Idle since 2010, the former Beckman Coulter campus at Harbor Boulevard and Lambert Road in Fullerton could soon be industrious again.
Western Realco proposes to develop its 44.3-acre site with eight buildings – including reusing Beckman Coulter’s old administration building, considered a landmark example of mid-century modern architecture.
The business park would offer office, warehouse, manufacturing and light-industrial spaces in 978,665 square feet. The buildings, 40,000 to 310,000 square feet each, could be purchased or leased.
“The design of the site is very flexible for a variety of uses,” said Heather Allen, with the city’s Planning Department.
The Fullerton Planning Commission approved the project last week. The City Council will have to sign off.
“Everything significant that comes to us is usually housing oriented,” commission Chairman Peter Gambino said. “So this is a really refreshing change.
“This allows us to preserve that last big portion of property we have in our city for the purpose for which it was intended, industrial and manufacturing.”
The property went up for sale in 2010, shortly after the lab-equipment maker moved its headquarters to Brea, consolidating its Orange County operations. The property, vacant except for the administration building, makes up about a quarter of the industrial area in north Fullerton.
The finished business park would likely create more than 900 permanent jobs, Allen said.
Western Realco worked closely with Fullerton Heritage on plans for re-using the administration building, Allen said. The building was constructed in the early 1950s when Caltech Professor Arnold O. Beckman moved his company from Pasadena to Fullerton.
The preservation group has been working to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places and have it protected as a landmark.
That building’s exterior includes a decorative fin, jutting up from the building. That style would be carried through the design of the other buildings, the developer said.
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