RYLAND TO MOVE OFFICE HERE; BUILDER SETS UP IN CALABASAS.

Byline: Jason Z. Cohen  Staff Writer

CALABASAS - Home builder Ryland Group has found its own new home in the Calabasas Park Centre office complex.

The publicly traded company, now based in Columbia, Md., will employ 100 in its corporate headquarters when it reaches full staff, spokeswoman Anne Madison said Thursday. The company expects to take occupancy by July.

Roughly 15 of the company's 100 employees in Maryland will move to Calabasas, and the company will initially employ 40 to 50 people, Madison said.

Ryland signed a six-year, $6 million deal to occupy 32,000 square feet of the 100,000-square-foot building, said Andy Fishburn, senior vice president of leasing for Kilroy Realty, the building's owner.

``They're taking some prime space, the top floor, for their corporate headquarters,'' Fishburn said.

The building is the first phase of a two-phase project, Fishburn said.

Madison said Ryland chose to move to Southern California because most of its construction activity is taking place in the western part of the nation. She said Ryland plans to build 1,000 to 1,500 new homes in California in 2000, and 500 in Maryland.

``The decision was made particularly to take advantage of favorable economic and business conditions that exist in California,'' Madison said. ``California's really the place to be. The majority of our housing starts will be there.''

The company already had begun its westward trend before announcing the move of its corporate headquarters.

In October, Ryland completed the move of its mortgage headquarters to Woodland Hills.

Another reason for the company's move was what Madison called ``a larger, talented labor pool in California.''

Ryland has 12 active projects in California, including the Hometown development in Rancho Cucamonga. It has completed several others, including 271 homes in three developments in the Santa Clarita Valley: Canyon Crest, Hawks Point and Falcon Ridge.

Ryland plans to maintain a presence in Maryland, with a corporate office of 10 people, but its headquarters will be in Calabasas.

The company builds a total of 10,000 homes per year nationwide, Madison said.

With the Ryland deal, Phase I of Calabasas Park Centre is 85 percent preLeased, Fishburn said. The popularity of the first building has triggered construction of the second phase, he said.

Fishburn said he expects the second building to be ready for occupancy in February 2001.

Ryland was represented by Jim Travers and Lawson Martin of Travers Realty, while Bill Inglis and Michael Slater of CB Commercial Realty represented the building's owners.