When Arnold O. Beckman moved what’s now Beckman Coulter Inc. to Fullerton 54 years ago, he set up an Orange County institution.
The move consolidated the then-Beckman Instruments Inc.’s operations into one spot.
Now, history is repeating itself as the still growing medical device maker is moving once again to join its headquarters with its other operations in neighboring Brea.
What will happen to the former 40-acre orange grove that’s now Beckman’s headquarters is anyone’s guess. Beckman has been mum on its plans to sell, hold or redevelop the land, now zoned for office and industrial use.
Possibilities for redevelopment could include office buildings, warehouses, stores or even a mixed-use project made up of homes and stores. The latter would depend on a turnaround in the housing market, real estate sources say.
Several large retailers are close by: a Home Depot is just across the street from Beckman’s campus, and electronics retailer Best Buy is a couple blocks away.
Besides Home Depot, Beckman’s closest neighbors are warehouses, including those occupied by Albertsons LLC, the grocery chain, and drugstore operator CVS Corp.
“If you look at the surrounding area, there’s a lot of industrial there,” said Bob Sattler, president of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services Inc.’s Anaheim office and a Fullerton resident. “The property would be zoned for industrial. It’s on a major street,Harbor Boulevard. It’s a pretty big site and it’s fairly deep.”
Beckman’s headquarters is a few miles from the Orange (57) and Riverside (91) freeways, limiting some redevelopment possibilities, according to Sattler.
“Given that it’s not near a freeway, I think that takes away (some uses),” he said. “I know the city would love to have a hotel other than just the Marriott in town.”
City officials have been looking to add a hotel, possibly to the city’s bustling downtown, in addition to the Marriott Fullerton Hotel next to California State University, Fullerton.
The Beckman site might not work for the type of hotel Fullerton officials would want, according to Sattler.
The site also could be too isolated for major office development, he said.
Any potential buyer of the site that would want to turn it into retail or a possible mixed-use project would have to go to the city to have it rezoned.
“The reality in today’s world is that in any city that’s fully built out, the city’s going to have a lot of say as to what happens,” Sattler said.
Possible Models
One blueprint for what could happen: Boeing Co.’s sale of roughly 60 acres of land and buildings in Anaheim’s Canyon Business Center at the end of 2007 to the local arm of Sacramento-based Panattoni Development Co. and ING Clarion Partners LLC.
Panattoni is known for redeveloping properties into offices and new industrial space.
Also in Fullerton, Lowe Enterprises Inc., a Los Angeles real estate developer, paid $20 million for a former Johnson Controls Inc. factory in 2005 that’s being developed into 260,000 square feet of small buildings for sale or lease.
Beckman said in late January that it was moving its OC operations from Fullerton to a complex at Kraemer Boulevard and Imperial Highway by the end of 2009.
Beckman employs about 2,075 people in OC.
The company has emphasized that it will keep its headquarters in OC. Founder Beckman, who died in 2004 at the age of 104, moved the company from South Pasadena in 1954.
Beckman’s pending move to Brea is part of a continuing restructuring under Chief Executive Scott Garrett who took over for longtime leader John Wareham in 2005. So far, the restructuring effort has included freeing up 100,000 square feet of excess space and closing a metal shop.
The company also combined six small West Coast warehouses into an 180,000-square-foot distribution center in Chino.
