AROUND THE VALLEYS

Antelope Valley MOJAVE Virgin Galactic has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA to develop and manufacture a hood for COVID-19 patients at its Mojave facility. Employees from Virgin Galactic and its subsidiary The Spaceship Co. worked on the development and testing of the PPB Hood – a device designed to support those admitted with COVID-19 with portable oxygen-rich pressure chambers, reducing the subsequent need for ventilator intubation. Virgin Galactic is on track to produce 400 of the hoods on a specially constructed assembly line at its Final Assembly, Integration and Test Hangar in Mojave. “This is our way of ensuring that the best and brightest at Virgin Galactic can support their local communities during this challenging time and provide life-saving solutions for those suffering from COVID-19,” Chief Executive George Whitesides said in a statement. The company will provide the hoods to Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster. San Fernando Valley NORTH HOLLYWOOD A 10-unit multifamily property in North Hollywood has sold for $2.38 million, despite complications from the coronavirus. The building, located at 6730 Vineland Ave., sold for $237,509 per unit. Rick Raymundo, executive director of the National Multi Housing Group at the Los Angeles office of Calabasas-based Marcus & Millichap Inc., represented the seller, a private investor, and the buyer, a private family trust. JP Morgan Chase Bank handled the financing. CoStar Group identified the seller as Bill Jamal and the buyer as Farasatzadeh Karim Trust. According to Raymundo, the deal did not come about easily. “The COVID-19 lockdown affected this transaction in multiple ways, from an unorthodox appraisal process to significant loan underwriting changes that suddenly decreased the buyer’s loan proceeds days before loan approval,” Raymundo said in a statement. “Fortunately … we were prepared for these unforeseen financing issues.” SUN VALLEY Mission Valley Bancorp announced that its first quarter net income of $816,000, or 25 cents a diluted share, was up more than 16 percent from the same quarter last year when net income was $701,000, or 22 cents a share. Tamara Gurney, Mission Valley’s chief executive, said the bank company is proud of its operating results in trying times. “I thank the entire Mission Valley Bank team who have worked tirelessly to serve the community in this time of need, while dramatically altering the way we serve our clients.” She said the bank so far has provided 161 loans, totaling more than $42 million, under the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program. As of March 31, the end of the first quarter, Mission Valley’s total loans of $271 million were up 7.8 percent from a year earlier. Its total deposits of $297 million were up 2.5 percent but total assets of $355 million were down 1.3 percent. Net interest income before the provision for loan losses increased $186,000, or 5.3 percent, to $3.7 million compared to the first quarter of last year. The company, based in Sun Valley, owns Mission Valley Bank which has branches in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys and a loan production office in the South Bay. VAN NUYS The Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce announced it has joined America’s Recovery Fund Coalition, an alliance of more than 100 trade associations and business organizations advocating for a grant-based federal assistance program for businesses. “America’s Recovery Fund gives us our best opportunity to realize this goal and to galvanize our nation’s leaders to give businesses the real relief they need,” said Nancy Hoffman Vanyek, chief executive of the chamber. Together, the coalition’s members employ 45 percent of the nation’s workforce – more than 58 million workers. In a letter to President Donald Trump, congressional leaders and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, the coalition said existing programs like the Paycheck Protection Program were well intentioned but not enough, and called for a broad-based recovery fund that “does not pick winners and losers.” An eight-unit multifamily property at 14533 Dickens St. in Van Nuys has sold for $1.95 million, or $243,750 per unit, according to Calabasas-based brokerage Marcus & Millichap Inc. Built in 1952, the property features one-bedroom/one-bath-apartments on 6,970 square feet of land with 5,180 square feet of rentable area. An undisclosed local investor paid the seller cash. The entire deal unfolded within April amid the backdrop of the coronavirus stay-at-home orders. Marcus & Millichap agents Glen Scher and Filipe Niculete transacted the deal. WOODLAND HILLS Green Cures & Botanical Distribution Inc., a manufacturer of hemp and CBD products, has announced a joint venture with Sipp Industries to make a high-powered gin under the brand name “Contagin.” Sipp Industries, based in Costa Mesa, makes hemp-infused alcoholic beverages. The companies co-developed the Contagin recipe, which boasts a hefty 57 percent alcohol by volume, translating to 114 proof. Contagin was submitted to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau in late April. The partners will begin production once it is approved. Tri-Cities BURBANK Walt Disney Co. badly missed Wall Street estimates on earnings but barely beat them on revenue for the fiscal second quarter as the company got knocked around by the coronavirus outbreak. The entertainment and media giant reported net income of $460 million (25 cents a share) for the quarter ending March 28, compared with net income of $5.5 billion ($3.55) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue increased 21 percent to $18 billion. Analysts on average had anticipated earnings of 88 cents on revenue of $17.8 billion, according to Thomson Financial Network. Chief Executive Bob Chapek said that while the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in the company closing its theme parks, suspending all film and television production and laying off much of its workforce had “an appreciable financial impact” on its businesses, he was confident of the company’s ability to withstand the disruption and emerge from it in a strong position.Three newspapers closed by the parent of the Los Angeles Times have been purchased by the owner of the Outlook Newspaper Group.Terms of the deal between California Times and Outlook, in La Cañada-Flintridge, were not disclosed. Charlie Plowman, owner of the newspaper chain, said he was thrilled to have bought the Burbank Leader, Glendale News-Press and La Cañada Valley Sun. “We feel that local journalism is critical to the life of a healthy city,” he said in a statement. Outlook publishes weekly newspapers for Pasadena, La Cañada-Flintridge, San Marino and South Pasadena. The La Cañada Valley Sun will be combined with the existing paper and renamed the La Cañada Outlook Valley Sun. California Times closed the three papers due to struggling ad sales and the economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Ventura County SIMI VALLEY The helicopter developed by AeroVironment Inc. that will be aboard the next Mars Rover has a name – Ingenuity. The machine’s airframe and major subsystems, including its rotor, rotor blades, hub and control mechanism hardware, were designed and developed by AeroVironment in conjunction with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada-Flintridge. Additionally, the company developed and built high-efficiency, lightweight propulsion motors, power electronics, landing gears, load-bearing structures and the thermal enclosure for JPL’s avionics, sensors, and software systems The name Ingenuity was chosen from a submission by Alabama high school student Vaneeza Rupani. SOMIS Ventura County is moving forward on its Somis Ranch project, a housing development designed to provide 360 residential units for farmworkers. The private development proposal in the unincorporated area of Ventura County will be located in the middle of farmland at 2789 Somis Road — right behind Rancho Campano High School and near the Camarillo Library. The rental units will be constructed on approximately 18.4 acres of a 36.34-acre parcel while the remaining approximately 17.9 acres will stay in agricultural production. The buildings, which will stand three stories tall or as two-story triplex apartments, will be comprised of a mix of one, two and three-bedroom units. The development represents the rare 100 percent affordable income rental project, as farmworkers qualify as lower income.