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Monday, Mar 18, 2024

April

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY DUE NOON FRIDAY, MARCH 28 APRIL ISSUE STEELFRAME (Berton) w/photo Under orders from the City Council, owners of certain types of older high-rise buildings must do extensive retrofit work to ensure the buildings won’t collapse in a major quake. Many of these buildings are in the Valley, and the owners are just coming to terms with the expense. Many are apparently unable to afford the repairs, and as a result city officials are considering a bond issue to help cover the costs. ECONOMY (Young) w/chart Is the San Fernando Valley-area economy doing better, or worse, than the rest of L.A. County? We try to answer that question by comparing the Valley against the county on such factors as housing prices, commercial leasing rates, building permit activity, sales tax revenue and other indicators. WAL-MART (Kanter) w/map Wal-Mart is coming to Chatsworth, to a long-vacant site where the 118 Fwy and Corbin Ave. intersect. It’s part of a much larger development. The 118 will get a new Corbin exit, and the street will be extended through several bucolic until now, that is Chatsworth neighborhoods. Homeowners are pissed and “For Sale” signs are popping up all over the neighborhood. CSUN (Sable) w/map Cal State Northridge wants to get into the real estate development business. The former Devonshire Downs site, where Jimi Hendrix played at a “West Coast Woodstock,” would be turned into a 175,000 square-foot retail center with ready access to the more than 40,000 students, faculty and staff at the Northridge Campus. But nearby merchants are screaming unfair competition, forcing the university to get into the P.R. business as well. ROCKWELL (Sullivan) With Boeing’s takeover of Rockwell International, we look at the status of Rockwell’s plans to lease out its Santa Susanna testing facility. Apparently all previous plans are out the window, and Boeing is now evaluating what to do with the mountaintop site straddling the San Fernando and Simi valleys. GREATWEST (Young) w/photo The takeover by Great Western has merchants and property owners in the Chatsworth area anxious about the impact of job losses in the community, while commercial landlords are concerned that yet another big office campus will be on the market. GM PLANT (Taub) The retail/entertainment complex on the site of the razed General Motors plant in Panorama City is lining up its tenants. Mann Theatres had previously signed on for a 3,700-seat, 16-screen movie complex, and now six new retailers have signed on. Who are they, and how do they fit into the surrounding neighborhood? SPOTLIGHT-SYLMAR (Daniels) w/map, photos Sylmar, bursting at the seams with new residents, struggles to boost retail and commercial opportunities. PROFILE-WILSON w/photo (Daniels) Blenda Wilson, CSUN president, on the university’s role in providing professionals for business and its role as an economic and educational center for the northwest Valley. FAST-TRACK (Daniels) w/photo Fast-growing Th*Q Corp. of Calabasas, a publicly traded company that designs games for video systems including Nintendo and Sega. The company was struggling two years ago but has turned around to become one of the fastest growing companies in L.A. County. PORNO (Turner) A Chatsworth-based porno industry lobbying group is lobbying against state legislation that would impose a 5 percent tax on the sale of X-rated entertainment, with the proceeds to benefit rape crisis centers and other women’s groups. The group claims that “adult entertainment does not depict rape, battery or violence.” SCHMIDT (Bel Bruno) w/photo Feature on Nancy L. Schmidt, this year’s Fernando Award winner. MEDIA (Steen-Proctor) Media General, one of two major aircraft servicing firms at Burbank Airport, is expanding its operations serving the corporate jets that operate out of Burbank. YOUNG (Berton) The long-stalled highrise project slated to rise in Glendale touted as the L.A. area’s first “speculative” office tower of the’90s is getting a jump-start from a new ownership group. A partnership headed by local investors expects to close escrow this week on the downtown Glendale site and break ground this summer on a $100 million highrise. (Cole) tk

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