A partnership led by Kearny acquired the 86-acre,
2.6 million square-foot manufacturing facility in
Hawthorne, California from Vought Aircraft
Industries in July 2005 for $61 million. Century
Business Center has accommodated users
between 5,000 – 515,000 sf. Total project costs are
approximately $149 million.
Situated near the intersection of the 405 and 105
freeways, and immediately south of the Hawthorne
Airport, Century Business Center (“CBC”) included 27
industrial and manufacturing buildings, two office
buildings, two wind tunnels and one hangar
previously leased to Northrop Grumman.
Vought continues to lease the western portion of the
property including 1.4 million square feet of
buildings which are used to manufacture Boeing 747
fuselages. Vought recently renewed its lease thru
2015 and this 42 acre area was sold as a leased
investment for $40 million in April 2010.
The 1.1 million square foot, 36-building eastern
portion of the property, 2.5 years after acquisition
was completely reborn. Kearny completed an
EIR, Tentative Map, Specific Plan, Development
Agreement and development plans. Kearny
demolished 307,000 sf of buildings which were
replaced with 204,000 sf of new small for sale
or lease industrial buildings which were completed
3rd Quarter 2008. The 16 existing buildings totaling
776,000 sf have all been sold or leased to new
companies representing a variety of industries who
have brought more than 1,000 new jobs back to the
community.
Some of the site has been converted to aviation
related uses for the adjacent Hawthorne Airport. Under a separate
partnership, Kearny controls the non-runway portions
of the airport through a 45-year ground lease
executed in January 2005.
CBC is one of the most complicated master planning
projects Kearny has tackled. Issues included
determining whether to keep or demolish buildings,
coordination with environmental remediation efforts
by Northrop, determining if the airport adjacent
buildings should be acquired by the Airport
partnership and made part of the Airport,
dealing with both the FAA and CalTrans in addition
to the City of Hawthorne with entitlement
processing, and separating utilities designed for a
one user campus to service a multiple tenant
business park.
“Many issues arose during contract negotiations
and closing due to the number of complexities of the
transaction. Kearny and Vought’s diligence and
willingness to find solutions that worked for both
firms led to the successful closing. We look
forward to many years of being their major tenant
and building on our positive relationship with
Kearny to date.”
- Randy Benoot, Manager of Real Estate, Vought
Aircraft Industries
Architect: Ware Malcomb and Hill Pinkert
General Contractor: Millie and Severson
Civil Engineer and Planning: Psomas
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