Crown Hooks 34,000-SF Retail B-T-S

The Hawthorne project will replace a Torrance store for Circuit City, which will incorporate its new format with a car stereo and alarm installation service bay into the location. The development site is in a City of Hawthorne redevelopment area that includes other proposed retail projects as well.

Crown Realty is involved in a number of redevelopment efforts around the Southland and Robert Flaxman, the firm's president, says its expertise in this type of development helped to expedite the Circuit City project. Flaxman also cites the assistance of Hawthorne officials, including Mayor Larry Guidi, in moving the project along.

Crown expects to finish preparing the site for development by September and is scheduled to complete construction in February 2004. Santa Monica-based Nadel is the architect for the project, with Little Rock, AR-based VCC Construction as general contractor.

Before breaking ground on the Circuit City structure, Crown will raze an existing 60,000-sf industrial building on the property, which is located in an expanding retail corridor close to the Rosecrans Avenue exit of the 405 freeway. The store will join a growing list of nearby merchants that already include a Toys R' Us, Kids R' Us, Home Depot, Food 4 Less, South Bay Ford and Best Buy. Costco is directly across the freeway.

Crown acquired the redevelopment property in Hawthorne from Gleason Industries, an engineering firm that occupied the industrial facility until recently. The Hawthorne project is the latest in a series of infill and redevelopment ventures for Crown, which has completed nearly four million sf of development over the past 10 years. Its other project are under way or completed in Hawthorne, Burbank, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Oceanside and the County of Los Angeles. The portfolio of properties owned by Crown and its affiliates exceeds $400 million in value and includes more than three million sf of commercial real estate in West Los Angeles, Burbank and Orange County.