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Burnham Eyes LB For New Retail Project

Newport Beach-based Burnham USA Equities Inc. has bought nearly 30 acres of land next to Long Beach Airport where it’s planning one of the largest retail projects in the city in years.

The real estate investor, best known locally for its development of the South Coast Collection shopping and entertainment center in Costa Mesa, recently completed the purchase of land at Douglas Park, a 260-acre business park previously used by Chicago-based Boeing Co. for aircraft manufacturing.

Burnham USA and its Burnham-Ward Properties affiliate bought the land from Irvine-based developer Sares-Regis Group, which acquired about 194 acres of developable land at Douglas Park from Boeing Realty Corp. in a series of transactions in 2011 and 2012. Since then, industrial, office, and medical office development has comprised most of construction on the land.

Burnham’s project, located at the intersection of Carson Avenue and Lakewood Boulevard, comprises the bulk of the retail construction slated for the remaining developable land.

Plans

The new owners are planning a major retail village of about 250,000 square feet, according to Scott Burnham, Burnham USA’s chief executive.

Plans call for the project, which is tentatively named The Village at Douglas Park, to have at least one hotel, in addition to shopping, entertainment and eateries, Burnham said.

A project of that size would rival South Coast Collection, a former home furnishings center just off the San Diego (405) Freeway that Burnham bought in 2009 and reinvented as a cutting-edge design and culinary center.

The 300,000-square-foot Costa Mesa project, which also goes by the SOCO name, was the first large retail center in the area to offer a food-centric customer experience, a trend that’s now popping up at locations across OC.

The Douglas Park project, just north of the 405 Freeway on Lakewood Boulevard, will embrace many of the same features as the Costa Mesa center, according to the project’s developers.

Possibilities include design features that tie the site to the airport and the Port of Long Beach.

“There will be a heavy emphasis on food and services,” and the project will cater to area residents, students at the nearby Long Beach City College, and employees in the area, Burnham said.

It will integrate the community “with a true retail lifestyle experience,” he said.

The new owners plan to spend most of this year working with Long Beach city officials to get approval for project plans. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin next year.

The goal is to “bring focus to the things we are best known for, such as unique architecture and design, people places, vibe and a sustainable dynamic tenant mix,” said Bryon Ward, a partner in the Burnham-Ward Properties entity.

“No new retail development of any significance has been constructed in this part of the city for many years,” Burnham said.

He said the company looks forward to working closely with the city together with Sares-Regis, “in order that we may ultimately bring to the community something very fresh and special. We envision the retail village offering new design ideas and a tenancy that is carefully curated to serve the area.”

Active Area

Terms of Burnham’s land purchase weren’t disclosed.

Other commercial land sites in that part of Long Beach have recently been trading for a little more than $1 million per acre, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.

In general, land for retail development in the nearby South Bay area has been less pricey than land zoned for industrial projects, said Larry Lukanish, senior vice president of Sares-Regis’ commercial development division.

Sares-Regis has an active industrial and apartment development pipeline, but retail isn’t one of its main focuses, hence the sale to Burnham, according to Lukanish.

Scott Burnham “is a proven retail developer,” he said. “He’ll be a great creative fit for the project.”

The sale to Burnham adds to a string of notable deals for Sares-Regis at the 194 acres of Long Beach land it bought from Boeing and that it calls Pacific Pointe at Douglas Park.

In 2013, it signed Mercedes-Benz USA to a nearly 1.1-million-square-foot lease at a pair of former Boeing aircraft hangars there. It was the largest infill industrial lease in the L.A. area in more than 25 years, according to brokerage data.

The property is being turned into a new-car preparation facility and West Coast headquarters of Montvale, N.J.-based Mercedes-Benz USA.

The remaining Sares-Regis land at Douglas Park, including that the site Burnham, has the potential for about 3.2 million square feet of commercial development.

The company has sold some land at its sites to individual companies for build-to-suit projects while constructing other industrial projects on its own and leasing them out.

Industrial Development

The next phase of industrial development at Pacific Pointe will break ground this year on a 25-acre parcel and will see nearly 500,000 square feet of space built, Lukanish said.

The plan is now to build speculative distribution buildings.

Other Orange County developers have also been part of the recent slate of construction at Douglas Park.

Santa Ana-based Nexus Cos. built a four-story, 159-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel on a 4.5-acre parcel it bought directly from Boeing. The project, which includes about 5,000 square feet of retail space, opened in 2013.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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