Mall of America owner abandons plan to buy 47 acres in Warner Center
After being in escrow for nearly five years, Triple Five Group, owner of the famed Mall of America in Minnesota, has ditched its plan to buy one of the largest undeveloped commercial parcels in Los Angeles, walking away from a 47-acre site on Canoga Avenue in Warner Center, according to real estate data firm CoStar Group.
The Warner Center parcel has been under contract since 2018 when Triple Five Group said it was planning to purchase it for $150 million from the site’s owner, Raytheon Technologies. Since then, Raytheon Technologies has been involved in a multi-year environmental cleanup of the former industrial site’s soil and groundwater.
While a large amount of contaminated soil has been removed as part of a cleanup effort, the huge empty parcel is still not safe for redevelopment, according to officials at the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board who oversee the remediation efforts.
Ailene Voisin, a spokesperson for the water board, wrote in an email on Tuesday, Aug. 15, that although soil remediation activities at the property have been completed, “additional mitigation work must be done prior to the implementation of any redevelopment activities.”
The former Rocketdyne facility at 6633 Canoga Avenue was once home to two small nuclear reactors located in a Rocketdyne building at the corner of Owensmouth Avenue and Vanowen Street, which was part of a program that developed nuclear power systems for NASA.
The Rocketdyne F-1 rocket engine was developed in that building, and was used in the Saturn V rocket in the 1960s, the famed launch vehicle of the Apollo program that took astronauts to the Moon. Rocketdyne’s operations left contamination in soil and groundwater. All work at the former manufacturing site stopped in 2014 and its buildings were demolished in 2016.
Last year, officials at the water board told the Daily News about its discovery of a plume of contaminated groundwater that had spread nearly half a mile north and east of the former Rocketdyne property.
The plume of contaminated groundwater had spread beneath a Canoga Park neighborhood near Vanowen Street and Milwood Avenue and inched to within 500 feet of the Los Angeles River, water quality control board officials told the Daily News in 2022.
The plume carried dangerous chemicals including tetrachloroethene, or TCE; total petroleum hydrocarbons; and trichloroethylene, or PCE. The impacted groundwater hasn’t been used for drinking water, according to board officials.
Voisin explained, “Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soil vapor from past operations and VOCs in soil vapor that are off-gassing from the underlying contaminated groundwater into the soil are still present at the site. Groundwater remediation and monitoring activities are currently ongoing under the oversight of the Los Angeles Water Board.”
Voisin noted that “groundwater assessment activities have been performed both on and off-site to assess the migration of chlorinated volatile organic solvents, primarily tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE), from the site.”
While the groundwater plume has traveled off the site, she added, no contaminated groundwater is being discharged to, or impacting, the Los Angeles River.
Nancy Hoffman Vanyek, CEO of the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the future buyer of the parcel can’t start land-use planning until the cleanup is over.
“It’s a major development opportunity, and with Stan Kroenke, the Rams and a multi-million dollar investment right across the street, it drives a lot of interest in the site,” she said.
Jake Flynn, a spokesman for L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents Warner Center, said his office didn’t know why Triple Five Group decided to scuttle its deal with Raytheon Technologies.
“Nothing had been submitted to the city for review, so our office wasn’t privy to that information,” he wrote in an email.
Representatives with Triple Five Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Raytheon recently listed the former Rocketdyne site for sale for an undisclosed sum, advertising it as “a one-of-a-kind SoCal development opportunity that can accommodate almost all types of development” and sits within walking distance of the Westfield Topanga mall, Costco, Target and the future NFL’s Los Angeles Rams’ practice facility.
Despite its history, its location at Warner Center might make the site one of the most desirable undeveloped parcels in the city.
Billionaire L.A. Rams team owner Stanley Kroenke paid $175 million for the former Anthem building within about a mile of the former Rocketdyne property. He also purchased The Village Mall for $325 million along with the 34-acre Promenade Mall for nearly $150 million, also in Warner Center.