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Supervisors OK making the Tustin north blimp hangar into a gigantic sports complex for $100 million.
By PEGGY LOWE
The Orange County Register
Tustin's historic blimp hangar will be turned into a $100 million sports-themed complex called "Play" under a deal approved Tuesday by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
The extensive plan by a private company beat out a proposal by veterans, who wanted to build a military museum at the wooden World War II relic at the former Marine Corps Air Station.
The three supervisors who voted in favor of the deal with Industrial Realty Group, a Downey company, said the plan would preserve the iconic hangar without cost to taxpayers. Supervisor Bill Campbell, who represents Tustin, urged veterans to work with the developer, who plans a military memorial as part of the project.
"Come up with something that honors what (military veterans) did and keep this blimp hangar here," Campbell said.
Veterans groups were turned down because county officials didn't believe they had the money to build the far-reaching plan, which included an 86,000-square-foot museum, a river walk and art galleries. Gerry Rubin of Sitelines, the company hired by the veterans to design the museum, said county staff had fed his group "disinformation" and that they had enough financial resources.
"The hangar belongs to the American public, and we intend to see it used for something better than a gigantic jungle gym," Rubin said.
Newly elected Supervisor John Moorlach unsuccessfully tried to postpone the vote, saying he hadn't yet studied the plan. He voted against the proposal, while Campbell, Chris Norby and Tom Wilson voted for it.
"I am really burdened that we have something here that doesn't have the buy-in of veterans," Moorlach said.
The 17-story hangar, along with another one to the south, were built in 1942 and first used for the military blimps that patrolled the coast. They have become part of Orange County's geography and history, housing helicopters after the blimps were phased out and now being used for movie and commercial shoots. Tustin is still considering proposals for the south hangar.
Play will be part of Tustin's "Legacy," the 1,584 acres of parks, housing, business and stores planned for the former base.
With the vote, the county will begin final negotiations with IRG as a master developer under a deal that calls for the county to lease the hangar and its 84-acre parcel to the company. IRG must still win approval from the federal government; it will probably be another seven years before the project will open.
"No one here is approving carte blanche what we've proposed," Tom Messmer of IRG told supervisors. "This is an important first step."
IRG specializes in developing former military and industrial properties and has created a movie studio at an 80-acre former NASA complex in Downey.
What is 'Play'?
The $100 million "Play" proposed by Industrial Realty Group Inc. is being billed as a sports, recreation and leisure center within the 150,000-square-foot blimp hangar. Plans include:
•Basketball, volleyball and gymnastics courts
•A 150-foot rock-climbing mountain
•A 25,000-square-foot "sports demonstration zone" for celebrity tennis matches, skateboarding half-pipes and BMX bike shows
•Two levels of sports-related retail stores and restaurants
•An entertainment plaza for outdoor concerts
•A 20,000-square-foot veterans exhibit
•A cinema complex
To read more and watch a video of the plan, go to www.ocregister.com/community/tustin_news
Source: Industrial Realty Group Inc.
Posted : 2006-12-24 11:01
Today's editorial: A win-win at Tustin Marine base
Today's editorial: A win-win at Tustin Marine base
Sunday, December 24, 2006
County-approved plan would preserve the historic blimp hangar at no cost to taxpayers
The Orange County Board of Supervisors chose the right plan when it voted 3-1 last week to work with the Industrial Realty Group (IRG) to develop one of the old blimp hangars at the Tustin Marine base, and 84 acres around it, into a sports and recreation complex. The plan also will include soccer fields and ball parks, a concert venue and a 30,000 square foot veterans' memorial.
The center, called "Play," will be a small part of the 1,584-acre "Legacy" project approved by the city of Tustin for the closed airbase, which will include housing, parks, offices and stores. The county is responsible for the 84-acre portion with the hangar, and must still receive federal approval for the area's clean-up and redevelopment plan.
Unfortunately, a group of veterans is angrily opposed to the Play project, claiming that building a recreation facility is somehow an affront to those Americans who served in World War II. Truly, the two hangars – the city of Tustin has yet to decide what to do with the south hangar – are important military icons in a county rich in military history. The enormous quonset-hut-shaped structures were built to service blimps during the war, and then were later used for military helicopters.
Critics are forgetting what a feat it is for the developer to save and restore one of these structures – and to do so without any taxpayers' dollars. They also are forgetting that the federal government, which still controls the land, requires that any approved plan be of a recreational nature.
A leader of one veterans group blasted the IRG plan, telling one newspaper that the vets were better able to develop a project than "guys in real estate," and he mocked the developer's museum proposal as "a tiny piece in a corner of a hangar to place dusty artifacts." That's an unfair description of a rather large memorial and museum. And who better to develop a massive real-estate project than "guys in real estate"?
We're thrilled that at least one hangar is being saved, and think that the plan will bring many visitors to the site and to the planned memorial. The board selected a developer that has significant real-world experience turning old military and industrial sites into vibrant new uses, and that is backed by significant financial resources. This is a low-risk plan compared to the veterans' proposal.
Originally, the veterans submitted a proposal that had no significant financial backing, and would have turned half of the hangar into a museum and would have rented out the other half to raise money to pay for the development, according to Supervisor Bill Campbell, who voted in favor of the IRG deal.
The veterans went back to the table and came back with a development plan that would have created a riverwalk lined with hotels and restaurants, would have left the hangar empty for exhibit space and would have built a separate military museum. County officials say that the funding source for the new plan was unclear, and that the plan would have competed with the other developments planned for the rest of the property. Supervisor Campbell also told us that it was incompatible with the recreation-oriented requirements of the National Park Service.
Now, IRG has about six months to work out details in its plan with the federal government. This is a solid idea that does honor to the area's military past, and to current and future taxpayers.
Posted : 2006-12-24 11:02
Guess I am Biased
Sounds like there should be a large flag over that project with big dollar signs!! Would not want to ever visit that scene!! SF PM
Posted : 2006-12-24 16:18
