PRINCESS CRUISES BRINGING 600 JOBS TO VALENCIA PORT; $2.7 MILLION BOOST TOUTED FOR AREA.

Byline: Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writer

``Love Boat'' company Princess Cruises announced Wednesday that it will move its customer-service operations and 600 jobs from Century City to Valencia.

Santa Clarita city officials and developers have been working for several years to lure the company, predicting Princess Cruises will bring $2.7 million to the economy annually. The privately held company is the third-largest cruise ship company in the world and the largest new employer to come to Santa Clarita in six years.

``With their worldwide reputation for innovation and quality, Princess Cruises will be an excellent addition to the business located in Valencia and should attract the attention of other major office users in the greater Los Angeles area,'' Thomas L. Lee the chairman and CEO of developer The Newhall Land and Farming Company said in a statement.

``It's great news that we have an employer that's creating 600 jobs and moving to the community,'' said City Manager George Caravalho.

Valencia won out in the company's 3-1/2-year search over other suburban sites, including the former Hughes Aircraft site in West Hills. ``We really looked at the whole of the United States,'' said Peter Ratcliffe, the president of Princess Cruises.

Construction of the six-story Princess Cruises building will begin in the fall and is expected to be complete a year later, said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for Newhall Land.

The 130,000-square-foot building will be located on Town Center Drive, nearly next door to where Edwards Theaters has just started building a 3-D IMAX theater and 12 other screens.

Princess Cruises, which has been in Century City for 25 years, signed the 15-year lease with Newhall Land on Wednesday.

In April, the cruise line asked the Santa Clarita City Council to ``provide assurance'' it will not impose a business tax for 15 years. The council of the 10-year-old city with little debt said it has never had a business tax and has no plans for one.

Economists and city officials speculated that the high business taxes in Los Angeles drove the cruise company to the suburbs.

But Ratcliffe said in an interview Wednesday that the business tax was not a major factor in the decision.

``It was never that important because we're keeping our office in Century City,'' Ratcliffe said. The corporate headquarters will remain in Century City with 300 to 400 employees, he said.

The Valencia customer-service operations will include air services, operations, accounting, computer services, reservations and human resources.

Ratcliffe said the ``Main Street'' development along Town Center Drive was a crucial element in the company's decision to move to Valencia.

``We particularly like the city-center environment,'' Ratcliffe said, referring to the location near the mall, child care and shopping.

The project's developer, Newhall Land, is building a central shopping district that will include the existing Valencia mall, a 250-room Hyatt hotel and conference center, two Edwards Theaters complexes and the 3-D IMAX theater, a Spectrum Health Club and 100,000 square feet of entertainment-retail space.

Princess employees were notified of the decision Wednesday. ``We want everyone who works with us to continue to work with us,'' Ratcliffe said, explaining that employees will get relocation assistance to move to the Santa Clarita area.