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SANTA CLARITA VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNAL Santa Clarita’s Only Business Publication
www.scvbj.com
$2.00 · Volume 7 · Number 12
april 2016
■ Rendering of Phase I of new building construction to begin in April at the 116acre business park IAC (International Airport Centers) Commerce Center signifies the first new industrial space construction in nearly a decade. The new center sits adjacent to the Valencia Commerce Center off the Interstate-5 and Highway 126 intersection in Santa Clarita.
First Significant Industrial Building in A Decade to Commence
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n little more than a year after the initial groundbreaking, Phase I of new building construction of the IAC (International Airport Centers) Commerce Center begins in April. New construction of the 116-acre business park marks the first significant See INDUSTRIAL page 22
Special Report:
Crushing the Wine Industry Page 6 ■ Juan Alonso displays a selection of his wines available at Le Chene restaurant in Santa Clarita. Photo by Dan Watson
Film Location Firm Has News Magnate William Randolph Hearst to Thank for its Beginnings
Business Makeover: Hold, Differentiate, Build through Diversification By Ken Keller
S ■ Hollywood Locations got is start in 1989 when it secured the rig; built by legendary newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Courtesy photo.
By Jana Adkins SCVBJ Editor
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ollywood Locations had newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s grandiose vision for building the Los Angeles newspaper, Herald Examiner, in Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival styles to thank for its launch into the movie locations business. In fact, not only did the film location company have Hearst to thank for building the newspaper’s headquarters – ornately designed with gold, marble hand-painted
floor tiles in downtown Los Angeles in 1914, it had Hearst’s contentious, near decade-long battle with striking unions to thank for the newspaper’s demise in 1989 when it folded. “We were one of the first companies to specialize in the commercial world,” said Santa Clarita resident since 1986, Pete Brosnan, a principal of Hollywood Locations and Los Angeles Center Studios. “We lobbied the Hearst Corp. for their old Los Angeles building in 1989 when it went out of business. Julia Morgan See HOLLYWOOD, page 23
ome owners see only trailing indicators but some are fortunate to be at the leading edge and can see the future before many recognize what is happening. Almost twenty years ago, a man who had been delivering for a furniture store got the idea to start his own moving company. In just a few years the company expanded into a full moving and storage company, capable of packing, crating, storage and delivery anywhere in the world. Through the years the business grew and weathered the economic ups and down of the North Los Angeles economy. While his business has grown over the past half a dozen years or so, the core reason for Daniel O’Brien’s business to exist is slowly disappearing. He is in the residential moving
■ Watford Moving and Storage owner Daniel O’Brien stands in the company’s warehouse, next to the stacks of wooden vault storage containers. Photo by Katharine Lotze
business and his consumer target market is not moving into California, they are leaving it. With a shrinking inbound market, in-state residential moves are becoming more price competitive, with resulting reduced margins. See WATFORD, page 24
Auto Club moving its Valencia insurance claims unit
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he Automobile Club of Southern California is relocating its Tourney Road insurance claims operation in Valencia to an office building on Turnberry Place, a broker for the deal said. Currently, the operations unit is located on Tourney Road. Representing the landlord, Great Point Investors, Colliers International Senior Vice Presidents, Kevin Fenenbock and John Erickson, leased the entire ground floor, some 29,000 square feet, in one of the buildings at the Summit at Valencia business park on Turnberry Place. The lease represented
roughly one-half of the entire building. “This will be the largest new lease transaction (renewals excluded) in Santa Clarita for over 10 years,” Fenenbock said. “There have been a lot of renewals and expansions over the years, but in terms of new deals we were unable to identify any new lease transitions as large as this in terms of a new tenant coming into a building.” AAA is expected to move a regional insurance claims unit and other related groups to the new office by the third quarter of this year, See AAA, page 16
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