Tustin Gives OK to Sale of Historic Blimp Hangar

Watermark Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Tustin Magazine, wasted no time in adding the local magazine's name to the famous blimp hangar after the sale was approved by the City of Tustin.

By Hari Seldon
April 1, 2009

A historic wooden hangar that housed military blimps during World War II has been saved by an agreement between Watermark Publishing, Inc. and Tustin city leaders.  Watermark Publishing is the publisher of Tustin Magazine and other regional publications.

The City Council had originally voted in February of last year to raze the structure to make way for homes, businesses, parks and schools, but that was all scrapped after the city was approached by the magazine publisher.  The City Council voted unanimously Thursday to accept the company's proposal to assume ownership of the blimp hanger.  Under the agreement, Watermark pays a symbolic one dollar for the hangar, but agrees to completely restore the structure and to maintain it as an historic monument.  The restoration costs are estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.  After obtaining permission from the Navy and the State Office of Historic Preservation, the company was permitted to paint the name of its local publication on one side of the building.  The agreement further provides that the public must be given reasonable access to the building, which can be accomplished with scheduled tours.

This agreement follows a long string of rejections by the city of other proposed uses, including proposals for a motocross facility, a culinary complex, shops catering to the elderly and a futuristic airship building center.  Each would have preserved the hangar, but none of the suitors offered to perform a restoration. The proposals, city staff found and council members agreed, were neither economically viable nor properly planned.

“Overall, the prior proposals were very poorly done,” one Councilman said, “but we knew we had a winner when Tustin Magazine approached us.  The blimp hangars are a Tustin icon, and we wanted to do everything we could to preserve them.  Being able to sell one of the hangars to another local icon like Tustin Magazine was just icing on the cake."

Hangar 29 is one of two blimp shelters on the former Tustin Marine Corps Air Station that are on the National Register of Historic Places. The hangars, more than 1,000 feet long, 300 feet wide and 170 feet high, are the world’s largest all-wood buildings, according to Paul Freeman’s “Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields” website.