Firm Lands El Toro Runway Job

A Colorado recycling company was chosen Thursday to demolish the runways at the former El Toro Marine base, marking yet another step toward redevelopment of the 3,700-acre facility.

Recycled Materials Co. -- based in Arvada, Colo. -- will soon begin negotiations with the Orange County Great Park Corp., a nonprofit firm created by Irvine to oversee public-use construction at the former Marine base, city officials said.

The Colorado company will demolish the runways and other structures on the base at no cost to Irvine, then sell most of the recycled material for use in the redevelopment project.

Homebuilder Lennar Corp., which bought El Toro from the Navy earlier this year for $649.5 million, will use much of the material for private development projects at the site, including 3,400 homes and 3 million square feet of office and commercial space.

Though the terms of the deal must still be negotiated, including the price of the recycled material and the timeline of the project, Great Park and Irvine officials said they expected the demolition of the runways to begin as early as this fall.

That would virtually end the debate over whether El Toro will become a commercial airport.

Despite the base’s sale to a private developer, backers of the defeated airport plan have continued lobbying the federal government to halt the escrow, expected to close July 12.

The Great Park Corp. is governed by a board consisting of the five Irvine council members and three appointed directors who unanimously approved Recycled Materials Co.’s demolition bid over one submitted by a local partnership called Vulcan/Ortiz Enterprises Inc.