be working in the movie business,'' said Joe Tamusaitis, president of Marquardt, on a recent tour of Building 115 where Spelling Entertainment is shooting ``Pacific Palisades Palisades, cliffs along the west bank of the Hudson River, NE N.J. and SE N.Y., extending from N of Jersey City, N.J., to the vicinity of Piermont, N.Y., with a general altitude of from 350 ft to 550 ft (107–168 m). .'' ``This is where we assembled TMDs, or technical munitions mu·ni·tion n. War materiel, especially weapons and ammunition. Often used in the plural. tr.v. mu·ni·tioned, mu·ni·tion·ing, mu·ni·tions To supply with munitions. dispensers, and now we're shooting movies,'' he said. ``Isn't that amazing? Well, life goes on.'' With production 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. County rising by 27 percent in 1995 and 29 percent last year, studios are booking their own sound stages months in advance. That's fueled demand for space 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. like the Marquardt campus, with studios signing leases to use warehouses, hangars and factories for long-term projects rather than just turning to them in emergencies. ``Production companies constantly are on the lookout for in search of; looking for. See also: Lookout industrial facilities,'' said Cody Cluff, president of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., which coordinates film permitting in Los Angeles County. ``These kinds of buildings have always been used but we're seeing a lot more and for the next three to five years, use of commercial buildings will be on the increase until more permanent sound stages are built.'' Competition high During its heyday, Marquardt competed against other defense contractors for Pentagon money. It now competes against other reborn industrial facilities across Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, for entertainment production dollars, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Jack Kyser, an economist with the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. And the stakes are high: Payment for use of an industrial facility is about $20,000 to $40,000 a month, although those figures vary widely depending on how the facility is used and who owns it. The need for more space has already manifested itself in a variety of ways, including DreamWorks SKG's plan to convert the Hughes Aircraft Hughes Aircraft Company was a major aerospace and defense company founded by Howard Hughes. The group was based near Ballona Creek, in Culver City, California, USA, on the Pacific Coast. Hughes Aircraft was acquired by General Motors in 1985. hangars in the Ballona Wetlands The Ballona Wetlands is located in Southern California, USA adjacent to Marina del Rey and Playa Vista. It is the last significant wetlands area in the Los Angeles basin, and is named for Ballona Creek which runs through the area. into part of its yet-to-be-built studio; Roy Disney's plan to build 14 sound stages in Manhattan Beach Manhattan Beach, city (1990 pop. 32,063), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1912. It is a residential and beach community with an oil refinery and nearby factories that produce transportation and electrical equipment, computers, and pottery. ; Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Co.'s conversion of the former Lockheed ``Skunk skunk, name for several related New World mammals of the weasel family, characterized by their conspicuous black and white markings and use of a strong, highly offensive odor for defense. Works'' headquarters into an animation facility; the building of sound stages at the former Redken shampoo plant in Canoga Park; and moves by Universal, NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. , CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. , Warner and DreamWorks to add studio space in the Valley. ``It's really been wonderful the last few years because everyone is so busy that we're using industrial facilities a lot,'' said location manager Larry Pearson. ``I think owners of properties like that realize it's not so bad to have a place vacant when a week's filming can pay the mortgage for a couple of months.'' Swords to plowshares At its peak, Marquardt's sprawling business campus of a dozen buildings housed 5,000 employees who produced bombs, small rocket engines, air propulsion components, tails for the B-1 and flap tracks for the Boeing 727, 737 and 747. The slowdown in the defense industry and a massive contract fraud at its parent company hit the Van Nuys plant hard and it began to cut back operations in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Marquardt plant, renamed the Van Nuys Production Facility by its location manager, has over 750,000 square feet of space in its buildings. Some offer 30-foot-high ceilings, heavy-duty electrical power, loading docks, massive indoor spaces and huge parking lots - ideal for production companies when studio lots are overbooked overbooked See oversubscribed. . Marquardt has become so busy with production, with as many as four projects shooting at once, that British owner Ferranti International PLC has been trying to sell the plant to a studio. Asking price, according to Ferranti President Jim Shinehouse, is around $40 million. ``We haven't had a day go by for more than a year without some production at Marquardt,'' Shinehouse said. ``We've been fortunate. It's the perfect story of turning swords to plowshares.'' Currently, about a third of the plant produces air propulsion products and is leased to Kaiser-Marquardt, a subsidiary of K-Systems of Foster City. St. John's Knits and Ambassador Foods occupy two buildings taking up 58,000 square feet and large amounts of space are currently leased to New Line Cinema, Spelling Entertainment and Paramount Studios. Despite that, many of the buildings remain unused, home to thousands of bomb casings, file cabinets, desks, chairs, computers and other office equipment. ``Believe me, we've sold off tons of the equipment already, but it's hard to find buyers,'' Tamusaitis said. Bigger is better Michael Walbrecht, Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . director of studio and production affairs, said the industrial spaces have benefited from the increased production of big-budget films requiring massive sets. ``Our largest sound stage is 32,000 square feet, but when you do a really large action film, you need more,'' he said. ``That's why we rent the Spruce Goose Dome (in Long Beach), which is 120,000 square feet. That amount of space is kind of difficult to find so places with big hangars and factories are the most logical space.'' Walbrecht said demand is so high that his office checked more than 200 industrial buildings last year in search of those in relatively quiet locations, with ceilings at least 18 feet high and offering 6,000 to 20,000 square feet of office space. Pearson said Marquardt was the ideal facility for a recent one-day shoot for CBS' ``Deep Family Secrets'' with Richard Crenna and Angie Dickinson by dick clark productions. ``Marquardt worked out very well,'' Pearson said. ``We used it for a scene where there was a clandestine meeting in an abandoned warehouse and a character is dropping off money for a kidnapping. It offered a lot of space and variety and it wasn't that costly.'' The Marquardt plant's second life began when it was featured in the 1993 film, ``In the Line of Fire.'' ``A scout came out here and asked if they could shoot a movie here with Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich,'' Tamusaitis recalled. `` `Who's Malkovich?' I asked him. I had no idea he had won an Academy Award (nomination for `Dangerous Liaisons').'' Other location scouts followed, including one that arranged for the parking lot to be used as a graveyard in a film, although Tamusaitis cannot remember the movie's title. In 1995, with local film production starting to accelerate, Jim Thompson persuaded Tamusaitis and Ferranti to allow his Real to Reel location management company to represent the property. ``I came across Marquardt because I was trying to relocate our offices from Hollywood and was looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. office space in the Valley,'' said Thompson, who heads one of the largest of the 40 local location service firms specializing in contracts and management in exchange for a 30 percent commission. ``I had been cruising around and saw the buildings and the empty parking lots and told them this was a way to generate a lot more revenue.'' Thompson has suggested buying Marquardt to executives at various studios while Tamusaitis said Disney and Warner representatives have examined the property for possible purchase. One studio made a preliminary offer several years ago but the deal fell through, they report. `Fantastic opportunity' Some of the other productions shot at Marquardt include TV shows ``Lois and Clark'' and ``Fire Co. 132'' and upcoming features ``One Night Stand,'' ``Wag the Dog'' and ``The Kiss.'' ``This place represents a fantastic opportunity,'' Thompson said. ``Short term, it's very useful. If you're shooting any kind of office or factory scene, it's all dressed with props already instead of just being raw space.'' Tamusaitis points out that a buyer would gain not just the factory buildings but also a commissary COMMISSARY. An officer whose principal duties are to supply the army with provisions. 2. The Act of April 14, 1818, s. 6, requires that the president, by and with the consent of the senate, shall appoint a commissary general with the rank, pay, and emoluments , shooting range, recreation room and relative peace and quiet, except for small planes landing at nearby Van Nuys Airport Van Nuys Airport (IATA: VNY, ICAO: KVNY, FAA LID: VNY) is a public airport located in Van Nuys, California in the San Fernando Valley, within the Los Angeles city limits. . ``I think this would be great for a studio because nobody bothers you out here,'' he said. That may take some time. Shinehouse said his job is to liquidate the property in an ``orderly, sensible'' way so there is no timetable. The proceeds will go to banks and pension groups in London. ``We have studios interested in buying the property and we're negotiating with an electronics manufacturer,'' Shinehouse said. ``The markets are becoming better and the right buyer will come along. This is kind of fun for a guy from Lancaster, Pa.'' The history of Marquardt 1944 - Roy E. Marquardt founds the company, specializing in ramjet engines. 1958 - The company embarks on a diversification plan. 1962 - Marquardt scientists claim a breakthrough in desalting seawater seawater Water that makes up the oceans and seas. Seawater is a complex mixture of 96.5% water, 2.5% salts, and small amounts of other substances. Much of the world's magnesium is recovered from seawater, as are large quantities of bromine. at a competitive cost. 1964 - Magic Mountain remote rocket test facility dedicated. 1965 - The company buys General Applied Science Laboratories of Wetbury, N.Y. 1968 - Marquardt is bought out by CCI CCI Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie (France) CCI CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) Citation Index CCI Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Western Australia) Corp. of Tulsa, Okla. 1972 - Apollo 17, the last manned flight to the moon, blasts off. More than 300 Marquardt R-4D control engines were used in the Apollo program. 1982 - Roy Marquardt dies at age 64. 1983 - The company is bought by International Signal & Control Group, founded by James Guerin. 1987 - ISC (1) (Internet Systems Consortium, Redwood City, CA www.isc.org) An organization founded by Paul Vixie, Carl Malamud and Rick Adams in 1994 and later sponsored by UUNET and other Internet companies. merges with Ferranti PLC. 1988 - Following community opposition, Marquardt cancels plans to burn toxic wastes at 3,000 degrees. 1989 - $1 billion contract fraud uncovered at ISC. 1990 - Marquardt fined $19,000 for six violations of state hazardous waste Hazardous waste Any solid, liquid, or gaseous waste materials that, if improperly managed or disposed of, may pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. Every industrial country in the world has had problems with managing hazardous wastes. violations. 1991 - Ferranti sells the Rockeye cluster bomb business to Marquardt Manufacturing and air propulsion businesses to Kaiser Aerospace & Electronics; begins closing down other Marquardt operations. 1992 - Guerin pleads guilty to arms smuggling smuggling, illegal transport across state or national boundaries of goods or persons liable to customs or to prohibition. Smuggling has been carried on in nearly all nations and has occasionally been adopted as an instrument of national policy, as by Great Britain and fraud, sentenced to 15 years in prison. 1993 - New owners of the Rockeye business stop production. 1993 - Scenes for ``In the Line of Fire'' shot at plant. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos, box PHOTO (1) Jim Thompson, left, works with Marquardt Co. President Joe Tamusaitis to lease the former munitions plant to TV and movie crews. (2) These bomb casings remain from Marquardt's days as a military contractor before it closed four years ago. David R. Crane/Daily News Box: The history of Marquardt (see text) |
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