TINSELTOWN RIVAL GETS BIGGER ROLE VALENCIA ADDS SOUND STAGES.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer

VALENCIA - Valencia Entertainment announced on Wednesday the addition of two full-service sound stages to its expansive ``ministudio,'' further marking the Santa Clarita Valley as a hub of TV, film and commercial work.

One of the sound stages has already been booked up for the next two years by the hit CBS television series ``JAG,'' which has been working at the complex for the past four years, as has the syndicated ``Power Rangers'' show.

The other new sound stage - the company's eighth - will go on the market Sept. 1. Chief Executive Officer Vince Vellardita said he is looking for additional land in the area to expand even more.

``We don't even have space to shoot our own productions,'' Vellardita said. ``The company has been growing faster than I expected. There's a lot of business out there.''

The company is also looking beyond the Los Angeles region and has launched plans to build an entertainment complex on the waterfront in Brooklyn, N.Y., with seven to nine sound stages, along with production offices and restaurants.

``About 70 percent of the stages in the New York area are owner-users and there's not enough independent stage space,'' Vellardita said.

But Vellardita said his focus is in the Santa Clarita Valley - a region about 30 minutes from the entertainment centers of Burbank and Hollywood and an increasingly attractive place for production companies to shoot.

The area lures production by offering diverse locations, from Old West-style ranches to mocked-up jungles and forests, a growing talent pool, light traffic and the support of civic leaders, said Santa Clarita Film Bureau film liaison Amber Skowronski.

``It's a very comfortable community. All of our sound stages and movie ranches are very accommodating and when a production comes here they know they're going to be taken care off,'' Skowronski said. ``It's a huge business-maker for the Santa Clarita Valley.''

The area has five major production facilities offering sound stages and other services and at least 10 smaller companies doing the same, Skowronski said.

Valencia Entertainment's two new sound stages were built into an existing building on 4 acres adjacent to the facility's 14-acre lot near Six Flags California. The company's six other sound stages have been at full capacity since 1995, when it was founded.

Aside from television and motion picture production, the company has sports, Internet and real estate holdings.

And while it provides space for other shows, Valencia Entertainment has been developing its own, including a pilot with 20th Century Fox and Wendy Fraser Productions titled ``Truster,'' a talk show that catches liars in the act.

Other shows in the works include ``Fuhgedabowdit,'' a sitcom about a mob boss who tries to turn his life around by dealing with his three children.

Vellardita said he is somewhat concerned that the continuing expansion of the production site could be hampered by the possibility of a strike next year by Hollywood actors, writers and even directors, which could be devastating to the industry.

``You always have to be worried about it,'' he said. ``The last time it happened was in the '80s and it did affect the business and took a little while to rebuild. But I'm hoping it will not come to that.''

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photo, map

Photo: (SAC edition only) Valencia Entertainment's two new sound stages were built into an existing complex located on 4 acres adjacent to the facility's 14-acre lot near Six Flags California.

Map: Valencia Studios