Going From ‘Star Wars’ to Store Wares : Business: A retail, office and entertainment complex will make use of El Segundo real estate vacated by military contractors.

Where some of the brainiest minds once designed the “Star Wars” defense system, Wolfgang Puck plans to make pizzas.

This is the Continental Development Corp.’s own kind of defense conversion: Vacant buildings once occupied by the likes of Hughes Aircraft Co. and TRW Inc. at Continental Park in El Segundo are being made into an office, retail and entertainment complex akin to Century City.

The now-quiet Nash Street will be turned into a palm tree-lined block with an 18-screen movie theater, a food court and shops, including a 43,000-square-foot bookstore. In addition to the Wolfgang Puck Cafe, the upscale eatery Kate Mantilini’s, of Beverly Hills, plans to open a location there.

The project’s developers promise to create a nightspot that will attract families from nearby cities and travelers from Los Angeles International Airport.

“This will be a place to see and be seen,” said Richard Lundquist, Continental’s president.

Real estate analysts applaud the development, which will be completed by the end of next year, as a sensible response to the skittish commercial real estate market.

“What property owners have realized is that the demand for the type of space given up by defense companies is virtually zero,” said Luke Staubitz, marketing specialist at The Klabin Co., a real estate brokerage firm. “You’ll see them converting buildings into other more sensible buildings.”

The 86-acre Continental Park has fared better than other business parks. It has been able to lease about 90% of the Terrace, an office building that opened in December, 1992, and one of three dozen in the complex.

Still, the departure of some defense contractors left the landlord with big holes to fill, including a 475,000-square-foot building at Rosecrans Avenue and Nash Street. The structure has been vacant since early 1993, after Hughes and TRW moved out of the building as part of a consolidation.

So instead of trying to find a large firm to fill the space, Continental has invested $8 million to renovate the six-story structure. Former aerospace offices have been divided into smaller spaces that might attract doctors, lawyers, accountants or entrepreneurs trying to start their own companies.

On the first level, there will be atrium lobbies, a central tropical garden, the food court and the two eateries (Puck’s restaurant will be his largest so far). The remodeled building--called the Plaza at Continental Park--is scheduled to open later this year.

The company plans an even greater transformation for several buildings across the way on a block-long stretch of Nash Street. An office building will be converted into a retail courtyard, anchored by the massive Borders Books and Music.

Another office building will be torn down to make way for Pacific Theaters’ Beach Cities Cinema, an 18-screen multiplex that will be the South Bay’s largest. A former TRW research and development building will be converted into a parking structure with 550 spaces. (A portion of the building already included parking; the office park also already has several other parking structures.)

The retail and entertainment complex will have second-level walkways sheltered by canopies and shaded by Canary Island palms, so most of the pedestrian traffic will be separated from street-level traffic.

Retail analysts said the ambitious development makes sense with the recent growth in retail sales and a rise in consumer confidence. And even with layoffs, residents in the beach areas have strong spending power to go to movies and eat at restaurants.

“No matter what, wherever you locate a store, you always got nagging doubt if the economy is strong enough to support it,” said Jacquelin M. Fernandez, retail analyst for the Deloitte & Touche accounting firm in Los Angeles. “The core beach city residents are kind of younger and established in their careers.”

Continental’s new development will be in a market that already includes the Manhattan Village and Manhattan Marketplace, two shopping centers just across the street.

But Continental officials and retail analysts say that their movie theaters, shops and restaurants will prove an even greater draw to what is in the area now.