Phillips 66 Taps Developers to Plan L.A. Refinery Redo

Phillips 66 has hired two firms with experience solving complex redevelopment challenges to plan new uses for its Los Angeles Refinery complex.

The sprawling, century-old refinery, which sits on 650 acres straddling Carson and Wilmington in proximity to the Port of Los Angeles, is scheduled to close by the end of next year.

Phillips has tapped Catellus Development and Deca to envision a new future for the complex, which encompasses two connected facilities.

Oakland-based Catellus redeveloped the 200-acre East Bay site of the former Pacific Refinery Co. into a residential community of 926 homes known as Victoria by the Bay in 2003. The project involved remediation of the site, which produced 55K barrels of oil daily until it was shut down in the mid-1990s, including the removal of contaminants.

Deca, based in San Francisco, converted a Class C warehouse at 800 Cesar Chavez St. in the city into an electric vehicle charging and maintenance facility. The project involved an extensive power upgrade, delivering more than 5 MW of power to the 130K SF site.

“These firms bring strong track records of solving complex redevelopment challenges,” Nancy Perez, a spokesperson for Houston-based Phillips 66 said, in a statement emailed to the Daily Breeze.

“We intend to redevelop the property in a manner that benefits the regional economy,” Perez said. “We intend to work closely with our redevelopment firms and the local community to determine the best future use of this land that is appropriate given the site’s history.”

Phillips has processed oil at the refinery complex since the early 1900s. The front end of the refinery, located at 1520 E. Sepulveda Blvd. in Carson, processes crude oil. The Wilmington facility, at 1660 W. Anaheim St., upgrades oil into finished products including fuel-grade petroleum coke.

The Carson facility, five miles north of the Port of Los Angeles, is adjacent to port container yards, making it a likely candidate for redevelopment as an industrial site. Whether housing can be built at the Phillips 66 refinery complex will largely be determined by how much remediation is needed at the site.

“Remediation is not easy. It is not a cakewalk,” Najmed Meshkati, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at USC, told the Daily Breeze. “The older a plant is, the biggest challenge will be restoration of the soil. This could take years to remediate.”

Last month, the Huntington Beach City Council unanimously approved a housing and hotel project for a 29-acre site known locally as the Magnolia Tank Farm, for the giant oil storage tanks that once stood there.

The beachfront site was remediated in recent years to clear its soil of contamination. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control has issued a clean closure letter allowing homes to be built there, according to a report in the Orange County Register.