DEVELOPERS FIND UNEXPECTED LAND IN VALENCIA AREA.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

There's Six Flags California and a pair of popular golf courses nearby, but it's the burgeoning business community that drew a developer to Valencia with plans to build a hotel.

``We were kind of surprised,'' said Jeremy Andrus, Los Angeles area representative for The Huntington Development Group. ``I drove around and did some research on how the business center is growing and we found this incredible demand from the industry for more hotel rooms.''

Huntington's initial effort failed because The Newhall Land and Farming Company refused to sell a competitor land in Valencia, the community Newhall Land built from scratch and continues to develop.

Then an unexpected opportunity came through for Huntington.

Valencia's College of the Canyons put out a request for proposals earlier this year for developers interested in leasing property along Valencia Boulevard, not far from Six Flags, two huge industrial parks, a growing retail district and a championship golf course.

``Newhall Land had already told us they would not allow us to build on anything they controlled, which is all of Valencia,'' Andrus said. ``Now we have an opportunity to build right off the freeway on the thoroughfare into town.''

Huntington, based in Maryland, and Los Angeles-based J.H. Snyder Co. were the successful bidders in the college's search for developers to lease the northern edge of the campus along Valencia Boulevard at Rockwell Canyon Road and provide College of the Canyons with an income source more reliable than the state budget.

The deal is expected to net at least $75 million over 60 years for the college.

Snyder plans two three-story professional office buildings and a small retail center and Huntington, a division of Andrus Enterprises Inc., will build a 132-room Courtyard by Marriott, with a restaurant and conference rooms.

The site is perfect to cater during the week to the business traveler to which Courtyard caters, and pickup tourist business on the weekends, Andrus said.

The two development companies will work together on a common design. Andrus said he is aware residents of the Valencia Summit, overlooking the college, could object, so the two are limiting their projects to three stories per building in hopes of reducing impacts on the residential area.

Still, the plans face review by the city of Santa Clarita. City officials have been in touch with the college administration and generally back the development plan.

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Map: Valencia