GM's last valley operation to be transformed.

THE last vestige of the General Motors plant in Panorama City has closed, making way for another commercial development adjacent to the highly successful Van Nuys Center at the Plant.

S&V Van Nuys Associates, a partnership of Voit Co.'s Voit Development Co. and Selleck Development Group, closed escrow on a 26-acre parcel that housed the last remaining GM operation in mid-December and has begun work on a parcel map that would give the company several options for selling or developing the property.

Officials plan to leave the one remaining building on the parcel standing and make it available for sale. Another 35,000 square feet at the front of the property is earmarked for a retail complex of about 10,000 square feet. The remaining acreage could be sold off as land parcels, build-to-suit industrial buildings or even condominiums.

Whatever the final decision on how to utilize the land, there seems to be no shortage of takers, according to Tim Regan, vice president of development and acquisitions for Voit Development Company.

"Once we had (the land) under control with GM, our phone was ringing off the hook," said Regan. "A lot of people had been approaching GM directly, and they started referring those people to us, so we had brokers and developers calling us."

Voit and Selleck partnered in the late 1990s to develop the Van Nuys Center at The Plant, a 68acre industrial and retail complex located at Van Nuys Boulevard and Arminta Street in Panorama City. Voit handled the industrial portion and Selleck developed the retail component.

The site had been the regional manufacturing headquarters for GM, which operated there for most of the latter half of the 1900s. GM's Valley manufacturing operation had been shuttered since 1992, but a small emissions testing laboratory remained on the site, mostly because the company had no other place to locate it.

The lab was housed in a 200,000 square foot building, the only building that remained from the heyday of GM's Valley days, when the company practically single-handedly populated the central Valley with factory workers. Earlier this year, the operation was finally moved back to Detroit.

With a severe shortage of industrial facilities in the San Fernando Valley and the local economy enjoying a brisk recovery from the real estate depression that characterized most of the 1990s, the retail and industrial properties in the first Plant development were snatched up almost as quickly as the buildings could be raised, and the complex became a widely-touted success story.

Since then, the market for high-end industrial facilities has cooled somewhat. Developers who tried to follow Voit into the market have taken much longer to lease or sell their developments. But the industrial vacancy rate remains so tight in the Valley and land available for development so scarce, that prospects for any industrial development are very strong, even if the current economy is delaying some transactions.

As Regan put it, "Where else would you find a 26-acre chunk of land in the San Fernando Valley?"

Regan said GM had been fielding inquiries from developers and brokers about the property for some time, and when the decision was made to sell it, passed along those leads to the development company.

The developer originally planned to demolish the existing building, but after the company took a closer look at its condition and began discussions with some of the brokers that have been calling, decided to leave it standing.

"You can see how well GM took care of it," said Regan. "And every time we kept going through it, we thought, gee, there's some value here. So instead of spending $800,000 to demolish it, we decided we're going to consider selling that building. We have a few interested parties."

The parcel map is expected to be recorded by June, 2004.

Warner Center Moves

Tower 1, a Warner Center high-rise building that's been virtually vacant since Health Net Inc. moved its corporate headquarters out two years ago, is inching back.

Some four lease transactions completed during the fourth quarter of the year, along with an existing tenant in the building, will bring the property to about 40 percent occupancy.

The largest new tenant, LifeCare Assurance Co., has inked a deal for 62,000 square feet, or three floors of the building, located at 21600 Oxnard Street.

LifeCare, a company that offers specialized long term care insurance programs to insurers, is relocating its corporate headquarters to the building from the Warner Atrium. The company's new space is about 20,000 square feet larger than its former offices.

Mark Rauch and Jira Travers with Travers Realty represented LifeCare in the deal, an eight-year lease valued at about $12 million.

LivLite, a division of PEG Inc. that operates surgical weight loss centers for those who ale more than 100 pounds overweight, is also moving its headquarters to the building. LivLite, which is relocating from downtown L.A., has signed a lease for 10,000 square feet.

Stewart Niles, also with Travers, represented the company in the transaction.

The third new tenant, Right Management Consultants, a Philadelphia-based firm that offers executive outplacement and other consulting services, has signed a lease for 4,000 square feet.

Rick Buckley, a broker with CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant.

Finally, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, will occupy a 2,400 square foot office space at the building.

Tony Acerra, broker with Staubach, represented the Business Journal in the deal.

Tony Price, senior leasing agent with Douglas Emmett and Co., the building landlord, was the broker on the LifeCare and LivLite deals.

Douglas Emmett's Kevin Housman represented the landlord in the Business Journal and the Right Management transactions.

Senior reporter Shelly Garcia can be reached at [phone] or by e-mail at sgarcia@ sfvbj.com.