Antelope Valley officials rebut media portrayal.

Newhall Land stays busy in Santa Clarita Valley 

North L.A. County - Despite all the activity in the Antelope Valley over the last three months, chances are the local real estate and development community will remember the second quarter of 1996 not for any sales or leases, but for a two-part, front-page expose that appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

The stories, published June 23 and 24, painted a disturbing picture of an Antelope Valley divided along ethnic and racial lines, with weary, edgy commuters clinging to homes that are dropping precipitously in value.

"The general consensus here was the articles were way off-base," said Ken Henderson, assistant director of the Lancaster Redevelopment Agency. Henderson pointed to a number of recent business and real estate activities.

The redevelopment agency, he said, reached a new agreement with Yehuda Yetanel, developer of Lancaster Factory Stores, for phase three of that retail project.

The scope of the third phase has changed, Henderson said, with the 18-acre parcel now slated to be a "water-themed retail environment," with a 50-foot-wide canal leading to a man-made lake. The third phase is designed to add some 50 stores to the complex, bringing the total to more than 100.

On April 16, meanwhile, Lancaster opened the doors of its new, 4,500-seat baseball stadium, home to the Lancaster JetHawks, the single-A farm club of the Seattle Mariners. It is the fast time minor league ball has been played in L.A. County since the Hollywood Stars folded in 1957.

Halfway through the season, total attendance is around 160,000, with fans coming from as far away as Bakersfield, Henderson said.

The Lancaster Redevelopment Agency also owns 50 acres adjacent to the stadium, on which it hopes to develop a retail/entertainment center, Henderson added.

In another sports-related development, the redevelopment agency closed escrow on a 230-acre parcel at Avenue K and 25th Street, where it plans to develop the largest soccer complex west of the Mississippi River, according to Henderson.

Vern Lawson Jr., executive director of the Lancaster Economic Development Corp., also expressed anger at the Times' series - and had his own list of recent Antelope Valley deals.

Lockheed Martin Corp., for example, announced it is relocating its aircraft services division from Ontario to Palmdale. The move, expected to be complete by September, is bringing 1,000 new jobs to the area, Lawson said.

Lance Campers, a manufacturer of truck campers, is about 90 percent finished with construction of its new 110,000-square-foot plant on 12 acres in the Lancaster Business Park. The facility is scheduled to be running by the end of the summer, according to Lawson.

And check-printing company, Deluxe Cheek, has almost completed its relocation from Chatsworth into 67,000 square feet in the Lancaster Business Park.

In Palmdale, Anderson Barrows Inc., a plumbing parts manufacturer, announced it is doubling the size of its facility on 25th Street from 50,000 to 100,000 square feet, as well as adding 200 new jobs.

Development in the Santa Clarita Valley community of Valencia continues to thrive.

Marlee Laufer, spokeswoman for the Newhall Land & Farming Co., said second-quarter home sales were up 91 percent from a year earlier, with 172 homes sold, compared to just 90 a year earlier.

In the retail sector, construction got under way at Newhall Land's Valencia Marketplace, a 750,000-square-foot shopping complex. The center - which is to include Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Toys 'R' Us and Sport Chalet outlets - is 71 percent leased and is scheduled to open in November, Laufer said.

Newhall Land also completed work on a 57,000-square-foot office building in the Valencia Town Center, which the company is developing as an "old-fashioned Main Street," with a mix of retail and office space, Laufer said.

In the industrial sector, the 10.5 million-square-foot Valencia Industrial Center is experiencing robust activity, Laufer reported. It finished the second quarter with a 3.7 percent vacancy rate, down from 4.8 percent a quarter earlier.

Newhall Land completed a 216,000-square-foot build-to-suit project in the Valencia Commerce Center for Remo Inc., one of the world's leading manufacturers of drums, and plans another 370,000 square feet of speculative industrial space in the center.