MEDICAL LAB MOVES FROM SANTA MONICA TO VALENCIA.

Byline: Daily News

VALENCIA - A leading medical laboratory group that provides services to hospitals and clinics is relocating its headquarters from Santa Monica to Valencia.

Specialty Laboratories Inc. began the move this month, transferring such departments as administration, networking, finance and billing to the 198,000-square-foot facility.

The clinical laboratory will follow later this year, with the estimated $2.5 million relocation scheduled to be completed in early 2005.

``We believe our new headquarters and laboratory facility in Valencia, Calif., will enable us to enhance our laboratory services platform and increase our long-term growth opportunities,'' Chief Executive Officer Douglas S. Harrington said in a statement.

Specialty, which signed a 20-year lease, will pay roughly $4.5 million a year in rent and expenses for the Valencia facility - about $2 million more than at its existing Santa Monica headquarters.

Despite higher operating costs due to its larger size, company officials believe a portion of the increases will be offset by improved efficiency and business growth.

``Specialty is in an excellent position to take advantage of the operating efficiencies and other potential benefits afforded by our facility,'' Harrington said in the statement.

The publicly traded company reported net revenue of $33.2 million for its second quarter ending June 30, a 14 percent increase from a year ago. Speciality incurred losses of $530,000 due to higher spending in information technology, sales and marketing to support business growth and other cost increases.

Still, the company managed to close losses of nearly $3 million from a year ago.