SPECIAL REPORT: SAVING VALLEY BUSINESSES More than just miles separate the southeastern corner of Washington State from Simi Valley. That’s just fine with Rob Whitmore. The city of Colfax, where Whitmore relocated his manufacturing business Medical Micro Machining, can be found at the intersection of two state highways. A native to the area, Whitmore has known the mayor all his life; the Whitman County assessor is a former schoolmate. While Simi Valley was a great place to live and have his shop for a dozen years, the cost of doing business was much more expensive in California. Consider that Whitmore paid $3,300 a month for the 3,000 square feet he leased in Simi Valley. In Colfax, he bought three-quarters of an acre within the city limits and built a new 4,500-square-foot metal building for less than $300,000. “Financially it made a lot of sense to move here,” Whitmore said. “The cost of energy is far less here as well.” As a manufacturer in a rural area Colfax is about 60 miles south of Spokane and 24 miles from the border with Idaho he pays no sales or use taxes; there is also no state income tax. The new building will be tax-deferred as long as it continues to operate for eight years, when it becomes tax-exempt. Whitmore does pay a business and operations tax of just less than five-one hundredths of annual gross sales. After completion of the new building in July, Medical Micro Machining was functioning within weeks of the move and up to full production by September with its three employees making tiny, intricate parts, some the size of a hair. Parts from Medical Micro Machining have found their way into electronics and medical procedures, such as neurological bone screws. The company is a sub-contractor to another firm doing work for the Defense Department. In February two machines ran around the clock to produce rental car key ring clasps “That’s something I would never have thought about doing,” Whitmore said. “We’ve run several million of those since we got started on it.” Win Some, Lose Some Manufacturing has long been a pillar of the Southern California economy and more so in the San Fernando Valley. The region continues to be the manufacturing center of the nation, with the Valley having the third largest concentration of manufacturing jobs in the county, according to a study last year from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Upscale and primarily residential, the city of Simi Valley does have an active manufacturing base of clean tech companies. Most employ less than 100 workers. “It is small business with good jobs and provides for a nice diverse workforce,” said Brian Gabler, assistant city manager and economic development director. Medical Micro leaving last summer, and the relocation of plush novelty manufacturer It’s All Greek to Me to Florida due to bankruptcy reorganization is not indicative of any trend, Gabler said. On the plus side, in January the city welcomed back artist Ron Lee and his manufacturing business of collectible figurines. Lee had relocated to Henderson, Nev. in 1994 until returning to Simi to be closer to family. “You get one and you lose one,” Gabler said. For Whitmore, there never had been a discussion with Simi officials about staying. He had been thinking about the move north for nearly four years and began in earnest in February 2007, working with the Palouse Economic Development Council to make it happen. Tammy Lewis, the council’s Whitman County manager, hooked Whitmore up with real estate agents to show him available buildings and land, helped to find his family temporary housing and explained the available financial incentives. Colfax itself does not have a large manufacturing base so to want to come out to a rural area takes the right kind of person, Lewis said. Moving a manufacturing business is not an easy operation to undertake, especially when it is small and the burden falls to the principals. Relocating to a rural area presents its own set of challenges. For one, the raw material that gets machined comes in through Portland, Ore., so transportation can be difficult. Then there is getting the product out, which requires more planning on Whitmore’s part to meet deadlines for overnight shipping than when living in the Los Angeles metro area. At least Medical Micro has the advantage of packing the small parts machined in his shop into small boxes. “You don’t need big truckloads coming through,” Whitmore said. Going North The Pacific Northwest has proved a popular destination for Valley businesses looking to lower costs. Since moving to Hayden, Idaho from North Hollywood last fall, Titan Spring and Wire Products Inc. owner Jim Glenn realized a one-third savings in electricity bills and workers compensation insurance costs. Receiving approvals to construct a new Titan plant was far easier than if Glenn had wanted to stay in Los Angeles. Whitmore agrees. And by moving to a small community where everyone knows each other, it made his life easier in many cases. While he likes the four-season climate found in Washington, it was hard for Whitmore to leave the lifestyle in Southern California that he became attached to. “It is a whole different feel to life and that is a strong motivator for people to move in this direction,” Whitmore said.

Behind a heavy brown door marked “Detailing.” stacks and stacks of transcripts created by the court reporters of Atkinson-Baker Inc. are collected, bound and shipped out. The Glendale-based deposition services firm compiles up to 600 depositions in an average week documenting the back and forth between attorneys and witnesses in preparation for a case. When it comes to the format attorneys prefer to receive their transcripts in, President Sheila Atkinson-Baker notes a generational difference. “Some of the young guys prefer to have the discs,” Atkinson-Baker said. “The old school likes the paper.” For 21 years, Atkinson-Baker’s eponymous firm has served attorneys nationwide with court reporters, videographers, interpreters and other services connected with efficiently scheduling and conducting depositions. What these attorneys and their harried administrative assistants need, the agency gives accuracy in the deposition and a quick turnaround. Starting with its original office in Burbank, Atkinson-Baker has grown to include locations in 11 cities across the country. The company’s growth has landed it three times on the Inc. list of fastest growing private companies. Most recently, in 2007, the magazine recognized the agency’s 22.9 percent between 2003 and 2006. It also made the list in 1992 and 1993. Atkinson-Baker herself received the Business Leadership Award from Ernst & Young. Atkinson-Baker was a court reporter and he husband Alan was in sales when the couple started the agency in 1987. Neither knew much about operating a business yet they put together a team of court reporters willing to work with them. Atkinson-Baker continued taking reporting jobs and in turn re-invested those earnings back into the agency. The first expansion outside of the Los Angeles area came around 1993, when offices were opened in San Diego and San Francisco offering “deposition suites” with conference rooms and office support services. The couple learned marketing and as other positions became necessary they crafted up specific descriptions of the duties that employees would perform. When a business owner, one tries to put oneself out of a job by delegating it to someone else, Atkinson-Baker said. “Over the years we brought in other people to wear other parts of the hat,” Atkinson-Baker said. Whatever is needed by an attorney when conducting a deposition, the agency handles, from the court reporter to the conference room to an interpreter. Videotaping depositions was a service offered from the start but only about three years ago was it brought in-house as a means to maintain quality control. Promotion of videography resulted in it being used more, primarily if a witness might not be available to appear in court, Atkinson-Baker said. Emphasis on Service There are other court reporting agencies with a local presence U.S. Legal Support has offices in Sherman Oaks and Calabasas and Hahn & Bowersock has a location in Woodland Hills but Atkinson-Baker sets itself apart from competitors with an emphasis on service. That customer service became the focus of the agency’s marketing campaign in the early years. Other agencies provided a court reporter but not all took on the added duties of scheduling the reporter or rescheduling if need be. James Bates, a sole practitioner in Montrose, can’t always schedule a deposition in Glendale because of court rules so when he calls Atkinson-Baker to let them know he needs to interview a witness elsewhere he gets a faxed confirmation within an hour. “They assign you a representative and you call that person and say ‘I need this’ or ‘I need that’ and they do whatever you need,” Bates said. Allison Mack, a paralegal with Wilkes & McHugh, a law firm in Little Rock, has used Atkinson-Baker on average once a week for the past three and a half years. When the firm has need for a court reporter in neighboring Tennessee, Mack schedules a local. For cases in any other state, the call goes to Atkinson-Baker. “They are efficient,” Mack said. “They rarely make a mistake and when they do they immediately fix it.” The agency has found other innovative ways to stand out. One way is through its website, started in 1995 as a marketing tool but which later evolved into an interactive site that can be accessed by court reporters to check their schedules and by attorneys to make appointments with a court reporter or check an invoice. The attorneys and their administrative staffs like the convenience and instant access of going online versus having to wait for an overnight delivery of a transcript. As the deposition business is paper intensive, the online access also means not having to print out paper. “People like that,” Atkinson-Baker said. “You are not wasting anymore trees than necessary.” In 1999, Inc. magazine named the agency’s site as among its “Best of the Small Business Web.” That same year, the agency hired 30 court reporters who applied for jobs after consulting the site on the ins and outs of the profession. Compared with when Atkinson-Baker used a typewriter with carbon paper to make copies of a transcript, today’s court reporters have it easy. One innovation used by the agency is the real time transcript in which what court reporter types on a steno machine immediately appears on a laptop so that an attorney can read what a witness had just said. According to the National Court Reporters Association, there are between 50,000 and 60,000 judicial, broadcast captioning, CART, and Internet information reporters working in the U.S. Of those serving the legal profession, nearly three-quarters are hired by attorneys to transcribe depositions. The work is popular with working mothers, part timers, and people who like to control their work schedule, Atkinson-Baker said. The agency has a pool of 1,000 reporters it uses on a regular basis. SPOTLIGHT: Atkinson-Baker Inc. Year Founded: 1987 Revenues in 2005: $26.4 million Revenue in 2006: $28.9 million Employees in 2005: 155 Employees in 2008: 160

SPECIAL REPORT: SAVING VALLEY BUSINESSES This is one in an occasional series of articles exploring the issues of business retention and recruitment in the greater Valley area. The hiss of truck brakes brings Jason Honigberg to an office window at Drapes 4 Show, the textile manufacturing company he operates with his mother in unincorporated Los Angeles County. The tractor hauling the 40-foot container holding a full load of bolts of fabric pulls into the T-shaped parking lot of the small industrial park but the company’s lack of space requires that the fabric rolls be temporarily stored outdoors. “This is my problem,” said Honigberg, the chief operating officer. “I have to unload this safely.” The solution to the problem for the 25-year old company seemed to be to move out of state, closer to the Las Vegas hotels making up a bulk of the customer base for its napkins, table skirts, table clothes and backdrops. There were no vacancies in the San Fernando Valley to meet the space requirements for the storing, sewing and shipping done at Drapes 4 Show. Work on large pieces of cloth needed to be done outside. One morning stacks of boxes on a wooden pallet in the parking lot waited for delivery several to the Marriott Curacao Resort, others to the Four Seasons Hotel in St. Louis. Then Honigberg and his mother Karen, the company’s president and co-founder, contacted the Community Redevelopment Agency for the City of Los Angeles who told the pair to hold off on any out-of-state moves. Drapes 4 Show will move this year but to the East Valley, into a former Cadillac restorations business in Sylmar that puts in one location the operations spread out in four bays at the industrial park and the raw material kept in five storage spaces. Making the move possible was financial assistance from the CRA and industrial development bonds from the Community Development Department. Additional financial incentives in the form of tax and utility credits are available because Sylmar is located within a state-designated enterprise zone. The consolidation cuts down on waste and inefficiencies and improves communications among the workforce, Karen Honigberg said. That industrial land is scarce in the city is not news to Margarita de Escontrias, the CRA’s regional administrator for the East Valley. The Sylmar property was underutilized and bringing Drapes 4 Show to the location reduces blight. The main attraction of the company is that it is small, hires locals and is owned by a woman. “We have staff directives to preserve the land, to provide jobs and that is what the industrial land can provide us,” de Escontrias said. The City Council approved in late February a $900,000 acquisition loan. The company receives partial debt forgiveness as long as it maintains a workforce of 30 or more employees for an 18-year period at the CRA’s living wage rate. The company indicated they planned to hire up to 10 new employees when they expand their business after the move, de Escontrias said. The industrial development bonds pay for repairs and improvements at the Sylmar location, which Jason Honigberg expects to take up to eight weeks. The benefits to moving from one end of the Valley to the other are that many employees will live closer to the new location. With access to public transportation from buses and a nearby Metrolink station, the company plans on subsidizing the cost to use mass transit. Possible relocation to Vegas made sense and not only because there are more hotel rooms there than any city on the planet. Karen Honigberg already owns two homes there where she and her son could live. But staying in the Valley still gives Drapes 4 Show an advantage as they can deliver their product overnight to Sin City while competitors from the East Coast and Texas need to set up warehouses there. While the city’s garment industry is not what it once was, fabric suppliers and dealers remain all over, said Steve Szabo, a retired tool and die maker who consults Jason Honigberg on industrial sewing equipment and other aspects of the garment business. “To move to Las Vegas, they would have to ship everything there,” Szabo said.

DTS Inc. has partnered with a motherboard manufacturer to include its audio systems in personal computers. Installing Agoura Hills-based DTS systems in the motherboards made by Foxconn enhances the audio entertainment experience, said David Tan, Vice President, Product Management and North American Licensing. Foxconn, the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd., is one of the largest providers of PC motherboards for major brand name consumer computers. “Foxconn will be able to bring rich DTS surround audio to the global PC market seamlessly, regardless of whether it is in a two-channel or multi-channel system environment,” Tan said.

For years, JetBlue Airways Corp. turned up its nose at flying out of Los Angeles International Airport, saying that LAX was too big, too crowded and, well, that it just preferred to operate out of smaller hubs. Then out of the blue last month, the low-cost carrier stunned LAX officials by asking for gates there. Moreover, it wanted them in Terminal 6 next to Virgin America, the airline started by eccentric British billionaire Richard Branson. Read the full story at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-virginamerica3mar03,1,2397481.story?ctrack=8 & cset;=true

By NADRA KAREEM Staff Reporter Established in 1980, Natrol Inc. has managed to evolve for nearly three decades. In the last two years, however, the Chatsworth-based nutritional product manufacturer has arguably undergone its most significant changes. After going through a rocky period between 2002 and 2005 in which sales were down, Natrol executives spent 2006 and 2007 turning the company’s financial predicament around, culminating Nov. 26 in the sale of the company to Indian-based pharmaceutical company Plethico Pharmaceuticals Limited for $80.8 million. “We have gained a solid reputation in our market niches and believe the merger with Plethico will also be a win-win for our customers and employees,” Natrol President and Chief Executive Officer Wayne M. Bos said at the time. In terms of market niches, Natrol Inc. has made a name for itself through its nutritional supplements, functional herbal teas and sports nutrition products. In addition to Natrol, the company’s brands include MRI, Prolab, Laci Le Beau, Promensil, Trinovin, Nu Hair and Shen Min. The company manufactures supplements for third parties as well as for its own brands. The products the company distributes nationally reach more than 54,000 retailers; internationally, through distribution partners and subsidiaries in the UK and Hong Kong, Natrol reaches more than 40 countries. A member of the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance and similar organizations, Natrol also serves as an educator about the types of products it distributes. To this end, the company recently partnered with the Fifth Annual Yoga Journal San Francisco Conference and Health Etc. 2008 The Business Journal spoke with Bos about the challenges Natrol has faced, how the merger with Plethico will affect the company and related issues. Question: You called the company’s merger with Plethico a win-win for all involved. Why do you think so? Answer: We have much more resources. There’s the opportunity for synergies between the two businesses. Every time you do an acquisition, you do a merger, more often than not. From a customer perspective it opens up greater opportunity for new products. For our employees, there’s greater opportunities, greater flexibility with careers and career development overall. Usually, it’s quite synergistic, both internally with the company and externally with the customer base. With Plethico being Indian-based means we’ve got sharing opportunities in those markets, so, overall it makes the whole prospect a lot more exciting and quite different. Q: The merger was finalized just recently. What effects has the merger had thus far on Natrol, or is it too soon to say? A: We’re private now, but we were a public company. With an acquisition, it’s usually anticlimactic. There’s an enormous amount of time spent on the transaction. [Afterward], you start to initiate some of the projects. There’s very little execution on anything major. You want the synergies to evolve. Q: Looking back on 2007, what were Natrol’s major achievements? A: Let’s take the last two years, 2006 and 2007. We turned the business around. The business was not performing that well between 2002 and 2005, so we had to turn some things around. We made some acquisitions in 2006 and 2007. We had the business wash out and clean balance sheet items. In some cases, we sold real estate. We balanced out the portfolio and got our operating margins to improve. Q: What are the company’s goals for 2008? A: We’re looking at opportunities that are international. We’re looking at growth in Europe, growth in the U.S., growth and acquisition in Asia and also looking at the Middle East. Combined with Plethico, we’ll have much more enhanced business development and growth. We expect we can add a lot. Q: Plethico, based in India, is a key global player, but Natrol is based in Chatsworth. What are the advantages to being located in the Valley? A: We really like the Valley for several reasons, beyond just the weather. I’m from Australia, so I notice that. There’s an excellent work force, access to really talented people. It’s a terrific access point for travel and transportation, good logistics. We do our logistics out of Chatsworth. It’s really those logistical items. They’re really key. Q: Natrol has been around for 27 years. How has it evolved during that time? A: The company has grown from when it started in 1980, created right here in Chatsworth, right here in the Valley. The business really evolved in 1998. It had a very successful initial public offering, listed on NASDAQ and continued to grow and evolve. That happens with a lot of businesses. It made successful acquisitions in all parts of the world. The evolution of the business has been very typical for a very successful company. Q: You’ve been at Natrol for two years, arguably the most exciting period of the company’s history. Where were you before? A: I had lots of business technology companies, technical business financial services, etc. I’ve always owned my own companies. Q: Natrol includes nutritional supplements, functional herbal teas and sports nutrition products in its portfolio. What are the company’s most popular products? A: We’re the No. 1 melatonin brand. We’re market leaders in sports nutrition. We’re focusing on what’s next in technology. Natrol is really, really well recognized. Q: Not long ago, there was quite an uproar about the safety of nutritional supplements, but Natrol swears by its quality testing practices. Why should consumers trust them? A: Natrol is second to none when it comes to quality. We have the highest standards. We spend more money on our initiatives beyond just ordinary, acceptable standards. That’s one of our strongest selling points in the industry. Natrol has still been very consistent , and when you look at the brand, you know Natrol’s products can be totally trusted. The founder had great pioneering skills. He gave Natrol very high standards, didn’t make compromises. (We have) high quality people, great passion, great vision, amazing work ethic. Q: Recently you provided free supplements during the Fifth Annual Yoga Journal San Francisco Conference and Health Etc. 2008. How does it benefit the company to participate in such events? A: There are a couple of purposes, and they’re not all selfish. We believe we’ve got a responsibility to serve the community. We’re not just trying to sell products, clearly that’s a part of it, but we also recognize a need to educate the consumer, to deliver supplements. There is a real benefit to providing a little more balance in their diet, in their lifestyle. From our perspective, it’s awareness of the food market, healthy living for the consumer. We are influencing with our products more awareness of their diet.

Where technology goes, business opportunities for lawyers follow soon after. “This is the world today,” said David Gurnick, attorney with Lewitt, Hackman, Shapiro, Marshall & Harlan in Encino. Gurnick said emerging technologies are expanding areas of practice for lawyers, which in his office means specifically responding to issues of trademark law, copyright law and property rights law. “The internet is the incubator of all that activity; it’s entirely an intellectual property rights machine,” he said. The potency and impact is spelled out on this week’s business pages of the world’s newspapers. Citing the Microsoft play for Yahoo!, Gurnick noted how the software giant is willing to pay “billions of dollars for electronic impulses on a hard drive. It’s not oil, not cattle, not bricks, not ice cream,” he said. Because of the speed of expanding technology, Gurnick said, “The law is struggling to catch up.” The law of supply and demand is still intact and attorneys in the greater San Fernando Valley area are experiencing growth in various aspects of their practices due to need and opportunity. Gary Nye, partner at Roxborough Pomerance & Nye in Woodland Hills, said expanding areas of their practice was a natural outgrowth of existing services and the success of the firm allowed them to absorb the risk of contingency-based practices. Although the firm continues to focus on their standard insurance practice representing employers and insurers, he said they have expanded into corporate transactional practice including shareholder disputes and corporate governance issues. RP & N; has also expanded their class action department serving consumer-related and insurance-related issues. “In our niche practice, we saw we were able to do more,” Nye said, “We thought we could cross-sell large companies into other areas.” As a small boutique firm, he said, offering corporate practice was a natural outgrowth of the other services they already provided to their clients. Nye said the recent “careful” growth of the firm, which coincided with their move to the Valley from the Westside, had made them “confident we had significant cash flow to journey in to contingency.” Likewise, for Stone, Rosenblatt, Cha, adding intellectual property/enter-tainment/media as an area of practice was an organic growth of opportunity, said partner Ira Rosenblatt. “We were looking to add that skill set, because there were a lot of synergies with current clients,” he said. “It was better for our hours and better for our clients to stay in-house.” The expansion was beneficial, but still was laced with surprise. “It’s working out well, but not in the way it was envisioned. The [writers] strike readjusted the mix of value we got out of that sector, more from the IP (Internet protocol) component than entertainment than I’d have predicted,” Rosenblatt said. Managing partner Jim Felton at Greenberg & Bass in Encino said it’s an economy-driven phenomenon that is expanding an aspect of their services. As profits get tenuous, companies are less likely to shrug off things that hit them fiscally, he said. “We’re seeing a lot more interest in employment and trade secret issues,” he said. Based on the three or four cases he’s seen in the office recently, Felton said “With the economy tightening, when business is taken away, it’s now crunching the bottom line.” “I’m seeing more firms not putting up with it,” he said. They look at the landscape, “see they’ve been treated unfairly and say ‘We’re going to sue and stop it.'” Not only the economy but technology drives the increase in litigation, said Gurnick. “It is a direct result of emerging technology, these trade secret issues that result from wholesale e-mailing of confidential information by people to themselves as they’re exiting the company,” he said. It’s a coagulation of four functions of the digital age, Gurnick said: “E-mail technology, server technology, database technology and content transmission technology.” Trademark law issues erupt accidentally and maliciously, Gurnick said, because of technology advances. Lawsuits will determine boundaries in this uncharted era. “Litigation will establish what is fair use of a trademark,” he said. “There are fan (web) sites that use a trademark for sincere purposes, compared to those who knowingly exploit a brand, image or trademark in order to attract visitors to their site. “Lawsuits will establish which use goes too far,” he said. “I represent a well-known consulting company, working to protect their brand. Fans worldwide, out of loyalty and affection for the firm’s wares are misappropriating the trademark,” Gurnick said. “We have to politely guide them to limit, modify or clarify the use of our brand,” he said. “That never would have happened five years ago. It’s purely a technological issue.” Similarly, use of computer databases is an innovation that impacts copyright law. Gurnick said there is a battleground over content protectability: Is it creative (which would be protectable) or just facts (which is not)? “There’s an explosion of Internet uses. Owners of images are litigating the use of thumbnails of their images that result from web searches,” he said. Gurnick described a multi-step process that describes the arc of developing laws. Gaps in the law create the need for litigation. Then judicial rulings create data points by which legislators draft laws after negotiations with special interest groups. Now, we are in that first stage, he said. “I don’t hear anything about a bill to amend the copyright law. There is an explosion of litigation, because the rights aren’t clear yet,” Gurnick said. This period of history is a technological age, but it’s also an aging age. Baby Boomers are getting older and Richard Miller of Wasserman & Miller in Van Nuys notes that there’s an increased need for legal services to the aging population. He dispenses legal advice at senior centers. “Often with older people they can be apprehensive,” Miller said, finding that “sometimes I just have to tell them they don’t need anything.” Miller’s practice includes aviation law, a segment of service that has mutated in recent years. He said he’s seen the landscape change away from small two- to four-seaters to be almost entirely replaced by small commuter jets. “In the ’70s and ’80s, small airplanes and accidents were more common. Now there are fewer small planes at Van Nuys Airport and technology has improved safety,” he said. The trade has evolved from mechanical mishaps to buying and leasing planes, leasing space, and the occasional runway accident. He has consequently seen an increase in matters surrounding FAA licenses, he said, for pilots and mechanics. Demand drove expansion of Ray Hassanlou’s practice as a sole practitioner in Sherman Oaks. Hassanlou has seen his family law practice expand, and also has seen his real estate segment grow. “I didn’t do a lot of those, but I started getting so many calls,” he said. “It seems like everybody is fighting these days.”

The 14-story mixed-use development in North Hollywood built by JSM Capital sits empty, a sign announcing that condos will be available in the Fall of ’07. Now it’s nearly Spring ’08 and, neighbors report, there’s no obvious activity at the site. Cecilia V. Estolano, executive officer of the Community Redevelopment Agency. “The latest I heard was it was 93 to 97 percent done, but you should talk to JSM,” she said. JSM executives have passed up multiple opportunities over many weeks to comment for this report. Discussion of the status of the building is set for the March 6 CRA/LA meeting. Estolano said that JSM is due to amend their contract with the CRA, an Owner Participation Agreement that called for 14 units of low-income housing when the project was proposed as a rental facility. Now that it’s been re-configured as condos for sale, Estolano said, the proposal for affordable housing was cut by half so, despite getting approval from the city, the OPA has to be amended. She said because JSM got a discretionary land use agreement, it’s a contract that requires the OPA to be amended. JSM has other conflicts with the CRA/LA, significantly a lawsuit filed late last year on the NoHo District’s design changes impacting two other developments JSM has proposed for the area. The changes are meant to control where the highest density and tallest buildings are situated, directing it to property nearest to the mass transit station and furthest from lower density residential. Although not yet formally introduced, preliminary plans show the JSM projects are counter to that design, Estolano said. In a statement released at the time of the filing of the suit, JSM asserted improper advance notification was provided by the CRA and the design guidelines are in conflict with state and local laws. EDIC Stays Put Employers Direct Insurance Company renewed and expanded their facility at 30301 Agoura Road in Agoura, for 67,000 square feet. EDIC was represented by Sheryl Mazirow of Mazirow Commercial. Mazirow Commercial specialized in Tenant Representation and Advisory Services for the past 28 years. Development Opens 2nd Phase OakView, the new health center adjacent to the campus of University Village Thousand Oaks, has a second phase nearing completion and scheduled to open next month with 48 apartments. OakView at University Village will provide assisted living, memory support and skilled nursing. The first phase of the continuing care retirement community opened last fall at the corner of Campus Drive and Olsen Road just north of California Lutheran University. According to Sharon Friedman, director of marketing and admissions, OakView is currently accepting applications and is already more than 50 percent reserved. OakView Skilled Nursing, the third component of the new health center, is scheduled to open later this spring as a 48-bed skilled nursing center. 5-Year Lease for Penthouse Unit Morgan Peabody signed a five-year lease for the 16th floor in the Comerica Bank Building at 15303 Ventura Blvd. They will be occupying a 7,732-square-foot penthouse office unit. Total consideration for the lease, transacted with Douglas Emmett Realty Fund 2000, is $1.72 million. Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura, Inc.’s Senior Vice President Len Effron assisted the transaction. Effron said the move gives Morgan Peabody a high-image space with a prestigious address. Chatsworth is New Neutraderm Home Neutraderm, Inc., has acquired a 35,755-square-foot headquarters building in Chatsworth for $4.5 million. Scott G. Caswell, senior vice president of Van Nuys-based Delphi Business Properties, Inc., represented both Neutraderm, Inc. and RGH Holdings, LP, the sellers. The facility is on approximately two acres of land at 20660 Nordhoff St. Neutraderm plans a second-quarter occupancy for about 50 people in its new headquarters, which represents a seven-fold expansion from its current 5,000-square-foot facility in Canoga Park. The building is a concrete tilt-up structure with 14,600 square feet of office space, three ground level doors and on-site parking for 94 cars. Renters Buy Hollywood Rentals, LLC, has purchased a 83,538-square-foot building at 12800 Foothill Blvd. in Sylmar for $7,850,000 ($93.97 per square foot) from PCSP Foothill, LLC. The buyer was represented by Brenton C. Weirick, Colliers International senior vice president, and George Stavaris assisted in the deal. Hollywood also leased an adjacent parcel of approximate 1.75 acres for 10 years at a rate of $0.23 per square foot. The facility will be used to rent movie production equipment. Brokers Earn Kudos Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura, Inc. recognized its top performing brokers for 2007. Trevor Belden, a principal at the firm’s Sherman Oaks office, was named Top Broker for his performance in 2007. Brent Avis, also based in Sherman Oaks, was named Top Associate and elevated to the position of principal. Grant Fulkerson, an associate at the firm’s Calabasas office, was named Rookie of the Year. Lee & Associates also named its top 10 performers for 2007. They are principals Mark Leonard, Calabasas; Jim Fisher, Sherman Oaks; Craig Stevens, Sherman Oaks; Robert Flink, Ventura County; John Battle SIOR, Sherman Oaks; Ron Feder, Calabasas; Brett Warner, Sherman Oaks; Grant Harris and John Ochoa, both in Ventura County; and Ken Shishido, Sherman Oaks. New Frontier for Newmark NewMark Merrill has established a Rocky Mountain division based in northern Colorado. The Wooodland Hills-based owner and developer of shopping centers teamed with Allen Ginsborg, a Fort Collins, Colorado, real estate investor and founder of Pacific Retail Partners in Long Beach, to create NewMark Merrill Mountain States. NewMark expects the new division to generate $25-50 million in shopping center acquisitions a year and the same in new development. Initially, the projects inline are the redevelopment of three shopping centers totaling 300,000 square feet and an investment of $30 million, the company said. NewMark was started in 1997 by Sandy Sigal and currently owns more than 45 shopping centers, including 6 million square feet of space, in Southern California, Colorado and Illinois. Bank Opens New Office First Federal Bank of California announced the opening of its newest banking office in Chatsworth. Located at 20505 Devonshire Blvd., the branch is full-service, providing a full range of both consumer and commercial banking products and services. With over twenty-five years of banking experience, Phyllis M. Barber, branch manager, heads the Chatsworth branch team. Barber is a Chatsworth resident with long-standing ties to the community, working with the Chamber of Commerce, BID and Depot Foundation. First Federal Bank of California, based in Santa Monica, was selected to U.S. Banker magazine’s list of Top 25 Banks of 2007, and First Fed’s Chairman and CEO, Babette Heimbuch, was selected to U.S. Banker magazine’s list of Top 10 CEOs.

Settling a royalty dispute between video game publisher THQ Inc. and JAKKS Pacific can move forward following a state appellate court ruling challenging appointment of an arbitrator in the case. JAKKS Pacific sought to disqualify arbitrators appointed by a superior court judge based on when potential arbitrators were required to complete disclosure questionnaires. The California Court of Appeals rejected March 3 the challenge by JAKKS to the arbitrators. Agoura Hills-based THQ took JAKKS to court over a dispute on royalties from WWE video game sales developed under a joint venture by the two companies. The two companies were to go to arbitration in the event they could not get a royalty rate in writing in effect as of July 2006. Sales of WWE games have reached $1 billion, THQ President and CEO Brian Farrell said. “As we have stated since we filed suit to compel arbitration and appoint an arbitrator, we look forward to moving the arbitration process forward expeditiously, and we expect to prevail once an arbitrator has the opportunity to consider the facts in this matter,” said James M. Kennedy, THQ’s executive vice president, business and legal affairs.

The old standbys of reading, sleeping or watching an in-flight movie to kill time during a lengthy flight won’t be the only options to passengers aboard two airlines this spring. Row 44 invites them instead to sit back, relax and log on to the Internet. Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines will install antennas and connection boxes developed by the Westlake Village-based tech company on a select number of their jets this spring as a test to see how well the equipment works and if passengers take to it. If satisfied the service does all that Row 44 claims, a fleet-wide deployment could begin later this year. Alaska Airlines uses more than 100 jets while Southwest, the nation’s largest discount air carrier, has 500-plus aircraft. “They will assess when they are happy with it,” said John Guidon, co-founder and CEO of Row 44. Other companies are ready to launch their own services. Aircell began installing its broadband connection equipment last month on 15 American Airlines 767s; JetBlue is testing a free Wi-Fi service with limited online access; and next year, Continental Airlines will offer passengers e-mail and instant messaging capabilities from LiveTV, a subsidiary of JetBlue. Row 44, however, sees itself as a company apart because its broadband access comes through satellites and not from ground-based towers as used by Aircell. In-flight broadband access has been tried before with the failed Connexion service that had its connection severed in 2006 by operator Boeing. Guidon and Row 44’s President Gregg Fialcowitz say their company has solved Boeing’s Connexion problems. Whereas Boeing used older and limited technology, Row 44’s is state of the art. The Connexion equipment was heavy, costly to install and could not fit on narrow-body planes while the Row 44 system weighs 150 pounds and uses an exterior antenna that can be installed over two nights, meaning no aircraft needs to be pulled from service. Most importantly, where Connexion served foreign markets, Row 44 is targeting U.S. airlines with its rollout. “All in all they didn’t have a chance,” Guidon said about Connexion. In-Flight Survey Market demand is also in Row 44’s corner. Data provided to the company from numerous airlines showed a desire for broadband access from leisure travelers as much as business travelers because the Internet is as much an entertainment medium as a work-related device. A recent study from Forrester Research found that even on short flights of less than an hour, 15 percent of leisure travelers wanted Internet access. The number leaps to 55 percent for transcontinental flights and those leaving major hubs. The study also found the most likely users of in-flight broadband are in their early 40s, affluent and loyal to a brand offering the services they crave. In addition, 33 percent said they are willing to pay more for better service, and 38 percent disagree that having no Internet access allows them to relax during a flight. Just more than 1,000 people responded to questions about in-flight access in the survey, study author Henry Harteveldt said. “People may accept the fact that they can’t smoke on a plane,” Harteveldt wrote in the report, “but the addiction that consumers have with the Internet clearly won’t be left on terra firma any more.” To give passengers their Internet fix, Row 44 invested $3 million for infrastructure located outside Las Vegas. A cost of $150,000 to $225,000 per aircraft is estimated for installation of antennas and connection boxes. A direct sale of access time to a passenger will cost in the range of $5.99 for unlimited PDA access and $7.99 for unlimited laptop access, Fialcowitz said. An Efficient Business Model Headquartered in the Conejo Valley, Row 44 also has research and development facilities in Chicago and Arizona. Hughes Electronics Corp. provides the satellite time while other development partners provide the satellite connections; manufacture the antennas and boxes; manage the implementation; and get authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration to modify aircraft with the equipment Having those partners is an efficient business model for the information age. After all, his company’s expertise is specifying what is needed to get broadband access to airline passengers not creating a large staff, Guidon said. Row 44’s growth strategy is to build a profitable spot market in North America and another in Europe and then linking the two. The company can then model revenue estimates for expansion into Asia and the Middle East. “While we would like to link up all those places, we want to do it in a financially responsible way,” Guidon said. Row 44 is in discussions with Boeing and Airbus to have its equipment installed right on the factory line during the assembly of the plane but Fialcowitz figured that will not happen for at least two years.