TINA FORDE, Valley Press Business Editor
January 28, 2006
Fox Field Business Park takes shape
LANCASTER - When Larwin Investment Co. planners were looking for a good location to build a group of industrial buildings, the open desert out by Gen. William J. Fox Airfield appeared a bit rough around the edges. "There was no road to speak of," said senior acquisitions manager Ross Mitchell, gesturing to what is now a broad boulevard planted with young trees. "It was a leap of faith. It was speculative to build an industrial development for sale."
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Larwin had built homes in the Antelope Valley for three decades, so the company's commercial development arm took on the challenge. "The city of Lancaster came to Larwin," said Dennis Marciniak of GVA DAUM, who with broker Larry McEwan is handling the sales for the project. "Lancaster wanted to jump-start industrial development in the Fox Field area."
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Teaming up with Lancaster with its supportive development policies and local builder George Atkinson of Atkinson and Associates, Larwin established plans to build 220,000 square feet of industrial space - nine buildings on seven acres. They named it Fox Field Business Park. The buildings offer small business owners the opportunity to own a freestanding industrial building. Potential buyers are coming from areas that have no good buildings or no space, or the available space is too expensive. "We are seeing a lot of interest from San Fernando Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley areas," Marciniak said. "There is so little product to purchase in those areas. Prices have gone up dramatically."
 
Mitchell said the cost of industrial buildings in the San Fernando Valley is $150 to $175 a square foot. The Larwin buildings cost $109 to $120 a square foot to purchase. Larwin found a waiting market. The buyers of the Larwin buildings own them outright, with land and parking. The addition of industrial buildings to the huge number of houses in the Antelope Valley is a natural progression, Mitchell said. "The evolution follows the houses. After the rooftops, industrial building starts to take off," he said. Larwin's Fox Field Industrial Park is at 45th Street West and Avenue G in the Antelope Valley Enterprise Zone adjacent to Fox Field.
 
 
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