A series of investments totaling $3 billion, including a recently
announced $60 million program, will spur redevelopment at Southern
California Logistics Airport.
The closure of the 5,339-acre George Air Force Base eliminated 8,000
jobs in 1992 and the base became Southern California Logistics Airport.
California Building Systems in Palm Desert will build four aircraft
hangars, totaling 350,000 square feet and $60 million, and lease the
space to Leading Edge Aviation Services Inc., Pratt & Whitney and
Liberty West. The fourth hangar has yet to be leased.
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Carol Park / The Business Press
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The General Electric engine test plane at
Southern California Logistics Airport.
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Leading Edge Aviation, an aircraft painter based in Santa Ana, plans to
move its corporate offices to the airport in December.
The aircraft painter is at capacity, president Michael Manclark said.
The new hangar will double Leading Edge's current capacity and allow it
to solicit new customers such as the military.
Leading Edge employs 95 people at the airport but will need up to 50
more workers, Manclark said.
Completion of the remaining three hangars is slated for 2006.
Will Graven, California Building Systems chairman and chief executive
officer, plans to build more hangars and lease the space to Cascade
Aerospace Inc. in Abbotsford, British Columbia, he said. Cascade is an
aviation overhaul and repair firm.
"We expect more airlines and business will come here," Graven said.
Cascade Aviation wants a building for 500 workers at the airport. No
deal has been inked yet but there is interest, he said.
Airport tenants include a General Electric jet engine test site,
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., ConAgra Foods and M&M Mars.
Sterling Airports International and the Southern California Logistics
Airport and Rail authorities will invest $300 million in speculative
development around the airport beginning in January, Sterling partner
Dougall Agan said.
The Southern California Logistics Airport Authority is operated by the
city of Victorville. The authority is charged with redevelopment of the
former air base.
That investment will translate into 10 million square feet of industrial
and office space and 2,800 jobs. The $300 million investment will take
30 months and include the construction of multitenant distribution
centers and office space.
Foothill Ranch-based Sterling Airports and the airport authority in
Victorville are handling the redevelopment of the airport.
Sterling Airports will invest another $3 billion over the next 10 to 15
years to develop 64 million square feet of industrial space at the
5,399-acre airport.
The airport's redevelopment area is nearly 1,000 acres larger than the
4,400-acre redevelopment area at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside.
The airport features a 15,000-foot runway, 24-hour air tower operations,
a 2,000-acre foreign trade zone and hangar space.
ProLogis agreed to develop a 4-million-square-foot building at the
airport. Prologis will hire about 2,200 workers for the new building.
The airport has increased its rental rate 150% since the base closed,
Agan said.
"We're being recognized as a viable area," Agan said.
The airport's redevelopment master plan calls for multitenant warehouses
and distribution centers ranging from 5,000 to 1 million- square feet to
be built at the airport. .
"Over the next 10 to 15 years we should have 64 million square feet [at
the airport], if we don't, I'll be disappointed," Sterling's Agan said.
