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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

25 Economic Engines of the Valley: Today & Tomorrow

25 Economic Engines of the Valley: Today & Tomorrow Those who live and work in what we call the Greater San Fernando Valley know one thing for sure: It’s hard to put your finger on the region, to define it in one or two simple words. If the term “diversity” occasionally seems overused, it’s only because it’s a concept that so appropriately defines the area, its people, its institutions and, yes, its economy. It is the home of Amgen Inc., perhaps the highest-profile biotech company in the world. International corporations like Dole Food, Nestle and Countrywide Credit Industries make their headquarters here. But it is also home to tens of thousands of so-called mom-and-pop businesses, some here for generations and others that open up every day for the first time. Commercial real estate brokers close $100 million-plus deals on office buildings in Warner Center, and residential real estate agents make good livings selling $100,000 condos. Giants in their industries like Alfred E. Mann stride across the Valley and small business owners ply their trades for decades on Reseda Boulevard, Ventura Boulevard and Burbank’s Hollywood Way. There are a multitude of people, places and products that make up a vibrant Valley economy. The engines that drive that economy change almost daily. Here are 25 people, places and products the editorial staff of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal believes are either driving the region’s economy at the moment – or will take the driver’s seat in the very near future. Economic Engines of the Valley – Special Report Epogen Amgen Inc. More than 25 years ago, researchers at the University of Washington isolated a protein called erythropoietin, or Epo. They found it could stimulate the growth of red-blood cells in sheep and correct anemia caused by kidney failure. They had a suspicion that Epo could be used also to treat anemia in humans. A small company in Thousand Oaks called Amgen Inc. took a chance on their research. In 1983 it staged an initial public offering and invested a risky $20 million to build a factory to produce what eventually would be called Epogen three years before it received Food and Drug Administration approval. In 1991, Amgen reached the $1 billion sales mark for Epogen; last year, sales reached $5 billion; and those who bought into that original IPO have seen their investment increase 170-fold. Amgen is arguably the largest, most successful biotech firm in the United States, perhaps in the world. Its engineers and scientists have provided the intellectual capital that has spawned many of the biotech startups along the 101 Corridor between Woodland Hills and Camarillo. That’s not all. A new, longer-lasting version of Epo, a second-generation Epogen called Aranesp, will allow Amgen to be more competitive in markets now monopolized by rival Johnson & Johnson. Amgen officials believes annual sales of Aranesp could quickly match Epogen’s $5 billion. – Michael Hart Alfred E. Mann Mannkind Corp. Few were surprised when Alfred E. Mann sold his hugely successful medical device company, MiniMed Inc., to Minnesota-based Medtronic Inc. for $3.7 billion last September. While it may have been the most spectacular one, it wasn’t the first major deal Mann has made with one of the companies that he started from scratch. Mann began his career in 1956 when he created Spectrolab, an electrophysics company that supplied the U.S. Army with optical filters for an anti-tank missile firing system. He used proceeds of the sale of Spectrolab to establish semiconductor maker Heliotek. In 1969, Mann sold Heliotek and turned to the biomedical field in establishing Pacesetter, a firm that in 1972 introduced the first rechargeable pacemaker before he sold it to Siemens AG a few years later. Mann’s non-profit Alfred E. Mann Foundation in Valencia developed the Clarion, a hearing device that allowed many deaf patients to hear for the first time. MiniMed Inc., which he founded in 1985, would later develop and market an implanted insulin pump. Today, Mann, through his MannKind Corp., continues to pump millions of dollars of capital into biomed startups. Among the local examples are AlleCure Corp., CTL ImmunoTherapies Corp. and Advanced Bionics Corp. – Carlos Martinez Stevenson Ranch If a vibrant resale market has sustained older, built-out portions of the San Fernando Valley, new home construction and sales in fast-growing portions of the Santa Clarita and Conejo valleys have been attracting new homebuyers – and businesses that hope to cater to them – in droves. The largest homebuilders in the Valley are there, and the focus of much of the attention in recent years has been Stevenson Ranch, an unincorporated area northwest of Santa Clarita, that up until the late 1980s was little more than a freeway exit with gas and fast food available. Today, it is home to nearly 8,000 people and, once all 4,000 acres of the master-planned community are built out, is expected to have a population of between 40,000 and 50,000. The very first residents moved into Stevenson Ranch in 1990. In those early days, events moved at a snail’s pace. In fact, through the early 1990s, about 40 homes a year were sold. Nowadays, it’s more like eight or nine a week. Developers have primarily concentrated on residential development, with more of the commercial development outside of the planned community. The 86-acre Valencia Marketplace is the closest shopping center. Tenants keep it filled, drawn primarily by residents of the Ranch, where the average household income is $88,000. – Michael Hart BTAC’s Valley Contingent The Blueprint for Business Tax Reform was first released in 1999 by the city’s Business Tax Advisory Committee (BTAC), a group formed with the intention of making recommendations to the Mayor’s Business Team. The committee came up with six reform measures, some of which have been implemented, others still being considered. All aim to level the playing field for small companies, lure larger businesses to Los Angeles and crack down on tax scofflaws. Spearheading the effort were three San Fernando Valley business leaders who are dominant players on the business tax reform issue and members of BTAC: accountant and Co-Chairman Mel Kohn, Marvin Selter of CMS Inc., and attorney Allan Oberman. A citywide tax amnesty program the three pushed for was initiated in the fall of 2001 and reaped roughly $25 million in taxes that would have otherwise gone unpaid – money that will now be used for further tax reforms. BTAC also managed to get the so-called double taxation code eliminated and worked with state legislators to pass a bill allowing the State Franchise Tax Board and the city to share data to track down unregistered businesses. Just recently, BTAC presented the Los Angeles City Council with what will likely prove the most popular of reform recommendations to date: four alternatives to the city’s lopsided gross receipts tax. – Jacqueline Fox Valencia Gateway Years ago, when Newhall Land and Farming Co. started marketing Valencia as a nice place to live, one of the selling points might have been the quick commute down Interstate 5 to Los Angeles. Today, Newhall Land markets Valencia Gateway as a great place to move a business – and tells potential tenants it has a built-in workforce in the 200,000 people who live in the Santa Clarita Valley. The Valencia Gateway, 4,500 acres that hug seven miles of I-5 and Highway 126, encompasses 18.5 million developed square feet of industrial and commercial space and 1,200 companies with 40,000 employees. By the time real estate brokers are done, they expect 2,700 companies with 63,000 employees to occupy 34 million square feet. Doing his part to make sure Newhall Land and others meet those goals is Alfred E. Mann. His Mann Biomedical Park LLM recently purchased the 167-acre North Campus at Rye Canyon Business Park. Already in place at the business park are biomed startups – Advanced Bionics, AlleCure, Second Sight and CTL ImmunoTherapies among them – Mann has substantial investments in. Mann, like others, is lured by the relatively inexpensive land and the strong pitch Newhall Land has made to attract the biotech industry, including seminars and symposia intended to attract the sector’s eye. – Michael Hart Ventura Boulevard The “Boulevard” stretches roughly 18 miles from the 101 interchange in Universal City at the east end far to the west where it dead ends at Mulholland Drive just shy of the Calabasas city limits. Ventura Boulevard, the oldest, continuously traveled route in the San Fernando Valley, was originally part of the famed El Camino Real, nothing more than a dirt road that once served as the pathway Spanish missionaries took on their way north up the coast. Today, the Boulevard is home to more than 8,000 retailers, restaurants and businesses large and small – all serving commerce as one eclectic, collective voice and as the main artery for the Valley’s business community. Traverse Ventura Boulevard any time of day and witness the many faces: from the Pinot Grills and Caf & #233; Bizous of Studio City and Sherman Oaks through the cluster of high rises in Encino and on to the mom-and-pop antique and specialty shops of the west end in Woodland Hills. It is home to every conceivable type of business, from high-tech gadgetry and software developers to B-movie distributors to pawn shops, pool halls and attorneys’ offices – acting, every inch of the way, as San Fernando Valley’s own version of Main Street. – Jacqueline Fox Angelo R. Mozilo Countrywide Credit Industries Inc. Angelo R. Mozilo believed he was on to something different when he co-founded Countrywide Credit Industries Inc. in 1969. Having gone from a small Valley office to one of the largest mortgage lenders in the country, Calabasas-based Countrywide operates 550 branches across the U.S. with net income of $486 million on sales last year of $4.11 billion. Mozilo and partner David Loeb, both experienced mortgage lenders, founded their company in 1969. After two years of major losses, the two men fired their sales staff, radically restructured the company and focused on advertising the company’s low rates and points. Countrywide’s fortunes took off. In the early 1980s, to stem a drop in mortgage lending, the company began acquiring mortgages from other lenders and became one of the top loan servicing companies in the country. Even as low interest rates over the last year have kept many mortgage companies busy refinancing loans, Mozilo has not rested on his laurels. Instead, under his leadership, Countrywide has expanded to provide mortgage refinancing, home appraisals, escrow services, title insurance and most recently moved into banking. As the nation’s third largest provider of home loans, Countrywide is experiencing the biggest growth spurt in its history, due largely to the refinancing activity spurred by rock-bottom interest rates. Although Loeb retired in 1999, Mozilo continues to lead the company as its chairman, president and CEO. – Carlos Martinez Burbank Empire Center At first it looked like it might merely be a boon for Lockheed Martin Co. – 103 acres, abandoned when the Star Wars-defense industry dreams of the Reagan Era came crashing to a halt, was finally being sold to a developer. But Zelman Development Co. turned the desolate parcel into one of the largest and arguably the most successful of retail developments in 2001. Burbank Empire Center, which lies along the Golden State Freeway and Buena Vista Street, is a 620,000-square-foot shopping complex housing the biggest names in big box retailing – a selection that includes Costco, Target, Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse, The Great Indoors, Best Buy, Sportmart and Linens ‘n Things. Built at a cost of about $110 million, the development is drawing shoppers from Valencia and beyond, and the location has turned out to be among the top performers for each of the chains located there. With 417,000 people with an average household income of $57,500 living within a five-mile radius of the center, and 184,000 cars traveling past it on Interstate 5 every day, said Zelman CEO Ben Reiling, the project was low risk in spite of its size and scope. “It was a real no-brainer,” Reiling said. “It’s one of the most heavily traveled freeways in the system. It is surrounded by very, very dense residential and it has very solid incomes. And the area was very underserved by big box retail.” – Shelly Garcia Troy Bosch Bank of America To many, small business is the heart of the San Fernando Valley economy. There are more than 2,000 entertainment-related companies with fewer than 50 employees and countless small tech firms are part of the supply chain that serves the telecommunications and semiconductor sectors. That’s not to mention the tens of thousands of companies in the retail and service sectors manned by sole proprietors. None of that would be possible without capital. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, Bank of America makes more small business loans than any other bank and the person largely responsible for that is senior vice president Troy Bosch, who oversees the bank’s small business lending unit here. “We are the biggest lender in the Valley for a while now,” said Bosch, who has led the unit since 2000. With 168 small business loans worth $9.3 million on the books in the first three months of 2002, the bank is tops in lending by far, said Lorenzo J. Flores, assistant district director of the SBA’s Glendale office. “They do a lot of SBA loans and a lot of other loans for small business,” Flores said. The bank, which has worked with the City Redevelopment Agency in providing SBA loans in recent years, has loaned money to companies in a variety of industries, Bosch said. “We get a good mix of businesses in the Valley,” he said. “You have a manufacturing base and retail and even commercial real estate, and I can’t say one is bigger than the others.” Although figures for last year’s loan program are still being examined by the bank and have not been released, Bosch expects local loan numbers to improve this year and next. “The Valley is really growing business-wise and we don’t see loan activity slowing,” he said. – Carlos Martinez 10 Gigabit Ethernet Just about every American office today has a network of computers that allows them to “talk” to one another. The 10 gigabit Ethernet, a technology that a handful of Valley firms have been instrumental in developing, eventually will make those networks faster and more reliable. While most Ethernet networks operate at speeds of between 1 and 2 gigabits per second, Valley-based telecommunications equipment makers like Vitesse Semiconductor and Internet Machines Inc. have products in the pipeline to speed up those networks to a staggering 10 gigabits per second. Local companies like Ixia and Spirent are developing testing technology to make sure they work. The Ethernet, not to be confused with the Internet, allows users to access and retrieve information located in other computers connected to the network. The speed of the networks often slows due to the volume of traffic along the network, making high-speed connections essential for efficiency, experts say. Lou Tomasetta, CEO of Camarillo-based Vitesse, is optimistic about the growth of the 10 gigabit network, saying that, even if it will be a few years before it is commonly used in the workplace, it is the next generation of Internet technology. “Eventually, there will be a lot of 10 gigabit Ethernet, but that’s probably three or four years away,” he said. – Carlos Martinez Dr. Adam Singer IPC-The Hospitalist Co. While most of the health care industry sought the answer to rising costs by raising prices or cutting services, Dr. Adam Singer was among a handful of pioneers with a different idea. Singer, founder and CEO of IPC-The Hospitalist Co. in North Hollywood, is at the forefront of a new medical specialty, hospital medicine – physicians who oversee patient care from the time of admission to the hospital through discharge, replacing the primary care doctor with one who is on site full time throughout the stay. When he formed the company in 1995, the term hospitalist had barely been coined. Today, there are more than 5,000 such physicians in practice and in use in virtually all the leading hospitals in the country – from Mayo Clinic to Cedars Sinai. Most important, research has shown that hospitalist programs shorten the length of stays, reduce costs and provide better care than more traditional methods. “It’s not about managed care, it’s not about saving money, but it turns out it does both,” said Dr. Larry Wellikson, executive director of the National Association of Inpatient Physicians in Philadelphia, the specialty’s professional group. IPC now includes 250 physicians working at 150 hospitals in six states. As such, it is one of the few national organizations of its kind. And IPC has succeeded in building its national practice where a number of other attempts have failed. “There’s no road map,” said Wellikson, “and one of the things Adam has done is develop a good way to manage the information.” – Shelly Garcia Shrek Moviegoers of all ages in 2001 went absolutely gaga for this cantankerous, if somewhat misunderstood, pudgy green ogre who, in addition to being alone, enjoys dung baths and making candles from his own earwax. And the momentum continues for its maker, Glendale-based DreamWorks SKG. The film immediately took Hollywood and the studio’s behemoth competitor, The Walt Disney Co., by storm and went on to became the second-highest grossing animated film of all time. “Shrek” took in nearly $300 million last year, beating out Disney’s “Monsters Inc.,” at just over $200 million, all the while taking a poke at nearly every fairy tale ever told by Disney on film and by others in print. “Shrek” has grossed nearly $500 million to date worldwide, is the best selling DVD of all time, and owns the No. 1 spot for video sales in 2001. And the film’s success has spread far beyond the walls of the DreamWorks campus. The economic impact of the “Shrek” franchise, including software for online games, DVDs, video sales and licensing rights for novelty products, was immediately felt by the Valley business community and continues today vis & #341; vis a handful of lucrative deals for some local companies. In the most recent example, Calabasas-based TDK Mediactive, publisher of interactive entertainment software, obtained an exclusive licensing agreement for video game platforms for the entire “Shrek” line, including the upcoming sequel. “Shrek” accounted for 70 percent of TDK’s sales in the last quarter of 2001. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the video game maker reported net income of $827,825 on total revenue of $16.5 million. – Jacqueline Fox Brian Farrell THQ Inc. You could say Brian Farrell has got game. In fact, scores of them. He’s the man behind video game maker THQ Inc. As chairman, president and CEO of the Calabasas-based firm, Farrell has helmed the company through one of its most productive periods ever. Last year, the company reported $36 million in net income on revenue of $379 million, compared to $18.2 million in net income on revenue of $347 million a year earlier. The company, the Valley’s biggest video game maker, is poised to continue growth this year and next, said Farrell, who has guided the company since 1995. Video game companies like THQ and Electronic Arts have resisted the downward pull felt by most tech companies, and THQ more so than most. Farrell’s emphasis on marketing and distribution has led the company to more than 70 countries, opening offices in England, Germany and France. Just as important has been his focus on licensing agreements to develop games based on characters from the World Wrestling Federation, Nickelodeon, the “Power Rangers” of TV and “Star Wars” of film. The popularity of these characters helped propel sales of the company’s games and further push its revenues as sales for its own homegrown games also took off. Robert DeLean, an analyst with Morgan Keegan & Co., said THQ is well positioned as demand for its products continues to grow. – Carlos Martinez VEDC’s Micro-Loan Since 1998, the Valley Economic Development Center has been handing out the kinds of loans most banks wouldn’t touch: the kind that are so small they don’t make money for anybody except the business that really needs them. In fact, in the past five years, VEDC’s Micro-Loan Program has assisted 54 Valley-based businesses in obtaining SBA loans totaling nearly $750,000. The funds were made available through a $200,000 grant courtesy of Bank of America and are used to help small companies and minority- and women-owned businesses in low- to moderate-income census tracts obtain funding to help alleviate debt and cash flow problems, including bankruptcy and foreclosure. Across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, the VEDC’s Micro-Loan Program has resulted in the approval of 144 loans totaling more than $2 million. – Jacqueline Fox Stephanie Vitacco Coldwell Banker, North Valley Regional Office Tech stocks may still be in a slump, perhaps consumers aren’t spending much money and the unemployment rate might be as high as it’s been in several years – but the Valley’s residential real estate market is just fine. In April, there were 47 percent more homes sold than in the same month of 2001, the average Valley home price is now $315,000 and home buyers signed on for $577 million in new mortgages that month, up from $371 million a year earlier. There are somewhere close to 10,000 residential real estate agents doing business in the San Fernando Valley, but few epitomize the boom that keeps going and going and going like Stephanie Vitacco of Coldwell Banker’s Northridge office. Since 1993, Vitacco has averaged 150 to 200 closed sales every year, or about one every three days. She makes her share of high-end sales, but that’s not what makes her one of the top volume realtors in the Valley. “Last month I sold a $100,000 condo in Pacoima and a $1.85 million home in Hidden Hills,” she said. “But I’m just as happy to sell 10 houses for $300,000 as I am one for $3 million.” – Michael Hart Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., best known by its HMO unit, Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, is top dog when it comes to the Valley’s health care industry. Serving more than 800,000 people in the Valley and surrounding area, Kaiser – the Valley’s largest private-sector employer with more than 5,300 workers – has developed into THE HMO for many who work or live in the area. None of which is news, said Lisa Kort, a spokeswoman for the company. “Despite the tough competition, we’ve been here for more than 40 years serving our members,” Kort said. With 13 medical centers, clinics and pharmacies in the Valley and surrounding area, the non-profit health care organization provides medical care, pharmaceuticals and mental health care to its members through its wholly owned medical facilities. Generating $17.7 billion in revenue throughout the state in 2000, the last year figures were available, Kaiser managed to turn around a $550 million loss over two years in the late 1990s. The loss, created by a rapid membership increase that forced many patients to use non-Kaiser facilities, has been stemmed by higher premiums and restructuring that eliminated money-losing clinics and health centers. But while some complain of the higher premiums, Lehman Brothers analyst Josh Raskin said Kaiser remains the industry’s premier operation. – Carlos Martinez Baja-style Fast Food When Greg Dollarhyde and his investment partners acquired the Baja Fresh chain in 1998, it consisted of a mere 49 restaurants generating some $50 million in sales. But Baja Fresh was an idea whose time had come. Consumers were developing an appetite for fast food with more taste and appeal than the warmed over hamburgers that had become an American staple, and aging boomers in particular were showing a decided preference for healthier choices that they could customize to their personal liking. Thousand Oaks-based Baja Fresh, with healthful ingredients cooked to order, flexible menus that allowed for substitutions, low prices and convenience, was at the threshold of a wholesale change in the fast food industry. Sales in bread-and-butter burgers at the large chains have been faltering and these fast food behemoths have recently branched out into the so-called “fast casual” dining category, where sales have been growing by 6 percent to 8 percent annually, versus 1 percent to 2 percent for traditional fast feeders. McDonald’s, for instance, has acquired stakes in Fazoli’s, a chain of fast casual Italian restaurants, and Baja Fresh competitor, Chipotle Mexican Grill. Having grown to 169 units with annual sales of nearly $177 million, Baja Fresh last month attracted the attention of fast food giant Wendy’s International, which is acquiring the chain for $275 million, more than five times what the investors hoped to reap in a public offering. Wendy’s, which will retain Dollarhyde as CEO and keep the Thousand Oaks headquarters, plans to expand the chain to 700 locations over the next five years. – Shelly Garcia Universal Studios City Walk This roughly 300,000-square-foot dining and shopping attraction serves as the gateway to Universal Studios and the Universal Amphitheater, clearly the most popular tourist destination in the San Fernando Valley. Universal keeps attendance figures close to the vest, but foot traffic averages about 10 million a year – that’s a lot of warm bodies coming through the doors of the roughly 80 retailers, restaurateurs and theatres in operation. A recent tune-up of “The Walk,” which began in 1997, was done to help ailing tenants and boost the attraction’s image. Originally built to cater to tourists visiting the theme park and theater, the revamp was intended to create a bigger emphasis on City Walk nightlife that would attract larger crowds of locals, but also keep it on most tourists’ list of top destination spots. – Jacqueline Fox Bananas There aren’t a whole lot of bananas growing in the Valley, but they still represent one of its biggest industries, say officials at Westlake Village-based Dole Food Co. The banana business has been good to Dole, making up about a quarter of its total sales. Although the bananas are grown and harvested in Central America and Asia, the fruit’s economic impact fuels Dole’s continuing growth and its contribution to the Valley economy. Dole may grow and distribute scores of other fruits and vegetables, but bananas accounted for about $1.3 billion in sales in 2001. And even after streamlining its operation to adjust to a shrinking market, the company last year reported $150.4 million in net income on revenues of $4.45 billion. The company’s revenue has dipped in recent years, but its bottom line is as strong as ever, given the fluctuating market and Dole’s ability to cope with this new economy, say analysts. Faced with a protective tariff that favored European-run fresh fruit producers while effectively shutting out American banana producers from Europe, Dole was able to resolve the situation in recent years by acquiring a Spanish fruit grower which could in turn import the bananas on its own label. With higher prices due to a smaller crop resulting from cooler weather in Latin America last year, the company increased its overall revenue from bananas and is already planning to streamline its fresh fruit operation to further improve revenue, the company says. – Carlos Martinez Burbank Airport The Burbank Airport may be embroiled in a long-running dispute with the city of Burbank and surrounding cities over expansion plans, flight curfews and noise concerns, but it remains the Valley’s very busy and only regional and commercial airport. Passenger levels dipped briefly following the attacks of Sept. 11, but the airport remained popular because of the quick access to planes from most businesses in the San Fernando Valley (even with additional security measures, waits for planes are nowhere close to what passengers at Los Angeles International Airport have experienced). In April, 387,682 passengers passed through Burbank, only a 4-percent reduction from April 2001. On the other hand, the nearly 3,600 tons of air cargo that passed through the airport in April was a 24-percent increase over the same month a year ago. Burbank remains a chief provider of commercial opportunities for both aviation-related companies and surrounding businesses, including local restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions. Roughly 5 million passengers came through the facility in 2001 and the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Authority, which manages the airport, estimates conservatively that the airport contributes roughly $1 billion to the Valley economy. – Jacqueline Fox Henry Cisneros American CityVista The average price of a home in the San Fernando Valley has risen 46 percent in the past five years. The average speed on the 101 Freeway is down to 30 mph during rush hour as families move farther and farther from their jobs to find affordable homes. It’s a spiral that seems to have no end, and many have argued it is eroding not just the sense of community in Los Angeles, but the productivity of the city as well. Enter Henry Cisneros, former head of Univision Inc. and onetime U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In 2000, Cisneros formed American CityVista to tackle the problem of bringing affordable homes to communities close to commercial centers. Working with KB Home and Montage Development Inc., last year American CityVista brought 426 homes to the San Fernando Valley at prices ranging from $240,000 to $300,000 for KB’s Mountain Glen development in Sylmar and $215,000 to $235,000 for Montage at Village Green in the city of San Fernando. Village Green, with four- and five-bedroom homes, is believed to be the lowest-priced single-family home development in the Valley. The development, with 109 homes, is sold out, and 271 of the 317 Mountain Glen homes have been sold to date. “One of the things I learned at HUD is that homes are much more than shelter,” said Cisneros. “They are also the way in which most Americans participate in creating wealth, and that’s hugely important.” – Shelly Garcia Plaza Del Valle Most of the time, the introduction of a new shopping center is an opportunity for multi-billion-dollar chains to add to their store counts. But at Plaza Del Valle, some 100 small merchants, many Latinos and business owners just starting out, have the chance they might not otherwise have to locate in a shopping center. Developed by Agora Realty and Management Inc., Plaza Del Valle was conceived as a town square along the lines of those found in Mexico, with stores, carts and kiosks that can be leased for a fraction of the cost of space in a traditional mall. The $20 million development, on 197,000 square feet along Van Nuys Boulevard between Chase and Parthenia streets in Panorama City, replaces a commercial stretch that was burdened with a 30-percent vacancy rate when the property was acquired several years ago. Designed with fountains, walkways, seating areas and a Hispanic Walk of Fame honoring Latino contributions to education, politics, medicine and entertainment, the mall developers envision it as a shopping destination and a pastime for families. “The first thing we noticed was the density surrounding the project,” said Carey Lefton, CEO of the Sherman Oaks-based company. “We felt a community plaza was very much needed in the area.” Chain stores have long benefited from locating in shopping centers where they can take advantage of the traffic drawn by neighboring stores as well as community events often held at these centers and the brand identity of the center itself. But traditionally shopping centers require merchants to lease large spaces for three years or more. “Most first-time entrepreneurs’ concern is they’re making a long-term commitment and, if it doesn’t work out, they face financial ruin,” said Lefton, who is developing the center with partner and Agora president Michael Bollenbacher. At Plaza Del Valle, retailers can lease spaces as small as 300 square feet on a month-to-month basis, an arrangement that is tailored to the needs of small and family-owned businesses, who have traditionally been limited to neighborhood strip malls where the sales opportunities are far less lucrative. – Shelly Garcia Reseda Boulevard In the 1930s Reseda Boulevard was still a dirt road, horse breeding was the biggest business around and Hollywood stars of the day considered it their ranch haven away from the big city. By the 1960s, the street was paved and in its prime with shopping centers, banks and the Northridge Hospital Medical Center. But by the mid-1990s, the Northridge Earthquake had devastated much of the area around Reseda and Sherman Way, much of what passed for the suburban middle class in the mid-20th century was gone and – frankly – its merchants felt like they had seen better days. Today, Reseda Boulevard has undergone a renaissance, becoming the preferred shopping mecca to the San Fernando Valley’s latest version of the suburban middle class. Many Korean- and Spanish-speaking storeowners cater to a clientele that reflects the wide ethnic diversity that has become the fabric of many North Valley neighborhoods. To serve that merchant community, the Reseda Business Improvement District, two years in the making, became an operating entity in November 2001. It is the most recently incorporated of 10 such districts throughout the Valley since the city program was inaugurated in 1998. In less than nine months, the Reseda BID has won a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Water and Power to move power lines underground and security patrols now in place were partly responsible for a 15-percent cut in the crime rate over last year. “We’re fairly new,” said BID executive director Susan Levi, “but we’re starting to see some changes.” – Michael Hart Mario Matute Mario Matute is an unlikely civil servant. His career has been spent in service to his hometown community of Pacoima, mostly with not-for-profit agencies. But while most who have taken the public route affiliate with a single agency, Matute prefers a more entrepreneurial approach. Since 1998, when he left the Housing Authority of Los Angeles where he was director of San Fernando Gardens, one of the toughest housing projects in the city, Matute has started up three different training programs for the community of Pacoima, all using a combination of private and public funds. The Pacoima Community Technology Center, an offshoot of the Pacoima Workforce Development Initiative, was launched with software and installation help from Linux, computers and furniture donated by National Home Trust and teachers on loan from the Pacoima Skill Center, funded by the Los Angeles Unified School District. Since it began in 2000, the program has trained about 2,000 local residents. A two-year program to prepare 30 moms from the area for careers as pre-school teachers was a joint effort of the public and private sectors. Matute’s most recent effort, as director of the Valley Family Technology Center, partners city and private funding from companies including IBM, Microsoft, Pacific Bell and Verizon, among others, to the tune of about $1 million. Matute, who now makes his home in Canyon Country, was working in job development when he realized finding jobs for the people of Pacoima was not the problem. “It became clear that the reason people aren’t getting jobs or, if they are getting jobs, they’re low-paying, is because they don’t have the skills,” Matute said. “You need to be creative and bring the tools to the residents so they have the opportunity to get a job and a better job.” – Shelly Garcia Sagebrush Cantina On any given Sunday, motorcycles, most of them Harleys, line the parking lot of the Sagebrush Cantina. Kids play tag around the spacious grounds while their parents wait their turn for a table. A loud band, usually rock ‘n roll, blares from the courtyard. The Sagebrush may not be among the area’s largest employers. It may not draw record revenues, but perhaps nowhere else in the San Fernando Valley can you find a locale that seems to bring just about everyone from every walk of life together in one place. Bob Dylan has been there. So have the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Steve Garvey and former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley. They come for the chips and salsa, the margaritas, the beer pumped through refrigerated lines that keep it at a constant 38 degrees, the sundried tomato tortilla-crusted sea bass with warm mango relish, the Mexican lasagna and the burritos, but mostly they come for the ambience. Since it opened in 1978 the Sagebrush in Calabasas has become a kind of local landmark for the San Fernando Valley. About 4,000 patrons filter through on a Sunday. Special events, typically held under a tent set up for the purpose, may draw even more. Last fall, 6,000 turned out for a 6:00 a.m. “Breakfast with Incubus,” local-Calabasas-boys-turned-famous rockers. Fundraisers, some for charity, some for political causes or candidates, can draw a couple thousand. The Sagebrush may pack them in for these special events, but the restaurant doesn’t insist on a full house all the time. Walk in on a sleepy late night in the middle of the week and you’ll likely find the restaurant empty save for a few regulars. Management could close early on many of those nights, but the restaurant’s owners say they prefer to stay open. Where else would their regulars go? – Shelly Garcia

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