Burbank wooing movie/TV firms to come there but Fox for one is looking elsewhere.

Burbank wooing movie/TV firms to come there but Fox for one is looking elsewhere

Energized by the defeat of two slow-growth initiatives, Burbank city officials have rekindled their campaign to lure big entertainment companies - and the major tax revenues they generate - into the east San Fernando Valley city.

Burbank Mayor Michael Hastings and officials from KTTV-TV Channel 11 met recently about the television station moving to Burbank from Hollywood when its lease expires in December 1992, City Manager Bud Ovrom confirmed last week. Moreover, he said, the city is talking with "half a dozen" other entertainment-oriented companies, including Glendale-based Disney Animation, about relocating to Burbank.

With residents' rejection of two slow-growth measures last February, the way was cleared for Burbank to double its commercial space to 12 million square feet during the decade.

Presently, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Co. and NBC make their homes in Burbank and Columbia Pictures is moving its operations there from New York.

But the situation for 20th Century Fox, which owns KTTV, is another matter.

Fox wants permission from the Los Angeles City Council to rezone its 54 acre site in Century City so it can expand operations from 1.1 million square feet to roughly 1.9 million. Should that plan - opposed by only a handful of Westside groups - fail to get city approval, Fox has identified sites in Calabasas, Valencia, Santa Clarita, Santa Monica, the Simi Valley and Culver City for both itself and KTTV.

But Burbank is not in the cards for KTTV, according to Fox Senior Vice President David Handelman.

"We were called by Burbank and asked if we were interested in leasing some space," he said. "We went and looked and we're not interested."

Handelman, in early June, stressed that KTTV only needed temporary space and Fox was banking heavily on the Century City plan getting the green light.

Ovrom said he was unaware that Burbank was out of the running for KTTV and made a broader offer to the television and movie parent company.

"If Fox can't make things work in Century City, they should consider taking 50-plus acres here," he said. "Why should they have to beg and plead for every square inch in Century City when they'd be welcomed with open arms in Burbank?"

Two sites in downtown Burbank and one in the Golden State Redevelopment Area near Burbank Airport were offered to KTTV for either sale or long-term lease, Ovrom said.