Sherwood Partners buys original Northrop HQ in Hawthorne out of bankruptcy

Sherwood Real Estate Partners has bought the original headquarters of defense manufacturer Northrop through a bankruptcy proceeding. 

Santa Monica-based Sherwood and its partners, the Urban Investment Research Corporation and hedge fund Farallon Capital Management, acquired the 40,000-square-foot hangar and office building at 3507 Jack Northrop Avenue for $13.4 million, according to an announcement this week and a presentation to the Hawthorne City Council earlier this month. 

The deal came out to $333 per square foot. 

The firms emerged as the stalking horse bidder on the property, according to the release. Sherwood now plans to redevelop the property and lease it to a fleet operator. Andrew Kirsh and Robbin Itkin of Sklar Kirsh represented Sherwood in the deal. 

The purchase was funded with cash from Farallon, Sherwood said. 

“We also intend on being a major player in distress/bankruptcy and see ourselves in the first inning of a long game,” Sherwood founder Brian Novak said in a statement. 

Sherwood has not acquired anything through a bankruptcy auction since the financial crisis in 2008.

The property, located at the same business complex as SpaceX’s headquarters, was previously owned by Dan Wolfe, who runs a private plane operation that used the hangar. 

Wolfe defaulted on a $7.3 million loan from Grand Pacific Financing in October last year, prompting a bankruptcy filing, according to property and court records. 

The late aviation entrepreneur Jack Northrop started three companies under his own name, of which the third survived as Northrop Corporation. It developed airplanes for World War II combat and later the F-5 jet fighter. The company purchased Grumman in 1994 to form Northrop Grumman.