Valley Briefs Valley Forecast Planned California State University, Northridge and the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center will present the first San Fernando Valley Economic Forecast on May 14 at the Sheraton Universal City. Daniel Blake, CSUN professor of economics and director of the research center, will present a Valley forecast as well as results of a recent survey of several hundred Valley employers in key industries. Sung Won Sohn, executive vice president and chief economic officer for Wells Fargo Bank, will take a look at the national economy and Mark Schniepp, director of the California Economic Forecast and senior economist in the California State Controller’s Office, will provide a regional forecast. Additional information: (818) 677-3621. Barragan Honored Roberto E. Barragan, president of the Valley Economic Development Center, is the Los Angeles district winner of the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Week Awards competition in the financial services advocate category. With an annual budget of $5 million and 50 employees in seven offices, the VEDC serves 1,000 businesses annually with financing, training and direct business assistance. Barragan and winners in nine other “advocate” categories as well as Small Business Person of the year Martha C. de la Torre will be honored at a luncheon on May 16. Revenues Up at Newhall Newhall Land and Farming Co. reported net income rose to $11.8 million or $0.50 per diluted share for the first quarter ended March 31, from $11.1 million or $0.45 per share for the comparable period last year. Sales of 759 residential lots in the company’s Creekside community, all of the property available in that development, helped drive revenues up 30 percent to $67.5 million for the period, from $51.8 million in the first quarter of last year. Valencia-based Newhall Land also sold 18.3 acres of industrial and commercial land during the first quarter, compared to 38.9 acres in the first quarter of 2002. Newhall also said that it plans to complete the stock repurchase program begun in May 2001 this year. As a result of the repurchase program, the average number of units outstanding in the first quarter of the year was about 5 percent lower than the stock units available in the first quarter of 2002, Newhall Land officials said. Now Feeding Valencia Whole Foods Market will open its first Santa Clarita Valley store in Valencia next year. The company has signed a deal for a 35,000-square-foot grocery at Valencia Crossroads, a 17-acre center currently under development by Regency Centers. Whole Foods chose the location because customers have been demanding it in droves, officials said. “I would say anywhere between 30 percent to 50 percent of phone calls on requests of where we can open would be from that area,” said Elizabeth Carovillano, a spokeswoman for the grocery chain. She added that the calls have been coming into the regional headquarters in Sherman Oaks for the past three or four years. Whole Foods currently has 145 stores nationwide and 17 locations in Southern California. The company plans to open in Santa Monica in June, and has scheduled a Long Beach store opening in addition to Valencia for next year. Valencia Crossroads, located at Valencia Boulevard and McBean Parkway, will begin to open in the third quarter of this year.