Kearny JV Brings $45M Project to Market

HAWTHORNE, CA-A joint venture of Kearny Real Estate Co. and Morgan Stanley Real Estate has completed a 21-building, 203,000-sf industrial project within Kearny’s Century Business Center and already has commitments on 74,400 sf of the space at the $45 million development. With the completion of the new construction, Kearny’s Century Business Center now totals 2.3 million sf of office and industrial space on a campus that formerly served as a manufacturing facility for Vought Aircraft Industries.

The new space is a development of MS Kearny Northrop Avenue LLC, a partnership led by Kearny, with Morgan Stanley’s Real Estate Fund V as its partner. The developers have named Jeff Kernochan of Fischer Corporate Real Estate Services to market the new space, which is being offered for sale or lease. The 74,400 sf of space for which the developers have commitments includes four buildings totaling 39,000 sf that are in escrow and 35,400 sf of space for which leases have been signed.

The project site is near the intersection of the 405 and 105 freeways. It is immediately south of the Hawthorne Municipal Airport, which Kearny controls through a 45-year ground lease with the City of Hawthorne, and has immediate access and egress to Interstate 105 at Crenshaw Boulevard. Kearny acquired the 86-acre site in July 2005, leasing back nearly 1.4 million sf of space to Vought, which manufactures Boeing 747 fuselages and 767 aft body panels.

Since acquiring the property, Kearny has sold or leased the remaining 785,000 sf of existing buildings to a variety of users including a race car team, a rocket manufacturer and a bath products company. Buildings at the new industrial development range from 5,700 sf to 20,700 sf.