NASA Site Goes Retail

DOWNEY, CA-A partnership of Eclipse Development Group and Spring Creek Investors plans a 400,000-sf regional community shopping center on 35 acres of a 160-acre former NASA site that the space agency deeded to the city. Scheduled to be open for business in late 2005, the new center is called Downey Landing and will be home to Best Buy, Old Navy, Staples, Marshalls, Ross Dress for Less, PetsMart, Michael’s, Linens n Things and Bally’s Total Fitness.

Irvine-based Eclipse and Newport Beach-based Spring Creek spent three years in planning and city approvals for the 35-acre site, where demolition is under way on the former buildings at the center at the same time as the new construction gets under way. The development site is on the northern section of the reuse project, between Lakewood and Bellflower Boulevards at Stewart and Gray roads. The retail center will be a neighbor to the 73-acre Downey Studios, a 1 million-sf television and movie production facility, and also near the 30-acre Kaiser Downey Medical Center, a 1 million-sf hospital and medical office complex. The retail and medical facilities border the Columbia Memorial Space Learning Center and a 13-acre public park. Eclipse is a 20-year-old firm led by Douglas Gray, its president. Spring Creek Investors is led by Tom Purcell, president, and has financed retail, residential and commercial projects.