$126-Million Airport Project Killed

Plans for a $126-million commercial project at the Van Nuys Airport have been officially laid to rest by the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners.

The project, proposed for the so-called Woodley development area, was to have included more than 700,000 square feet of office space and more than 80,000 square feet of hangars at a 38-acre site off Woodley Avenue near Byrd Street, east of the airport runways.

But in May, Shapco Inc. of North Hills, the company recommended by airport staff members to build the development, pulled out, saying the recession made the venture too risky. The project had not been approved by the commission.

No other firm has since expressed interest in reviving the project.

On Monday, the commission put an end to any hopes of developing the project in the next few years by voting to negotiate a three-year lease with Hughes Aircraft Co. for a large hangar on the site.

Hughes has been occupying the site on a monthly lease. The Syncro Co., which works on aircraft interiors, also leases a hangar on the site. A separate lease agreement may be negotiated with Syncro in the future, airport officials said.

The commission also voted Monday to demolish six other small, vacant buildings on the site.

Meanwhile, airport officials have suspended all new construction projects at the airport until a master plan to guide future development at the 735-acre facility is completed. The master plan is expected to take at least two years to complete, airport officials said.

Airport Director Ron Kochevar said Tuesday that the Woodley Development project would have replaced several unsightly, abandoned buildings with a facility that would have provided jobs and revenue to the airport.

He said the Department of Airports will landscape the site adjoining Woodley Avenue to make it more attractive.

John Malloy, a senior real estate officer for the Department of Airports, said the airport removed the tenants of the six smaller buildings on the site in anticipation of construction on the project.

Now that the project is dead, the buildings will be demolished, Malloy said, because they are more expensive to maintain than to demolish.

He said airport officials have no definite plans for the site except possibly as overflow parking space for patrons of a bus terminal across the street.