Artsy Entrepreneurs Flock to Former Pack House

As David Storrs walks through the century-old former citrus packing plant that he owns in Fillmore, he talks about his instructions to workmen who restored the wooden floors. He wanted the floors to be imperfect, to retain a distressed look. “I want to give the feeling that the building has been lived in,” Storrs said. The Citrus Packing House at the corner of A Street and Sespe Avenue in the small Ventura County city certainly has the vibe of a long life. The oldest part of the building was constructed in 1914. The new wing was added in 1935. It started out as a facility to pack oranges and lemons from the nearby orchards; later, the space was used for storing aircraft parts. Under Storrs’s ownership, the 79,200-square-foot packing house is finding new relevance as the home for entrepreneurial craftsman. Within its walls these proprietors make guitars, customize travel trailers or design furniture. “Dave is a musician himself and he really likes the idea of luthiers (guitar makers) up here,” said Bruce Johnson, a tenant who specializes in bass guitars. “It is part of the idea of what he thinks would be neat for this town.” The packing plant project allows Storrs to combine two of his passions. He likes the old building for the engineering puzzles it presents and it satisfies his artistic side – he has worked as a record producer and arranger – by bringing in artisans to populate the space. “I am fascinated by these old buildings and it is a challenge and an honor to save this one from a landfill,” the 64-year-old Storrs said. “That is where it was going if no one had done this.” Storrs would not reveal how much he paid for the building. But according to commercial real estate database CoStar Group Inc., the sale price when he bought it in March 2012 was $900,000. Eclectic tenants From its construction in the mid-teens until the 1960s, the Fillmore Citrus Association used the building for packing oranges and lemons under such brand names as Airline, Oriole and Airship. In the basement, the rails that carts were pushed on for getting the fruit crates to the stalls where it ripened are still visible. One of the stalls, too, has the entrance to a tunnel that goes beneath the street to another building that was at one time part of the packing house complex. “It is a very interesting old place,” Johnson said. “It has all these hidden things in it.” After its orange and lemon packing days ended, the building was used as a furniture factory and then to store aircraft parts when Fields Aircraft Spares Inc. owned it. The company went out of business in the late 1990s. The legacy of Fields is found in the elaborate fire sprinkler system it installed. In the early 2000s, a new owner took over and that was when Steve Butcher relocated Funky Junk Farms, a trailer restoration and film props business from Ventura, to space on the top floor. The new owner of the packing house had been a client of his and bought the building knowing that Butcher needed more space for his growing operations, Butcher said. The work being done by Butcher and his contract employees was exactly the type of tenant that Storrs wanted to populate the building. “He didn’t know if he was going to have to move or what was going to happen,” Storrs said of Butcher following the purchase of the building. “I told him to stay.” Butcher and his team work on up to four trailers at a time. These are 1940s and 1950s vintage vehicles that are brought back to their original condition or updated with modern amenities. Butcher also does work in the entertainment industry and his time as a picture car coordinator resulted in his meeting Ray Claridge, who for years operated Cinema Vehicle Services in North Hollywood before selling it a few years ago. Claridge is also a collector of antiques, dolls, figurines, toys, games, candy dispensers, soda machines, cigarette packages, patent medicines and auto-related neon signs. About 18 months ago, Claridge brought his collection to the packing house at the suggestion of Butcher. One of his recent purchases, and now set up in his space, is a complete soda shop with counter and booths. “He came out and looked at the space and it looked good and filled it up,” Butcher said. Music migration The basement level began to fill up in late 2013 when Johnson relocated to Fillmore from Burbank, where he had been for more than 20 years with his Extremely Strange Musical Instrument Co. Johnson refurbishes Ampeg scrolled bass guitars from the 1960s and builds modern versions of the instrument. He also does work for other luthiers in the Los Angeles area such as building guitar necks and special hardware. That part of his business is expanding to other parts of the country. For instance, a month back he got a call from a luthier school in Oregon that wanted to start using his truss rods, Johnson said. “They would order a batch of the metal parts and their students would learn how to install them in the necks,” he added. Johnson does his work on the vintage machinery that he moved by truck over a three-month period from Burbank to Fillmore. Some of the equipment he works on is nearly as old as the building. After he came to the building – which he found through an ad on Craigslist – and saw how it suited the woodworking necessary in making guitars, Johnson said he began to encourage other luthiers to come out to Fillmore as well, including Mike Lipe and Rob Allen, who, like Johnson, build bass guitars. Jonathan Wilson runs a one-man shop called Togaman Guitarviols, an alternative string instrument tuned like a guitar but played with a bow like a violin or cello. Wilson met Johnson in 2003 when he needed some special bridges machined for his instruments, which he started making to combine his familiarity with guitars with the sound he admired from the cello. After he and his family moved to Stevenson Ranch a few years ago, Wilson wanted to relocate his business. Not finding space in the San Fernando Valley, he checked out Citrus Packing House. “Initially I was reluctant to do it but at the end of the day it won me over,” Wilson said. Wilson, in turn, convinced one of his former employees, Keith Horne, to come out to the building as well. Horne now has a space next to Wilson where he builds under his Marvin Guitars brand. Part of the attraction for the packing house is that the tenants in the basement, which include a metal worker and cabinet maker, have specialized skills that help to solve each other’s problems. “We all have a little cooperation here even though we are all independent builders and luthiers,” Wilson said. Johnson specifically mentions the sprinkler system installed by Fields as a big plus for him and the other guitar makers because it makes the place safer. Most buildings the age of the packing house don’t allow woodworking because of the fire hazard, he added. “If I talk with landlords about their building, half will automatically say no woodworking because of the liability. Those that do have sprinkler systems charge a premium,” Johnson said. The rental rates Storrs charges are modest – 75 cents to $1 a square foot. It dovetails with his philosophy of preserving the arts and creating a synergistic environment where everyone works well together. “Financially I do not need to do this,” Storrs said. “I do it because I love it and I love what these guys are doing.” Fillmore context Fillmore officials are pleased with how the building is developing. A few months ago, representatives from the building department, public works department and the fire department visited the Citrus Packing House to see the progress Storrs had made in fixing it up and how the city can work with him on permitting. Kevin McSweeney, planning and community development director, said that they roamed the facility and talked with the tenants there. “We’ve realized how much art is occurring in that building,” McSweeney said. “It is cool.” Other cities have discovered the value of restoring old packing facilities. On the edge of downtown Anaheim is a packing house dating from 1919 that was repurposed into a food hall with multiple restaurants. In Corona, a former peach packing building was renovated and subdivided into 19 live-work industrial studios. Claremont has a former citrus packing house in its downtown area with retail, dining, entertainment and professional service tenants. Storrs had first looked at the Citrus Packing House building about 10 years ago. He didn’t make a move at the time because the building had been damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake and never been repaired. He revisited the site in 2011 after seeing a foreclosure sale notice. Storrs told the bank handling the foreclosure he was interested in buying it but only if he could repair the damage. Through a city employee in the building department, Storrs was put in touch with Basseri Engineering and Construction, a Los Angeles firm that does earthquake retrofits and repairs, and made a deal on a price and timeframe for the necessary work. Currently, Storrs is working with the city to obtain a conditional use permit to keep his tenants in the building. The main concern of city officials is the safety of the tenants. The conditional use permit will need approval by the city planning commission. “When we explain to the commissioners about all the artwork (going on there), they are going to be happy we are able to attract that kind of person here,” said McSweeney, the planning and community development director. Storrs, a Los Angeles native who went to UCLA, said the atmosphere in Fillmore is similar to that of the city he grew up in the 1950s and ’60s. He finds that the residents are true stakeholders and are willing to take a loss if it means the community is better. “It is one of the reasons why I am enthusiastic to be here,” Storrs said. “The tenants I have feel the same way.”