Triple Five Group has scuttled a $150 million deal to buy 47 acres in Canoga Park once used to build rocket engines to send astronauts to the moon.
The Canadian owner of the Mall of America backed out of a pending sale by Virginia-based Raytheon Technologies for the former Rocketdyne site at 6633 Canoga Avenue, CoStar News reported.
Raytheon has re-listed the Warner Center lot next to the Westfield Topanga mall for an undisclosed sum. The property is marketed by Realty Advisory Group.
In 2018, Edmonton, Alberta-based Triple Five had inked a deal to buy the former manufacturing site for $150 million. The site was operated by Rocketdyne for more than half a century before it closed in 2014.
The site, among the largest up for redevelopment in Los Angeles, was approved for an urban retail village of up to 6 million square feet. What’s billed as “Uptown Warner Center” was also pitched as a second headquarters for Amazon.com.
Jake Flynn, spokesman for L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, whose district includes the Rocketdyne site, told CoStar his office was aware of the listing. He directed all questions about the sale to the land owner.
The sale of the Rocketdyne site would be among the largest sales by acreage in Los Angeles in years, according to CoStar.
It said the property could attract interest from developers of all major asset classes and could feature a mix of residential, retail, industrial and entertainment.
Billy Walk, senior vice president of Colliers who specializes in San Fernando Valley industrial sales, said the Rocketdyne site is a major redevelopment opportunity.
A recent $650 million investment by Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, in three Warner Center properties across 96 contiguous acres nearby will also drive interest in the site.
“There’s going to be a lot more focus on this area because of what’s going on with the Rams,” Walk told CoStar.
One problem, however, is the Rocketdyne site and beyond is tainted by nearly 60 years of rocket engine production. Last August, a plume of contaminated groundwater was discovered “nearly half a mile north and east of the former Rocketdyne property,” according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
North American Aviation opened the Rocketdyne plant in 1955, where it developed and produced the F-1 engines that shot NASA astronauts to the moon on all 13 Apollo missions. The plant closed in 2014. Within two years, all of the facility’s buildings were demolished.
The site’s contaminated soil was hauled away in 2017 by land owner United Technologies, which in 2020 merged with Raytheon, forming Raytheon Technologies.
— Dana Bartholomew
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