In the same manner as hotels offer fresh linens everyday, some area hotels are freshening themselves. Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn in North Hollywood is in the midst of an 18-month renovation that includes everything from replacing guest room soft goods (linens and bedding) to tearing up the asphalt driveway and replacing it with paving tiles. The $3 million program includes converting a center grassy mound area into an outdoor patio and reception area surrounded by planters of drought-tolerant succulents and a circulating water trough fountain. Coming soon will be a rehabbed pool area and lobby, said Bert Seneca, hotel general manager. They have taken fresh approaches to the restaurant, bar, theater and ballroom, he said, and the kiddie pool will become a hot tub, he said. The hotel is capitalizing on its huge leap in customer service surveys completed by guests of all Intercontinental Hotels, the group of which Holiday Inn is a part. The survey ranks individual hotels throughout the chain, Seneca said, with the Beverly Garland jumping ahead of 400 other hotels. “We were at 600 and now we are at 194,” Seneca said, adding that it’s a poll of a 12-month rolling average, rather than the peak measure of a particularly good month. That leap is indicative of the idea that most important renovations, he said, are “how you serve guests.” Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys has undergone a half million dollar upgrade recently as well, fully renovating 80 percent of all the hotel’s meeting and banquet spaces, said general manager Scott Williams. From top to bottom and everything in between, as Williams described it: new ceilings, sound systems, state-of-the art lighting systems, wallpaper, mirrors, carpet, tables, chairs, table skirts, even the restrooms are new. “Everything looks pretty cool,” he said. And that’s only half of it. Another half million will go into updating the Landings restaurant and lobby. The former will begin as soon as May 1; the latter should be done by the fourth quarter of this year. The Presidential Suite was also recently renovated at a cost of about $80,000. Nearby at the Sheraton Universal, $30 million in renovations are due to be completed by mid-summer, the first major upgrade since ’78. Fresh off the drawing board will be poolside lanai rooms and fire pits, semi-private cabanas in the lobby bar, private dining rooms and two bars. Wi-Fi will be available throughout the hotel and an Internet lounge will permit guests to connect with each other and the global community online. Guest rooms will follow an art deco motif, with dark wood paneling and a brown, blue and ivory palette. Guest rooms will get 32-inch LCD TVs and iPod docking station/clock radios. George McGann, manager of the Burbank Airport Marriott, said that a $25 million renovation now underway will remove the last vestiges of the Hilton, now two years gone. “All the guest rooms have been renovated,” he said, with all new furnishings, bedding and bathrooms. The fitness center now has 15 cardio machines, 10 with their own TVs, and now there are 10 new weight machines. The new lobby should be finished by the middle of May. “It will be four times the size of the original,” McGann said, with food and beverage service, Wi-Fi, music, a Starbucks and a new lobby bar. The hotel will also soon boast two newly renovated pool areas, adding fire pits and cabanas and a “whole new front entrance,” he said. “We’ve come a long way since the Hilton days,” he said. The main feature of the guest rooms are their high-tech work stations with ergonomic chairs and plug-and play technology where the new 32-inch HD TV can be used as a screen for the traveler’s laptop, allowing a split screen between the computer and the TV. Marriott performed a similar upgrade to the Renaissance in Agoura Hills. Nellie Freeborn, director of sales for the property, said the plug-in capacity works as a dock for all of a guest’s electrical devices, digital camera, iPod and their chargers, “so you don’t have everything all over the place.” She said the “bulk of the money” of the multi-million dollar renovation there went to upgrading the guestroom bathrooms with mahogany and granite. “It’s all very sleek,” Freeborn said. Each room now has “super-quiet” air conditioning units as part of the facility’s improvements, she said, in addition to upgrades in the fitness center and new landscaping of the grounds.

The Virgin brand name has found success as a music label, high-end hotel chain, commercial airline and mobile phone provider among its many endeavors. Now add charter aircraft brokering to the list. Virgin Charter went public in March with an online service that makes booking a private plane easier and more convenient. Passengers no longer need to contact individual operators to compare prices and aircraft now they can just input the relevant information and the website does the work. With the Virgin name comes an expectation of quality of service and confidence in making a large financial transaction. “Their approach is highly organized and on a national level,” said Steve Lassetter, president of Sun Air Jets, a charter and aircraft management firm based at the Camarillo Airport. Sun Air is among a half-dozen operators from Burbank to the Conejo Valley whose planes are available through Virgin Charter. Sun Air also works with other brokers to book charter flights from small operations run by a single person to large companies pairing would-be flyers with non-commercial aircraft. The difference with Virgin is that it enters the marketplace having made its name in other ventures. “Virgin is the only real recognized name outside the charter business that is doing this,” Lassetter said. Like Sun Air, Chrysler Aviation based at Van Nuys Airport was contacted by Virgin to participate in the service. The connection with Virgin means it is a well-funded operation and the key personnel know what they are doing, said Dimitri Rapis, director of business development for Chrysler. “We are optimistic and looking forward to future growth,” Rapis said. Virgin Charter founder and CEO Scott Duffy came from an entrepreneurial background of technology start-ups before switching to private aviation as an aircraft sales broker. His executive team includes Eric Hofer, who as head of sales took Travelocity Business from $10 million in revenues to $1 billion. Duffy’s staff work in a business park adjacent to the Santa Monica Airport although Duffy said new employees will require space elsewhere. Virgin Charter is owned by Virgin USA, the North American headquarters of the Virgin Group. Like other Virgin-branded enterprises throughout the world, a red British-style telephone booth stands in the lobby at the charter business. A timeline of the company’s history on the wall behind the receptionist notes that in 2007, Virgin Charter revolutionized the charter aircraft business. “It feels like we are part of a 30-year-old start-up,” Duffy said. “We’re doing all we can to provide the best experience for the customers.” A soft launch of the service began last September with a limited number of operators serving a limited customer base of frequent users of business jets. Access to the site for the general public began March 11. Demand for this way of booking private flights was underestimated, Duffy admitted, with Virgin experiencing more than twice the expected 100 to 200 inquiries a week. A high volume of the business came from veteran business jet passengers, travel agencies and consortiums of agencies seeking an easier way to book for high-end leisure customers. Passengers booking flights do not pay to use the system. The operators pay a commission to Virgin Charter for the trips booked online. What makes the service live up to the claim on the Virgin timeline of revolutionizing air charter is the streamlined process of comparing prices and planes from multiple operators; and the level of transparency about the charter firms and the safety ratings of their aircraft. Virgin Charter collects comments from passengers to use in a rating system of the operators to be made available in the summer, Duffy said. The 100 charter firms in its marketplace benefit by having access to new customers and being relieved of the burden of paperwork as Virgin takes on the payments and assumes the credit risk of the passengers, Duffy said. The service also provides a simple way for pilots to complete necessary paperwork so there is a quick turnaround on payment. “Payments are made in days rather than weeks,” Duffy said.

Blue Cross of California, the state’s largest health benefits company, adopted the trade name, Anthem Blue Cross, on April 1. “Taking on the Anthem name allows us to combine the security and heritage of the Anthem brand with the strength of Blue Cross,” stated Leslie A. Margolin, president of Anthem Blue Cross, based in Woodland Hills. Anthem Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and serves as the Blue Cross licensee for California. Anthem is the registered trademark of Anthem Insurance Companies Inc. The name Anthem Blue Cross derives from Anthem’s merger in 2004 with WellPoint, the company that owns Blue Cross. Company executives felt that a name that reflected the relationship between the companies would be more unifying, according to Blue Cross spokeswoman Peggy Hinz. Blue Cross’s affiliate BC Life & Health Insurance Company has changed its name to Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company and its subsidiary Blue Cross of California Partnership Plan will use the trade name Anthem Blue Cross Partnership Plan. To introduce customers to the Anthem Blue Cross name, the company initiated a new statewide advertising campaign on March 23. Not all of the company’s 8.4 million members are aware of the name change, however. Accordingly, those who log onto the former Web site at www.bluecrossca.com will be automatically re-directed to the new Web site at www.anthem.com.ca. Margolin, who became president of Blue Cross of California in January, said that she is excited to be at the helm of the company as it makes the transition to Anthem Blue Cross. “We will have a new name, but our sincere commitment to member-focused service will remain the same, just as it has for more than 70 years,” she stated.

The Business Journal’s Valley Stock Watch is provided in a Adobe Reader .pdf print-friendly file. CLICK HERE to download STOCK WATCH

Construction has been halted in some parts of the Antelope Valley over the inability to provide new homes, and industrial and commercial developments with an adequate supply of water. Since November, the Los Angeles County Waterworks District No. 40 has refused to issue “will serve” letters guaranteeing water service. The district serves much of the Valley, including the city of Lancaster and parts of the City of Palmdale. That refusal stalled the construction of 1,000 new single-family homes in two projects in Lancaster and has developers thinking twice about starting new projects. While not at a crisis stage yet, the water shortage is a priority of the cities, developers and agencies responsible for the water supply. “There are currently a number of groups working together or individual agencies looking for additional sources of water whether it’s here in Southern California, through Northern California acquisition or even potentially outside the state if there is water on the market,” said Gretchen Gutierrez, executive director of the Building Industry Association chapter for the Antelope Valley. Water finds its way to the valley from melting snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains transported south through the Los Angeles aqueduct. Lower snowfalls have produced less water in years past. Additionally, a December court order restricts water flow by slowing pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to protect the endangered delta smelt, an indigenous species of fish. As that order affects water delivery to all areas south of Stockton, the Antelope Valley has found itself in competition for other sources. Since the waterworks district and individual developers cannot negotiate for water on their own, it is up to the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency and two other state water project contractors serving the area to do that. District 40 receives 60,000 acre-feet of water per year from AVEK, with another 20,000 acre-feet coming from groundwater. An acre-foot of water is 325,851 U.S. gallons the amount needed to meet the needs of a family of four for one year. Combining the two sources just about meets the demand for the area served by District 40, said Adam Ariki, deputy assistant public works director for the county. A presentation by Ariki for the Building Industry Association in February and again in March for AVEK showed that by 2035 demand for water would outstrip supply by nearly 30,000 acre-feet. In the short term, Ariki looks to force a dialogue between AVEK, developers, and Palmdale and Lancaster to find a solution. “I always tell people that it’s not going to be the end of the world but we’ve got to work harder between now and, say, three years down the road when the cycle turns up so we are positioned to be able to issue the ‘will serve’ letters,” Ariki said. Getting into the current situation didn’t happen overnight and getting out won’t happen overnight either, said AVEK General Manager Russ Fuller. Drawing down on groundwater sources over an 80-year period contributed to the shortage but the final straw, in Fuller’s view, was the court decision limiting pumping to protect the delta smelt. In the short term, the agency will receive 125 acre-feet through a state program in which excess supply from other water contractors is made available. It is also in talks to obtain 6,000 to 8,000 acre-feet from rice farmers north of the delta. Adoption in January of the Antelope Valley Integrated Regional Water Management Plan allows for applying for up to $25 million in state funds for multi-jurisdictional water-related projects. If the Valley were to receive that money, the drawback would be the length of time it takes to design, get approval and build. For any water projects, the process can take between five and 15 years, Gutierrez said. “We are behind the curve here in the Antelope Valley in terms of what we needed to have done in order to continue to expand based upon our continuing growth in the area,” Gutierrez said. Importing additional water is just one of three parts of the plan, with conservation efforts and recycling water the other two. Upgrades at two sewage treatment plants in Lancaster and Palmdale will allow for water from the plants to be used for irrigation and landscaping. Use of that recycled water should reduce the need for imported water. In Palmdale, strict requirements on using drought-tolerant landscaping will be tightened further, meaning commercial developers will need to use artificial turf and new homes will be limited in the amount of natural turf they can install, said Director of Public Works Leon Swain. Lancaster, too, is looking at stricter landscaping standards and anticipates being able to provide recycled water for municipal purposes in May, said Randy Williams, director of public works. A more ambitious project by the city involves refilling groundwater aquifers with a combination of potable water, treated wastewater and collected storm water. It is anticipated that 2,500 acre-feet a year can be recharged for the four years of the pilot project. Once approved, Williams said 50,000 acre-feet could go into the ground. “Once we complete the pilot we envision this will open door to all water purveyors in the Antelope Valley to do the same thing,” Williams said. All involved admit the shrinking water supply did not come as a surprise. Just last June, water was shut off to construction sites for six weeks. Gutierrez estimates there has been a halt in water supply in the Valley at least once a year for the past four years. Swain estimates the Valley has confronted water issues for the past 20 years but only in the last two has a real effort been made to find solutions. The integrated management plan was completed to get the region’s arms around all the issues, something that hadn’t happened before, Swain said. Fuller calls the current situation a “day of reckoning.” “We didn’t get into this situation over a short period of time,” Fuller said, “and we won’t get out of it in a short period of time.” At-A-Glance Thirsty Antelope Valley Size: 2,200 square miles Palmdale Population: 145,468 Lancaster Population: 143,818 2008 Allocation from the Water Project (in acre feet): Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency: 49,490 (141,400 requested) Palmdale Water District: 7,455 (21,300 requested) Littlerock Creek Irrigation District: 805 (2,300 requested)

How about these marketing slogans for Valley tourism? The Valley: We’ve Got Some Secrets The Valley: Value for the Vacationer The Valley: Better Than Hollywood Really The Valley: We Still Have Malls The Valley: Not A lot of Action, But We’re Close to It And Cheap These are, of course, ridiculous but they illustrate a big problem that the Valley has in capturing the tourism dollar. How can you let the world know that we’re actually a great place to stay when you take that L.A. vacation? It’s tough to come up with the right marketing plan. These suggestions are intentionally lame because I also want to make a point about the Valley underestimating itself in terms of being a tourist destination. As you probably have seen, these are subjects that are brought up in our special report on hospitality and tourism this issue. First to Problem No. 1: How do you market the Valley as the best place to stay when you’re taking an overall L.A. vacation? We’ve got considerably cheaper room rates than hotels Downtown, in Hollywood-West Hollywood and the Westside. It’s actually easier to get to the beach in Santa Monica from Woodland Hills than from Hollywood. Universal Studios is in the Valley, so is NBC, CBS, Warner Bros. Studios, Disney Studios and DreamWorks. That’s a huge chunk of so-called Hollywood. Most other cities would kill to be that close to those world-class attractions. And our hotels can be $100 per night cheaper than other parts of L.A. And they aren’t bad hotels. So how do you say that without sounding like we’re a discount place here? There’s gotta be a way to do it. Now to Problem No. 2: How do you make the Valley a better tourist destination? Well, start with an inventory of what we have here. The San Fernando Mission (the most under-marketed site in all of the L.A. area.) Campo De Caheunga in North Hollywood, right across the street from Universal. You’ve got Griffith Park and the studios, both film and television. How about putting together a list of locations where movies have been filmed over the years? There’s a ton of those. All these things are low-hanging fruit for marketers to have a field day with and they’re all purely Valley things. Combine those with other L.A. sites the Valley is close to and you’ve got success. No doubt about that. It just has to be marketed. But this can’t be done unless the Valley has a full-time tourism director. I know plans to get $600,000 from the city to make this and further enhancement of the Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau happen fell through due to budget cuts. I’m no tourism or marketing expert, but I don’t think it takes $600,000 to hire a full-time tourism director. The rest of the marketing and promotion will take that but at least a full-time director would be a start. A start to focusing full-time on promoting the Valley as a great place to visit. To the Economic Alliance and those involved with the Convention and Visitors Bureau: Boosting tourism is economic development. Business Journal Editor Jason Schaff can be reached at (818) 316-3125 or [email protected] .

Prepare yourself. Tax rebates intended to jolt recession-wary consumers into spending won’t start arriving in mailboxes until next month, but tax-rebate advertising has begun. And retailers are only warming up. We will get inundated when those checks start coming,” said Rob Enderle, an analyst at market research firm Enderle Group. “There’s going to be a lot of competition for those dollars.” The rebate checks are the centerpiece of a $168-billion stimulus package enacted by Congress. Not everyone will qualify. Singles with adjusted gross incomes of more than $87,000 and married joint filers with incomes of more than $174,000 won’t get a check. For the full story visit http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rebate14apr14,1,1706192.story

When Jay Aldrich came on board last year to head the San Fernando Valley Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, there were high hopes that he would help revolutionize the Valley’s tourism industry. “The vision was to get out there and basically let the world know that the San Fernando Valley was an alternative destination for meetings and tourists,” Aldrich recalled. “We have culture in the Valley, affordable hotels, great restaurants. The Valley was a wonderful destination.” A year later, however, Aldrich’s vision remains largely unfulfilled. Other than changes to the SFCVB’s Web site and Aldrich’s plans to attend the Travel Industry Association’s conference in late May to talk to international delegates about visiting the Valley, not much progress has been made. So, what’s to blame? Money, according to Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley head Bruce Ackerman, Valley Industry & Commerce Association chairman Bob Scott and Aldrich himself. “We brought Jay Aldrich on specifically because the City of Los Angeles called for a full-time position,” said Ackerman, who has been actively involved in giving the CVB a boost. Over a three-year period, $600,000 was expected from the City to reignite the CVB and give Aldrich a fulltime salary. But, because of budget cuts, that funding never came through. “They de-allocated the allocated budget,” Scott said. Explained Aldrich, “Before we knew it, there was a humongous budget crisis, and all of those special allocated funds were frozen, but they were allocated for a period on a trial basis for three years. We’ll try for the ’08-’09 budget for July, but it doesn’t look good. We’re kind of in limbo.” Aldrich, who now finds himself in the role of volunteer director, said that the CVB can’t survive on membership alone. “I can’t work for free, but I’m sort of the volunteer director from home with the e-mails that come into the Convention and Visitors’ Bureau at the Web site,” he said. “I still keep my fingers in it, but I can’t go into the office everyday for no salary, which is unfortunate because we were excited about spearheading all types of programs.” In addition to bringing on Aldrich as director, there was a need for two other employees. “One probably would have been doing sales, such as membership and things like that, and the other one would have been assistant manager and would go to various travel and trade shows and handle the advertising,” Aldrich said. Aldrich, who is a full-time hospitality and tourism professor at California State University, Northridge, said that he is unwilling to simply abandon his vision for the CVB. He’s determined to stick it out for another year on a volunteer basis. “I’ve been involved with the CVB since Day One which was 10, 12 years ago,” he explained. “It’s not something I want to give up easily. I’m such a big believer that the San Fernando Valley needs its own CVB.” He said that his role now will be to continue to brand the Valley as a desirable tourist destination. “We have the new children’s museum, which is going to be opening in Lakeview Terrace, and a brand new huge performing arts structure opening at CSUN, so I see myself as just touting all the aspects the Valley, but on a volunteer basis, not on a paid basis,” he said.

Last week in Sacramento, the Senate Health Committee sent a message that ought to be heard loud and clear by at least two businesses here in the San Fernando Valley: Be a good neighbor – or pay the price. The intended recipients of that message are Tenet Healthcare Corp., which owns Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, and HCP Inc., the real estate investment trust from which Tenet leases the Tarzana campus. So far, neither company has lived up to the good-neighbor name. For the full story visit http://origin.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8914025

Delays in purchasing decisions by its customers contributed to Ixia lowering it guidance for the first quarter. Revenues are expected to be in the range of $41 million to $42 million, below the lowe end of the previous guidance of $42 million to $46 million. The company also anticipates a loss of $0.01 per diluted share. Larger than anticipated decreases in sales in Europe, North America and Canada affected first quarter revenues. The company remains confident that its business and strategy remain on sound footing, said President and CEO Atul Bhatnagar. “In some instances, however, the general turmoil in the financial markets and near term uncertainty about the economy are impacting our customers’ buying decisions and lengthening the time that they take to make purchasing decisions,” Bhatnagar said.