AROUND THE VALLEYS

San Fernando ValleyCALABASASA property that served as the longtime host of a Coco’s restaurant has sold for $3.28 million in Calabasas. The 1977-built vacant restaurant building is located at 4895 N. Las Virgenes Drive. The building has 6,243 square feet on a 59,463-square-foot property. Michael Sharon of illi Commercial Real Estate handled the transaction on behalf of the sellers, private entities Hameramir LLC and Planet Estate Realty LLC. The buyer, a restaurant named Salsa and Beer, was represented by Remax Commercial’s Tal Yona and Fernanda Otalora.NORTHRIDGEHospitals in the Valley region have started administering the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer Inc. Dignity Health – Northridge Hospital Medical Center received its first doses in mid-December, according to Blair Galbreath, director of pharmacy for the hospital. Dr. Imran Sharief was the first to be vaccinated at the facility. To date, the hostipal has administered more than 1,000 vaccinations and is expected to expand to meet the needs of hospital staff and physicians. Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills and Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center received shipments of the Pfizer vaccine and began administering doses to nurses and other frontline workers on Dec. 17. Vaccines can’t come fast enough, state leaders said, with intensive care unit capacity at zero percent for Southern California and L.A. County cases passing 600,000.PACOIMAGov. Gavin Newsom has chosen Secretary of State Alex Padilla to replace Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate. Padilla, who hails from Pacoima, will be California’s first Latino senator. In a statement, Padilla said his first job as a U.S. senator will be to help lead California back from the throes of the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic slump. “I’m going to the Senate to protect health care, make sure every Californian has access to a vaccine, to get our economy back on track and our people back to work. I know we are going to lead a California comeback that doesn’t leave working families behind,” he added. Padilla is a former Los Angeles City Councilmember who represented the same East Valley community he grew up in. He also served as acting mayor of Los Angeles for several days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and was later elected to two terms in the state senate.

SHERMAN OAKSBel Air Internet has been acquired by M/C Partners, a private equity investment firm. Financial terms of the deal between the Sherman Oaks internet services provider and M/C Partners in Boston were not disclosed. Bel Air will be combined with AerioConnect in Newbury Park and Metro Fiber in Los Angeles, two other recent acquisitions by the East Coast investment firm. Together, the acquisitions will create one of the largest internet service providers in the region. Bel Air serves more than 800 multi-family and commercial buildings in Los Angeles. AerioConnect serves more than 500 of the same kinds of buildings in the greater Los Angeles market. Terry Koosed, founder of Bel Air, said he was excited for the company’s next chapter and the additional opportunities the acquisition provides for employees and customers. “Supported by M/C Partners and the wonderful employees at BAI, our customers will continue to receive the premium service they have come to expect,” Koosed said in a statement.WEST HILLSA nursing strike planned for the holidays was narrowly avoided, with Nashville-based Hospital Corporation of America and Service Employees International Union 121 RN coming to a tentative contract agreement. Nursing staff at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center, Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks and Riverside Community Hospital had called a 10-day strike from Dec. 24 to Jan. 3 to protest unfair labor practices, SEIU 121 said. The resulting contract grants union members a seat at the table when hospital leadership plans its response to a public health emergency. Contract language also requires the hospitals to provide all personal protective equipment based on state laws and regulations, and that HCA hire “dozens” of registered nurses at each hospital to make sure staff can take rest and meal breaks.WOODLAND HILLSA subsidiary of insurance carrier Farmers Group Inc. announced it will acquire MetLife Auto & Home, the property and casualty division of MetLife Inc.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. The buying entity is The Farmers Exchanges, a group of three reciprocal insurers. Upon completing the acquisition, it will enter a 10-year exclusive distribution agreement with MetLife under which Farmers will be able to offer personal lines of coverage on MetLife’s U.S. Group Benefits platform. It will also assume MetLife Auto & Home’s 3,500 U.S. employees, as well as access to about 250 of MetLife’s affinity groups. MetLife Auto & Home had 2.4 million policies in play and $3.6 billion net written premiums in 2019. According to a statement from Farmers, the acquisition will make it the sixth-largest personal lines insurer in the U.S.

Santa Clarita ValleySANTA CLARITAFormer California Resources Corp. Chief Executive Todd Stevens has left the oil and gas company after six years at the helm. Since his departure Dec. 31, Executive Chairman Mark McFarland has served as interim chief executive while James Chapman is serving as lead independent director as the board launches a search process for the company’s next top leader. In a statement, Stevens expressed his “deepest gratitude” to his co-workers at California Resources. The compan has long been beset with problems, culminating with a July Chapter 11 filing. By late October, the fuel producer completed its financial restructuring and had emerged from Chapter 11 with $4.4 billion less debt on its balance sheet. “Todd has led this organization through a very challenging period of time in our industry and the company’s new board is thankful for his service and dedication,” McFarland said in a statement.

Tri-CitiesGLENDALEGlendale City Councilman Ara Najarian has been named as the chairman of the governing body of Metrolink, the commuter railway service. Najarian will head up the Southern California Regional Rail Authority Board of Directors effective Jan. 1. He replaces outgoing chair Brian Humphrey, who represents the Ventura County Transportation Commission. Prior to his appointment as Metrolink chair, Najarian served as vice chairman for two years. He was first appointed to the board for the rail service between 2007 and 2012 and was reappointed in 2013. He represents the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Metro.

Ventura CountyOXNARDA 75-acre parcel of land at Sakioka Farms Business Park in Oxnard has sold to serve as the future site of a distribution facility for e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc.

While the price remains undisclosed, real estate brokerage Newmark, which was involved in the deal, said in a statement that the transaction signifies “the second-largest industrial land sale by sales price in Los Angeles County and Ventura County year-to-date.”  According to Newmark and the city of Oxnard, the buyer plans to develop a 1.5 million-square-foot fulfillment center, to be occupied by Amazon. The project is expected to be fully operational by late 2021. Sakioka Farms Business Park, which spans 430 acres, is one of the last sizable pieces of land in Oxnard that still has development potential. According to a statement from Newmark’s Executive Managing Director John DeGrinis, “this transaction validates the strength of the Ventura County industrial market … and will significantly bolster the local economy, creating approximately 1,500 jobs.”