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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Businessman Has Watched Area Become Powerhouse

Don Fleming has lived in Santa Clarita for close to 10 years and has been visiting for more than 20, which is long enough to watch the valley grow from a place with only two restaurants to one of Los Angeles County’s fastest growing cities. Although growth has resulted in more traffic, Fleming says efforts to lure good jobs are paying off and the city’s star is on the rise. Fleming opened up Valencia Acura with his wife Cheri in 1997, and has been a presence in the Santa Clarita Valley ever since. He helped start the Santa Clarita Valley Auto Dealers Association shortly after opening his business. The group, made up of the owners of one of the largest auto malls in Southern California, is one of the biggest economic forces in the region and one of the most active charity contributors. It supports the hospital, the Sheila R. Veloz Breast Imaging Center and numerous others. He has nothing but praise for the city’s infrastructure and economic development efforts. Santa Clarita’s successful efforts to lure high-paying jobs, retail businesses and home developers have made it easier for people to live and work in the Santa Clarita Valley, spending as little time as possible on the freeway system, he says. Question: How has Santa Clarita changed in the 20 plus years you’ve been familiar with the area? Answer: Oh my gosh, it’s changed for the better. When I started coming up here it was all onion fields, there was no development. Valencia was way out in the sticks, where today we have industrial parks with jobs, and one of the largest auto malls in Southern California. Q: How has traffic increased as development has continued? A: Oh, that old story. The old “I’m here now, and nobody else can come.” Yes we have traffic issues, and yes we do have some problems. But my gosh, the style of living, the school system and other things, that really offsets a lot of the bad things. We’re very strongly in favor of the cross-valley connector, which has been going on for more than a year. We’re getting more money for it on a daily basis. I think it’s really going to relieve a lot of the traffic congestion as people go on the I-5 and the 14. Q: Can the region handle increased growth and how is business involved in planning? A: One thing we have in our favor is a super city council, and city manager in Kenneth Pulskamp. Those people have their finger on the pulse. It has gotten easier for people to move about the valley, and traffic is the topic of conversation wherever I go. Businesses are participating in areas where they can help he city. There are several different groups, like a coalition that is working to figure out ways to get money to make improvements on the I-5. Everybody’s involved. I just read an article that said over 40 percent of the people that live here are commuting out of the area, but that’s getting better every month because there are more jobs coming here, and they’re well-paying jobs. Q: As co-owner of Valencia Acura with your wife, you were one of the first auto dealers in the area, how has the sector grown? A: Since I’ve been here they’ve added a Mercedes dealership, a new Honda store, a Hyundai store, we’ve had an Infiniti added and Volkswagen, as well as a Land Rover and Hummer. Q: You were a major force in starting the Santa Clarita Valley Auto Dealers Association, how is that group active in local affairs? A: It was just a situation where the dealers decided to band together so that they have a voice for the situations where we need something from the city, like a reader board on the I-5. So we formed the association and I served as president from 1998 to 2005. We also do an awful lot of charity events and we put money together in order to advertise. The biggest thing we do is speak as one group. This auto mall does somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 billion per year in retail sales, we’re the single largest tax generator that the city of Santa Clarita has, a third of its general fund. Based on that, I guess we do have some clout. Q: You’ve been involved in a number of different community groups over the years like the Boys and Girls Club, the United Way and several others. What makes community service important to you? A: It’s my belief, everybody doesn’t have to have the same belief, that if you have a business in the community and you take money out of it, you have to give some of it back. Q: The business community in Santa Clarita seems to have taken your lead, somewhat? A: I have never seen anything like it. They support more nonprofits up here than any place I have ever been. It’s just a sense of giving. I don’t know where it comes from but it’s the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Businesses support the hospital, the Boys and Girls Club, the Samuel Dixon Family Health Center, the Child and Family Center Foundation, I could go on and on. I think there are over 1,000 nonprofits here. Q: What are some of the more exciting business developments you’ve witnessed? A: Well, we have a lot of filming going on in this community. We’ve opened a film commission office and we have more studios. That filming creates jobs, it generates location fees and contributes to our economy. There are high-tech companies that are focusing here now, and there are biomed companies up here, there are some big companies coming into town with very high-paying jobs. Q: Have you been involved at all in trying to lure businesses to Santa Clarita? A: Yes, I’ll do whatever I can to help if they’re looking for someone to get involved in the community or get in touch with car dealers. As a matter of fact, there was a bus through here recently carrying a group of Japanese businesspeople looking at dealerships and different businesses. They wanted to know about the community, whether it was well-heeled financially. Q: One of the complaints about Santa Clarita used to be that people had to come down to Los Angeles, do you think that’s changed at all? A: Absolutely. If there was a Nordstrom here I’m not sure I’d ever go over the hill, or at least my wife wouldn’t.

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