Crown Realty Acquires 20-Acre Burbank Parcel

Active local developer Crown Realty & Development Inc. has acquired the largest piece of developable property within Burbank’s new South San Fernando redevelopment district--a 20.5-acre parcel formerly home to an aerospace plant and currently the site for prop storage specialist Western Studio Service.

Crown Realty plans to work with Burbank officials to build a master-planned development that may include studio, office and retail sites on the land, on San Fernando Road. The property is next to a 75,000-square-foot community shopping center the firm recently built at San Fernando and Alameda Avenue; Ralphs is the anchor tenant of that center.

Western Studio occupies more than 90% of the 425,000 square feet of structures already on the site, which was originally home to Menasco Aerospace.

Crown Realty, which maintains offices in Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and now Burbank, bought the property from landing-gear maker Coltec Industries (which recently merged with B.F. Goodrich) and has now acquired about 30 acres in the district.

Crown President Bob Flaxman and Vice President Jim O’Neil said they are negotiating with well-known studios to become tenants. The firm is also discussing potential relocation plans for Western Studio, Flaxman added.

The Crown officials would not disclose the price the company paid Coltec for the acreage, but Flaxman said the firm has invested about $50 million in property and other redevelopment activities in the area.

O’Neil said the property has “tremendous upside potential,” given the relative shortage of land in the area that can be developed and the site’s proximity to the Golden State Freeway.

Flaxman said Crown has $150 million to $200 million worth of development projects in its pipeline in Los Angeles and Orange counties.