The dot-com project is Santa Monica-based eToys Inc.'s sprawling, 762,000-sf warehouse and distribution facility in the Inland Empire community of Ontario. The online toy retailer was a Wall Street darling a year ago, but filed for bankruptcy earlier this year and announced plans to go out of business.

Brokers in the area say that fast-growing shoe manufacturer Skechers USA Inc. has agreed to take over the building, though neither eToys nor Skechers will confirm it. Two weeks ago, a Delaware judge overseeing the toy retailer's bankruptcy approved the sale of the equipment and furniture at the plant to Skechers for $835,000, but the sale did not involve the building itself.

Separately, in Burbank, Ford Motor Co. is stepping up its efforts to sell a prized 8.1-acre site next to the Golden State (5) Freeway for $15.5 million. Ford paid $12 million for the land, in the 700 block of Front Street, about three years ago.

The automaker had hoped to lure Galpin Ford--its biggest US dealer, which is currently located in nearby Van Nuys--to the site so the dealer could expand. But those plans fell through, and now Ford is hoping Burbank officials will re-zone the land so it could be sold for retail or office purposes, brokers say.

And in Downtown, final papers are being processed that will allow the nonprofit Trust for Public Land to buy the highly sought "Cornfield" site near Chinatown from locally based Majestic Realty and railroad conglomerate Union Pacific for $30 million. The 50-acre site is one of the last large buildable parcels in the Downtown area.

Majestic had preliminary approval to build an $80-million industrial complex on the site that would provide 1,000 sorely needed jobs, but the company's plans ran into stiff opposition from several community groups. The Trust for Public Land, which plans to turn the deserted rail yard into a giant park, hopes to get part of the $30 million needed to close the transaction from the state.