Valleytalk

Valleytalk/17″/LK1st/MIKe2nd Cover-Up Revealed Bill Inglis was surprised recently when he began receiving calls from prospective tenants interested in leasing office space in Calabasas. A broker with CB Richard Ellis Inc., Inglis is handling leasing for Kilroy Calabasas Associates’ office project. But construction on that 205,000-square-foot building isn’t slated to begin until next year. It seems that early in the development process, before a series of community protests tied up and ultimately downsized the project from its original 1.2 million-square-foot design, CB Richard Ellis had placed a painted sign at the Parkway Calabasas exit of the Ventura (101) Freeway to advertise the project. The sign, with Inglis’ phone number on it, had since become overgrown with brush and weeds, leaving only a few of the numbers visible from the road. That apparently didn’t matter to a number of potential lessees, who are desperately seeking space in an area where the office vacancy rate has dropped to 3.5 percent. They’ve been parking their cars and trudging through the bushes to get hold of Inglis’ phone number. The Shirt Off His Back “Uh, oh,” said a few of those assembled at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel when Mayor Richard Riordan unexpectedly called Bob Scott to the podium. Riordan had been invited to speak at the Valley Industry and Commerce Association’s 10th Annual Business Forecast Conference, and Scott is an officer of VICA, but he wasn’t being summoned because of his VICA affiliation. Several days earlier, an editorial written by Scott had appeared in the Los Angeles Times, sharply criticizing the city’s charter reform efforts. It was accompanied by a headline that boldly called for secession. The mayor, who has made his opposition to secession widely known, brought along a memento to try and cajole Scott back on his team. “On behalf of everybody in the Valley, I’m presenting Bob Scott with this T-shirt,” the mayor told the group of 400 assembled at VICA’s luncheon program. Emblazoned on the shirt: “Los Angeles: A new charter for a new century.” Space for the Earthbound When you’re in the business of making complex electronic devices with names too long to pronounce, you don’t always get a chance to let the world know what you’re up to, let alone brag about it. So Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power didn’t miss the chance to turn NASA’s recent space shuttle flight into a public relations opportunity. Rocketdyne’s Canoga Park facility not only produced the main engines that propelled the shuttle, it also produced the engines for John Glenn’s Mercury mission 36 years ago. To celebrate, the company ran a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times, offering to send the first 5,000 people who wrote in a copy of the patch worn by the astronauts, as well as a replica of the patch worn on Glenn’s first Mercury flight. Rocketdyne, which also is producing the electric power system for the space station NASA will launch next month, figured the promotion would not only serve to tout its accomplishments, but it could also serve as a means of gauging public interest in space efforts. On the first day after the ad ran, Rocketdyne received 1,100 responses in the mail. Straddling the Fence The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association worked for years to keep a large block of land at Deervale/Stone Canyon free from development, and it looked like it had won the battle when the city acquired the land some months ago. But unbeknownst to the group, the city did not purchase the whole tract, and a section of the land the homeowners thought would be preserved as open space will actually be developed for housing. The angry homeowners met with City Councilman Michael Feuer when they began seeing “for sale” signs around the area. But they might have asked one of their own. Matt Epstein, a vice president with the homeowners association, is the ReMax on the Boulevard broker handling the sale of the properties.