EHarmony Inc. is doing it; so is Yahoo Inc. And now there’s another company pulling up stakes and leaving Santa Monica: Pacific Air Industries Inc. But the change of geography is where the similarities among the companies end. Pacific Air is not an Internet firm, and it’s not moving to Westwood, where eHarmony plans to go, or Playa Vista, where Yahoo is heading. Instead, it’s relocating to the West San Fernando Valley. Last month, the 55-year-old aircraft parts redistributor, a pioneer in a highly competitive niche business, leased 37,000 square feet of industrial space in Chatsworth, where it hopes to be operating by the end of this year. “The move to the Valley is very exciting for us, after having been in Santa Monica for 55 years,” said Chief Executive Leslie Ridley-Tree, a Montecito philanthropist whose late husband, Paul Ridley-Tree, founded the company. In fact, its new headquarters at 9650 De Soto Ave. will bring Pacific Air’s 30 employees – several of whom live in Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks – under one roof for the first time. They’ll be housed in a recently remodeled warehouse that’s far more functional than the three post-World War II buildings at 2100 Pennsylvania Ave. in Santa Monica where the company, which does not disclose annual revenue, has been headquartered since its founding. Leslie Ridley-Tree sold that 34,000-square-foot property, in a prime location within blocks of the Water Garden office complex and Santa Monica College, for $16 million in April to nearby nonprofit Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences. Tough move Pacific Air’s core business is buying parts from major airlines and, surprisingly, selling them back to the same companies as needed. That’s because aircraft manufacturers like Chicago-based Boeing Co. insist that their customers buy an extensive spare parts package along with each aircraft they purchase. Rather than keep capital idle in a collection of spare parts, the airlines sell them for cash. “Airlines always have an enormous supply of used parts, whether they need them or not,” explained Tom Nolet, vice president of marketing at Pacific Air. “So they sell them to companies like ours.” It’s a niche that company founder Paul Ridley-Tree discovered when he worked for the Douglas Aircraft Co. In 1965, after he started Pacific Air, Douglas began consigning its spare parts to Pacific Air for resale and the company took off. At the time, a location near Los Angeles International Airport made sense. And now, after so many years in the Santa Monica location, the decision to sell wasn’t easy – and it won’t be painless. For example, the company has a repair subsidiary, Air-Cert Inc., that brings in about a quarter of the company’s total income overhauling hydraulic systems and pneumatic units for Boeing and the U.S. military, Nolet said. It has operated under the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Agency’s offices at LAX for decades, undergoing random inspections several times annually to ensure regulatory quality compliance. But in Chatsworth, its new facilities will need to be inspected and get approval from the FAA’s office at Van Nuys Airport. No one is quite sure how long that process will take, he said. Then there’s the matter of Pacific Air’s stock of 300,000 aircraft parts, crammed so tightly into the Pennsylvania Avenue buildings that even the company restrooms overflow with boxes of spare parts. “We never do inventory,” Nolet admitted, adding that the company has hired a crew of temporary workers to sift through the boxes and cull parts made for aircraft that are now obsolete. “It’s a major headache. We’re finding stuff we didn’t even know we had.” Valley economics Despite the complexity of the move, in the end it made business sense for the company to cash out its valuable land and rent in Chatsworth, said Scott Caswell, the Delphi Business Properties Inc. broker who handled the $1.7 million long-term lease with landlord West Valley Industrial Property LI of Beverly Hills. “What my clients find is that there’s such a great bang for your dollar out here,” he said. “In places like Santa Monica and Culver City, they have antiquated buildings with no parking – and they’re paying a fortune for them.” For instance, current industrial lease rates in Chatsworth run about 90 cents to $1.05 a square foot. But industrial properties in Culver City are leasing for more than double that rate, at between $1.50 and $2.50 a square foot, Caswell said. The problem in the Valley, with industrial property in particular, is lack of space. “Vacancy is at less than 2 percent and the demand is insatiable. Tenants often don’t have a lot of choices,” Caswell said. “Sometimes it comes down to only one building that’s a good fit.” For example, the De Soto property was months ahead of a lease expiration when he showed it to Pacific Air. “It wasn’t on the market, but as soon as they saw it they knew it was for them. I was able to slide them in,” he said. Pacific Air has many rivals. Its largest local competitor is Unical Aviation Inc., a family-owned firm headquartered in the City of Industry. Founded in 1990, it is a relative newcomer compared with Pacific Air. But along with its early entry into the industry, Pacific Air has another competitive advantage: Its loyal employee base. Nolet, now 62, has worked for the company since 1971. One employee has been with the company 50 years, and others, like Nolet, have four decades’ tenure. “People enjoy working here and we treat our employees really well,” he said. Another ace in the hole for Pacific Air is Leslie Ridley-Tree, who took over leadership at the company 11 years ago. The chief executive, who has been known as Lady Ridley-Tree since she and her husband inherited titles from a British relative, is a major supporter of the arts, education and other charitable causes in Santa Barbara. In 2012, she was granted honorary alumna status by UC Santa Barbara for her philanthropic efforts – one of many honors she and her husband have received. She’s committed to keeping the company alive and thriving in its new home, she said, despite the fact that over the years it has been affected by downturns in the airline industry. “It happens, but we’ve survived into old age. And I think we can survive just about anything by now,” she said.
