Studios Planned at Lockheed Site

A former aerospace campus in Santa Clarita will soon become a Hollywood annex, if the new owner’s plan succeeds.

Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. has agreed to purchase a 377-acre site at the north end of Rye Canyon Road from Lockheed Martin Corp. for more than $20 million and has begun showing the site to several “major” studios, said Lincoln partner Bill Shubin. The site currently houses 425,000 square feet of aircraft-testing facilities and a wind tunnel.

“The buildings are very functional as a business park, but we think it has a greater capability to convert into a studio campus type of operation,” Shubin said. The sale is expected to close in the next three months.

Lockheed vacated the property in 1992 and it is now used as a document storage center. But the big buildings and open spaces make it a good shooting location, Shubin said. And the property’s commercial zoning allows production and filming uses.

Santa Clarita has already drawn a smattering of entertainment facilities, including nearby Santa Clarita Studios and several independent sound stages, as space has become scarce in the San Fernando Valley, said Michael Haviland, Santa Clarita’s economic development manager. But sources in the real estate and entertainment industries say that attracting a major studio to the outlying area could be difficult.

The Lockheed property includes 127 acres of raw land, on which Lincoln will build industrial buildings starting this fall, Shubin said.