As Year Closes, a Look Back at Names in the News

With 2008 coming to an end, this column revisits people and companies I wrote about earlier in the year and how they fared with economic gloom, fires and skills retraining. Owners of businesses located on the site of proposed elementary school in Panorama City are still waiting on offers from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Until the owners in the 14600 block of Lanark Street and the 14600 block of Titus Street hear from the district, they cannot go anywhere at least at the district’s expense. “You can’t do anything else if you want to get relocation money,” said Chuck Carmichael, a senior vice president in the Encino office of NAI Capital who is the leasing broker for a U-shaped multi-tenant industrial building on Titus Street. Elementary School No. 13 is among the 132 schools proposed by the district in a multi-year plan to have children stay in their neighborhoods rather than being bused elsewhere. More than forcing the move of multiple small businesses, the displacement further erodes an already shrinking supply of industrial-zoned land in the San Fernando Valley. Kevin Berg spent $200,000 on improving the building on Lanark Street for his digital graphics business. He expects that an offer for his land and building to come in the next three to six months. The building had been part of Berg’s long-term goal of income-generating property for his retirement years. “What is likely to happen is we have no choice but to stay in business in the Valley but we will take our money out of state,” Berg said. Not ready When interviewed in January, ZPower President and CEO Ross Dueber had expected his company’s rechargeable silver zinc battery to be available on a new line of notebook computers during the summer. The computer was sold but without the ZPower battery attached as the Camarillo-based firm wasn’t quite ready. “We were shooting for as early as possible but we were not confident enough with production,” Dueber said. The target date is now mid-2009 for the laptop battery for a manufacturer that Dueber didn’t name in the earlier interview and still won’t reveal. Prior to that, ZPower will launch a smaller rechargeable battery for hearing aids and other earpiece products. The ZPower battery differs from the lithium battery that powers all consumer electronic devices in that silver and zinc can provide more power, is safer and more environmentally friendly because the material can be recycled. ZPower has recently been featured in articles in Business Week and the New York Times, and next month the company will attend the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. There is an interest in the marketplace for new battery technology, especially a battery that could eventually be used in electric vehicles, Dueber said. “We have gotten a bounce from the interest in alternative energy,” Dueber said. The privately-owned company that counts Intel and PowerVentures as investors looks to go public in late 2010 or early 2011. Retraining programs After Harman International Inc. began laying off 300 workers in its automotive audio products division in Northridge in the spring, Los Angeles Valley College, the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and the state Employment Development Department stepped in with retraining programs. Valley College organized several job fairs, most recently in November, that have resulted in manufacturing companies hiring some Harman employees. The college also brought to the Northridge plant its mobile manufacturing technology lab to introduce Harman workers to advanced manufacturing techniques, said Lennie Ciufo, director of job training at Valley College. “Several of those people enrolled in the college as a result of that,” Ciufo said. Harman will continue the layoffs through June and vacate much of the 589,000 square foot campus in the Valley. The Northridge facility was once the largest of Harman’s worldwide plants. The work there will be transferred to other U.S. and overseas facilities as part of a restructuring as a result of Harman executives underestimating what was needed to launch multiple “infotainment” platforms for major automakers. Fire Some months after the relocation of Drapes 4 Show from unincorporated Los Angeles County to Sylmar, Jason Honigberg was faced with the Marek wildfire inching closer to the building. “My foreman and I stood on the roof with a hose for a few hours,” Honigberg said. “We weren’t going to let anything happen.” Honigberg, chief operating officer, and his mother Karen, president and co-founder, had seriously considered moving their textile manufacturer out of state when they outgrew the space they operated out of near Calabasas. Then the Community Redevelopment Agency for the City of Los Angeles stepped in with assistance and relocated Drapes 4 Show into a former Cadillac restorations business in Sylmar. The move put in one location the operations spread out in four bays at the industrial park and the raw material kept in five storage spaces. Financial assistance from the CRA and industrial development bonds from the Community Development Department helped pay for the move. Additional financial incentives in the form of tax and utility credits are available to the company because Sylmar is located within a state-designated enterprise zone. The move went well with everything equipment, bolts of fabric, employees transferring smoothly, Honigberg said. With many employees living in the East Valley, working at the Sylmar location was not a hardship. “Now I am the one with the long distance commute,” Honigberg said. One additional salesperson has been hired since the move and while the company’s growth rate has slowed sales of napkins, table skirts, table clothes and backdrops have not dropped, Honigberg said. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected] . His 2008 went well despite the Cubs choking in the playoffs and the election of a White Sox fan as president.