Valencia lands big commercial relocations.

Pharmaceutical firm, manufacturer find new homes

As three recently closed business-relocation transactions illustrate, the Santa Clarita Valley commercial district anchored by the Valencia Commerce Center and Valencia Industrial Center business parks is becoming quite an industrial magnate.

Among the fast-growing companies recently committing to facilities at the Golden State (5) Freeway-adjacent business parks in the City of Santa Clarita are:

* a major pharmaceuticals distribution firm that was about to relocate from North Hollywood to Las Vegas;

* a high-tech manufacturer that leased an entire building, developed on a "speculative" basis, months before the facility will be completed; and

* a new special effects firm relocating from Burbank and expanding its facilities sevenfold in the process.

The pharmaceuticals distribution outfit is PDI Enterprises, which has agreed to move from its cramped Sherman Road headquarters facility in North Hollywood to about 62,000 square feet of more efficiently designed space in the so-called Western Filter building at 26235 Technology Dr. within the Valencia Industrial Center.

PDI, a $375 million-in-revenues firm ranked among L.A. County's 25 fastest-growing private companies, will relocate its headquarters as well as six separate warehouse and storage operations and six national sales offices into the facility that had been leased to licensed houseware/giftware marketer/distributor Selandia Designs Inc.

PDI Chief Operating Officer Tim Rooney said the firm considered various new relocation sites for two years - looking as far east as Dallas and coming "within days" of signing a deal for a Las Vegas area facility. The firm was to maintain a down-sized L.A. area headquarters while relocating the balance of its operations to Nevada, Rooney explained.

'Under one roof'

But a thorough financial analysis of the "split operation" determined that the ever-narrowing differential in tax, rent and workers' compensation costs between the California and Nevada sites concluded that such a move "didn't make sense," Rooney said. The potential savings Nevada offered simply didn't outweigh the better efficiencies of an operation consolidated "under one roof," he said.

Nineteen miles north of the North Hollywood headquarters, PDI was able to strike a "below-market" deal with Selandia and PDI's new landlord, and the 75-employee company also got some relief on permitting costs from "proactive" City of Santa Clarita officials, Rooney added.

CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc.'s Doug Sonderegger and Craig Peters represented PDI in the lease negotiations.

The pair also represented the landlord and tenant in the just-signed deal bringing Ultra Violet Devices Inc. to the entire $4.6 million, 93,000-square-foot "spec" industrial building under construction on Industry Drive within the Valencia Commerce Center. Newhall Land & Farming Co. owns the project, with The Hewson Co. managing the development.

UVDI, a designer and manufacturer of water treatment components and appliances, currently occupies three facilities within the nearby Valencia Industrial Center.

Doubling anticipated

The 100-employee company headed by President Tom Veloz has been growing 35 percent annually since it was founded in 1992, and expects to double in size over next three years.

UVDI plans to sublease part of the building initially while gradually expanding into the balance of the structure, which should accommodate its growth and new product lines, Veloz noted.

Early this month, start-up Attraction Services Inc. - which develops mechanical effects for theme parks as well as the film industry - relocated from a 3,600-square-foot Burbank facility to a 25,000-square-foot former studio building at 28165 Ave. Crocker within Valencia Industrial Center.

CB's Sonderegger and Peters represented the building's ownership in this transaction as well, while Ron Budnick & Associates represented Attraction Services, founded just last October by President Ron Griffin and Baltimore industrial giant F & M Manufacturing.

The moves follow two major "build-to-suit" transactions relocating high-tech outfits ITT Neo-dyn/ITT Aerospace Controls and percussion instrument manufacturer Remo Inc. from the San Fernando Valley to custom-built facilities within Valencia Commerce Center.