ANTELOPE VALLEY Mojave Virgin Galactic will move its spaceline staff and space vehicles from Mojave Air & Space Port to New Mexico starting this month. The relocation of 100 staff will continue through the summer to minimize school disruptions for the families. That staff will bring to about 150 the number of Virgin Galactic employees at the Spaceport America facility in New Mexico. Spaceport America, near Truth or Consequences, is the site where Virgin Galactic will launch its commercial space operations. It includes hangars, offices, fuel farm, warehouse and antenna for telemetry and communications. Palmdale Sinclair Printing will eliminate 114 positions as it closes its Palmdale facility to consolidate its operations in California. Sinclair, owned by CJK Group Inc. in Brainerd, Minn., notified the state’s employment development division early this month that the first layoffs would begin July 1. Sinclair also operates a printing facility near East Los Angeles. Positions to be eliminated mainly fall in the bindery and press departments, including about 27 bindery helpers, 17 web press feeders or operators, seven cutter/folder operators, maintenance technicians and truck drivers. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY Agoura Hills American Homes 4 Rent has named Tamara Hughes Gustavson as chairwoman of its board of trustees. Gustavson has served on the board of the Agoura Hills-based real estate investment trust since 2016. She is the daughter of Wayne Hughes, a founder of American Homes and former chairman who also founded Public Storage in Glendale. American Homes 4 Rent also named Matthew Hart as the board’s lead independent trustee. He joined the board in 2012 and previously held executive positions at Hilton Hotels Corp. Finally, the board elected David Goldberg as a trustee and set the board size at 10 people. Northridge Northridge Hospital Medical Center has appointed Reshea Holman as chief nurse executive officer. Holman, who is currently serving as the hospital’s interim chief nurse executive officer, will assume the position permanently on June 9. In this role, Holman will oversee strategy and budgeting for the hospital’s nursing and clinical operations and will focus on improving quality of care and patient safety and strengthening relationships between nurses and physicians. “Reshea’s experience, leadership and passion for delivering safe, high-quality health care made him the right person to lead our nursing staff,” said Northridge Hospital President Paul Watkins in a statement. “His proven ability to work collaboratively and drive clinical excellence will help ensure a strong future for our hospital.” Van Nuys Jet Edge International has created a new division focused on aircraft sales and appointed Kevin White, a veteran aviation professional, as its president. The aircraft charter and management company based at Van Nuys Airport has invested $100 million into Jet Edge Partners for acquisition opportunities within the worldwide broker community. Jet Edge Chief Executive Bill Papariella welcomed White to the company and said that he has had a role in many of the most successful aircraft trades in the industry. “His new role at Jet Edge further strengthens our leadership position in the large-cabin aviation segment and aligns our platform for increased fleet growth,” Papariella said in a statement. Woodland Hills Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills has chosen Alexis Montevirgen as its next president. He will begin in this role July 1, pending approval by the school’s board of trustees. Montevirgen has served since 2014 as vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management at Indiana University in Gary, Ind. Prior to that, he held positions at the College of Alameda in the Peralta Community College District as well as the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District in Northern California. TRI-CITIES Burbank Walt Disney Co. has acquired Comcast Corp.’s one-third stake in Hulu and now has full control of the streaming service. Under the agreement, Comcast will continue licensing NBCUniversal shows such as “Saturday Night Live,” “This is Us” and “The Voice” to Hulu through 2024, at which time it can choose to sell its interest to Disney at fair market value. That value will be assessed by independent experts, but Comcast is guaranteed to receive a minimum of $5.8 billion. Additionally, Comcast will have the right to offer NBCUniveral shows on its own streaming service in one year in exchange for reducing Hulu’s licensing fees for that content. It has the right to pull its shows from Hulu and offer them exclusively on its own platform in three years. Disney of Burbank became Hulu’s majority owner in March upon completing its acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Talaria – a for-rent housing, office and retail project in Burbank – has officially opened after nearly two decades in the making by developer Cusumano Real Estate Group. Located near Warner Bros. Studios at 3425 W. Olive Ave., Talaria is anchored by a 42,000 square-foot Whole Foods Market with a Stage 71 restaurant and pub. Made up of one-, two- and three-bedroom and townhouse-style units, Talaria has a battery of on-site amenities targeting entertainment professionals, including a 34-seat private screening room, dry bar salon, fitness center with spin room and saunas, lap pool, expansive common areas, pet spa, dog run with play park, three courtyards and a rooftop lounge. A coalition of business owners and independent contractors in the Valley area, Pasadena and Burbank held a press conference urging legislators to amend the Dynamex court decision. The Dynamex decision is widely seen by business interests and many freelancers as a major blow to the state’s gig economy and jeopardizes work opportunities for the nearly 2 million Californians who may want to maintain their independent contractor classification due to the flexible scheduling or additional income it provides. The press conference brought together rideshare drivers, freelancers, small business owners and chambers of commerce to urge legislators to support additional changes to Lorena Gonzalez’s Assembly Bill 5, which will codify the controversial Dynamex decision. The coalition is pushing for holistic amendments that would allow workers in any industry who want to remain independent to do so with fair protections. “We all have different jobs and experiences in the L.A. area, but we are all concerned that Dynamex will take away our flexibility and livelihoods,” said Mukesh Kashyap, a taxi driver with Yellow Cab Co. in a statement. “Many like me need to be independent contractors in order to be there for our families.” VENTURA COUNTY Camarillo Construction is underway on Oakmont of Camarillo, due for completion this winter. According to the Camarillo Acorn, the framework for the nearly 87,000-square-foot retirement community at 305 Davenport St. has been erected. When complete, the community will have 91 homes, including 60 assisted-living and 25 memory-care apartments, according to a press release from Northern California-based Oakmont Senior Living, a developer of senior communities. The Camarillo site arrives parallel to a second site in Santa Clarita Valley. In mid-March, Oakmont threw an early celebration for a facility in Valencia. Westlake Village Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has seen promising biopsy data in its most recent clinical trial of a topical solution for psoriasis. The Westlake Village business tested a non-steroidal topical solution, commonly referred to as SNA-120, on 22 people at Rockefeller University in New York City. During testing, physicians noted a decrease in epidermal inflammation and a “statistically significant” reduction in T-cell and dendritic cell counts. – Compiled by Andrew Foerch
