Former Lockheed Plant Finds New Life as Business Complex

On a once-remote site where a wind tunnel had roared at five times the speed of sound, a real estate developer is at work on one of the region’s biggest single conversions of former aerospace facilities.

The development is Rye Canyon Business Park, a 377-acre former Lockheed research center in Santa Clarita that developer Legacy Partners is turning into an industrial and office park that is projected to include about 3 million square feet when completed.

The business park, located near where Rye Canyon Road becomes Copper Hill Road north of the Golden State Freeway, was known as the Kelly Johnson Research Center when it was operated by Lockheed, which sold the property to a partnership of Legacy and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in May 1998 for about $20 million.

The remote location was well suited to the seclusion that aerospace firms typically desire for research and development, said Bill Shubin, vice president of acquisitions and development at the Irvine office of Foster City-based Legacy.

Shubin said the property included features not likely to be found elsewhere: a wind tunnel, flight simulators and an atmospheric test chamber capable of simulating an altitude of 100,000 feet, as well as a licensed heliport that’s still usable.

Two of the buildings had pits built into the floors so aircraft could be rolled in and their landing gear lowered for testing.

The fact that it was a research center and not a manufacturing plant turned out to be good fortune, according to Shubin, who said the site was free from the pollution problems commonly associated with former aerospace manufacturing operations, many of which contaminated the soil with degreasing solvents and other chemicals.

The environmental impact report for the site turned up no pollution, according to Fred Follstad, a senior planner with the city of Santa Clarita. Legacy later discovered a small amount of oil in soil in one place, and Lockheed paid for the cleanup, Shubin said.

Legacy has renovated 425,000 square feet of the existing buildings, most of them industrial structures, and has begun construction on 216,000 square feet of industrial space in three buildings expected to be completed this month. Nearly 80% of the renovated space has been leased, according to Steve Meixler, Legacy’s on-site general manager.

“This is a strong industrial market, so we leased the industrial buildings pretty quickly,” Shubin said. He said the office buildings have been more difficult to lease because the developed property remains a bit off the beaten path. Lockheed left the portion of the property closest to the I-5 undeveloped, with a mile-long private road leading to the research center.

But as Legacy develops the once-vacant portion of the site that is closer to the I-5, Shubin said, the office buildings will seem less remote to prospective tenants and should become easier to lease.

In addition to its own construction, Legacy will sell lots at Rye Canyon to other developers. The lots will probably be ready for development in March, Shubin said.

Among the future tenants is Sylmar-based Advanced Bionics, a manufacturer of medical devices, which this fall signed a six-year, $5.5-million lease for 122,579 square feet of office and research space.

Advanced Bionics also is in escrow to buy 25 acres of land at Rye Canyon for future facilities.

“We’re hoping that [Advanced Bionics’] presence might attract other high-tech companies,” Shubin said.

Shubin said the site presented Legacy with some challenges that developers don’t usually face, like what to do with a Mach 5 wind tunnel.

Legacy thought that it would probably end up demolishing the wind tunnel, figuring it would be unlikely to find a buyer.

But when the company asked around, it found two prospective buyers, one of which bought it and is now dismantling the tunnel for reassembly and reuse.

One of the other specialized aerospace structures, however, remains as a reminder of Rye Canyon’s past: the atmospheric chamber, now used by National Technical Services Inc., which leases it from Legacy.