A 14-unit apartment complex in Valley Village was sold for $2.3 million. The project, The Radford Apartments located at 5400 Radford Ave., was sold to a private investor. Chris Thompson, a broker with Investment Real Estate Associates, represented the seller, also a private investor. The buyer was represented by Braemon Hanes, a broker with Hanes Investment Realty Inc.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan Tuesday to design and build a $98 million ambulatory center in Lancaster to replace the High Desert Hospital that was converted to an outpatient center in 2003. The proposal calls for a 124,000-square-foot facility at Avenue I and 3rd Street East to house a new surgery center, clinic building, administration and support facility and center plant. In a statement after the vote, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said the project would help reduce overcrowding at other healthcare facilities in the Antelope Valley and improve healthcare for the region. “This project has been a priority since the closing of High Desert Hospital three years ago,” said Antonovich, whose fifth district includes Lancaster. “The new health center will be designed and constructed with the needs of the community as the primary focus.” The county is working with the city to acquire the 15-acre property. Construction is expected to finish by late 2010 with full operation slated for 2013, according to Antonovich’s office Tuesday.

Countrywide Commercial Real Estate Finance has closed a $183 million loan to Westcore Properties LLC, the company said today. The financing will be used for the acquisition of Westcore-Mack Cali Colorado portfolio, consisting of 19 office buildings representing 1.4 million square feet and 1.6 acres of land for parking. The properties are located in suburban Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo.

California Home Builders No. 5 Fastest Growing Company Overall (83.43%) Skyrocketing home prices, a dearth of affordable housing and the colossal Southern California housing boom have made the past few years good ones for the Canoga Park residential construction company California Home Builders. From 2004 to 2005, revenue for the homebuilder jumped a whopping 83.43 percent from $24.08 million to $44.17 million and as of June 30 this year is already on track to hit $45.73 million. Such an increase, fueled by a perfect storm of conditions for residential developers, has made California Home Builders the fifth fastest growing private company in the San Fernando Valley. “Every year, we’ve been growing. We’ve been growing constantly,” said company President Shawn Evenhaim. Israel-born Evenhaim founded California Home Builders in 1994 to construct custom homes and in-fill residential communities. It was the zenith of the recession and Evenhaim determined early on that his company had to focus more on the customer and the neighborhood versus the bottom line. As a result, he crafted a small, close-knit staff that worked well together and took pride in their work, he said. He also created a simple credo to tackle only a handful of projects at a time so that a construction manager could see the project from beginning to end. “We don’t want to be a machine,” he said. “We want it to work with the community.” While the “customer first” concept wasn’t new, it was something of novelty among homebuilders then, Evenhaim said. People took notice. “We have people calling us all the time asking, ‘When is our next project?'” he said. Since then, the company has tackled hundreds of detached home, custom home, tract home and low-income, market-rate and senior apartment projects mostly in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The vast majority have been centered in the Valley from two apartment complexes with 136 units in Sylmar and 36 homes on five Winnetka tracts to 32 apartments in Van Nuys and custom homes in Granada Hills. The projects have ranged from simple entry-level homes starting at $150,000 to $3 million custom homes. DLC Inc. No. 6 Fastest Growing Company Overall (70.15%) Even though it was founded just five years ago, the Woodland Hills finance and accounting consulting firm DLC Inc. is no stranger to fast growth. Between 2003 and 2004, the company increased revenue 75.30 percent, making it the seventh fastest growing private company in the San Fernando Valley area last year. That trend has continued through 2005. The company, founded by former recruiting consultant David Lewis, boosted its 2004 revenue of $14.2 million to $24.16 last year a 70.15% increase. The increase moved DLC up one slot to No. 6 on the Business Journal’s list of fastest growing private companies for 2006. Chris Coates

L.A. Daily News parent MediaNews Group is one of seven media companies joining a partnership with Yahoo! to deliver online advertising and news content. The partnership represents newspapers in 38 states and includes major market dailies in San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, St. Louis and Houston. The arrangement allows advertisers already listing jobs in partner newspapers to post openings on Yahoo! HotJobs and throughout the Yahoo! network. Yahoo! and media companies will also collaborate to use Yahoo!’s technology platform to sell online advertising for the newspaper’s website; use Yahoo!’s search monetization functionality on newspaper Web sites; and offer local Yahoo! products such as listings and maps on the paper’s Web sites. William Dean Singleton, CEO of Denver-based MediaNews Group, in a statement called the deal a transformational one for the newspaper industry. “This relationship will significantly extend our local assets to a much wider audience, and gives us the technology required to fulfill the growing demands of advertisers and consumers,” Singleton said. Other companies in the partnership include Belo Corp., Cox Newspapers, Inc., Hearst Newspapers; Journal Register Co.; Lee Enterprises, Inc.; and The E.W. Scripps Co. MediaNews Group owns Woodland Hills-based Daily News through the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which also controls the Long Beach Press Telegram, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and several others. Last month, it was announced that the Daily News was cutting some staff and reducing some editions. Read about the cutbacks click here .

So let’s get this straight: 40 percent of the fastest growing private companies are businesses related to the housing and construction and technology industries, sectors that had stellar, if not record growth in 2005. How hard can it have been for these firms to report a great year? The answer, in a nutshell, is that it’s not as easy as it may first appear. While rising tides usually do lift all ships, how high each one rises is another matter entirely. “You have to have a ship that floats,” said Bob Sommers, chairman and co-CEO of Symark Software, developers of security software. “You have to start off with good products that people want and all the stuff that goes along with that.” The executives of some of these fast growing companies point out that merely providing a product or service in an industry or an economy that is growing isn’t enough to surpass the competition, keep customers happy or, perhaps most important, stay afloat once the climate shifts. As many will tell you, luck and the economy favors those who are prepared. That is especially true in the real estate sector where it takes several years to bring properties to market and those may be years where there is little evidence of the coming demand. “It takes sometimes two to three years to bring a property to market,” said Denis Cullumber, president and CEO of Larwin Co., a homebuilder based in Encino. “That’s where the smarts come in. First I have to go out and buy the land and by the time I build it the cycle may be going the wrong way.” Even those companies whose businesses do not depend upon lengthy periods to bring products to market spend a great deal of time thinking about the future and anticipating what can happen. At Key Information Systems Inc., which saw its sales jump by nearly 40 percent last year, President Lief Morin said he has his eye on two trends that could significantly change the business model for the Woodland Hills computer company, and he’s not sitting idly by. The company has been adding products and services, increasing its sales team and exploring other ways to change its business model. “We have to take a look at those trends quite seriously and make sure we are adapting to handle that change,” said Morin. “We have to make sure that we are changing our business model to adapt.” Anticipating demand and change is just one part of the equation. These businesses also have to have the systems in place to meet the increased demand and perform effectively. “There are two ways to fail,” said Lewis H. Stanton, managing partner at Stanton Associates LLC, a Studio City-based firm that works with high-growth companies. “One is slow or negative growth and the other is very rapid growth. Hyper growth can kill you. You can lose control of working capital, your product or your service quality.” Case in point: Back around 2000 when business communications were shifting to the Internet, companies like ISWest that supplied DSL and web hosting services found themselves inundated with business opportunities without breaking a sweat. “We just had to pick up the phone and send a quote,” said Drew Kaplan, CEO and CFO of the Agoura Hills company. “But it was the funniest thing. I would turn around the quote in a day, and I would talk to these people a week later and they’d say, ‘I asked three other companies and I’m still waiting for them.’ ” Particularly where new technologies are concerned, the more critical they become to a business, the more scrutiny suppliers say they face. Events ranging from the 9/11 attacks to Sarbanes-Oxley legislation which holds company CEOs personally responsible for the security of their data, have helped to catapult demand for Symark’s security software, for example. But as privacy and security stakes have gotten higher, Symark is finding that their business has become more difficult. “They have a problem to solve and a time frame to solve it in,” said Sommers. “There’s more competition, but I would say that’s not our big threat. It’s more of finding the right fit and making sure we do the proper selling of the product. They’re looking at the software as strategic to their overall security as opposed to oh my gosh, we need security software.” The other problem that comes with a very healthy environment is that it doesn’t last forever. Cycles shift and change, and these company executives point out that complacency can be their downfall, even in the best of times. “Our biggest problem as a real estate company is not letting the positive environment carry us away,” said Sandy Sigal, CEO and president of NewMark Merrill Cos., which specializes in shopping center management. “On the one hand, the environment has carried us along pretty nicely, and we’ve done better than we probably should have. On the other hand, we’re always looking over our shoulder so if the market does turn we don’t put our business plan at risk.” More than a few company executives say they set their business clocks to their own internal standards, often ignoring outside forces, both positive and negative. “I’m in a heavy growth period in that I’m pushing for growth,” said Kaplan, noting that the DSL portion of the business has matured, making those sales more challenging, and the company is building a second tier offering co-location services for corporate accounts. “I want to get us to a goal, and so I find myself working harder now than I ever worked.”

When clients of Key Information Systems talked of what could be done to copy data as part of its disaster recovery plan, company president Lief Morin and his staff sprang into action. The Woodland Hills firm picked a storage replication program, trained the engineering staff how to use it, and talked about the program with the sales team resulting in an implementation in the marketplace. The process started because those clients were at some stage of thinking about or planning a method of replicating data between computers. “If every one of my clients is in that mode we need to have that technology and need to be able to provide that technology solution to our client base,” Morin said. Many of the 50 Fastest Growing Private Companies on the Business Journal’s list this year are in the technology industry. In this fast-changing industry, companies providing products and services need to act fast as well. Depending on what segment of the industry they cater to, those companies find it beneficial to be ahead of the curve of the latest technology trends, anticipating client needs before even the client knows it. “We constantly have to innovate and we constantly look for performance improvements and product enhancements,” said Bruce Brown, chairman and chief executive officer of Strix Systems, a Calabasas-based wireless networking equipment supplier. Strix is on its third generation of product in six years and invests heavily in research and development. Competing against larger firms going after the same clients becomes all that much easier when Strix can offer a product that is done right, Brown said. “We have to offer a superior product for less money that will compel a customer to leave their comfort zone on who they buy from,” Brown said. With an 85 percent growth from 2004 to 2005, Strix Systems landed at number four on the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s fastest growing private companies list. At Key Information number 16 on the fastest growing list with a 40 percent growth from 2004 to 2005 keeping ahead of the tech curve is a do or die proposition. “We are the company our client comes to asking questions about what is coming down the pike,” Morin said. To have the answers, Morin meets at least twice a year with the engineering and sales teams to discuss technology and coming advances; to hear from the teams what they read in trade journals and how advances may influence what the company offers in the next 12 month period. As a partner with IBM, Key will bring in representatives from that company to hear from them about industry trends and what their hot technologies are for the coming year to 18 months. As a much smaller company, Key does not have the reach of IBM and instead picks new technologies that are extensions of core skill sets of its employees, Morin said. “We go out and implement business plans that they are able to execute to clients in coming years,” Morin said. As fast as technology changes, sometime the hype gets ahead of the technology. Take Web 2.0, for example, a term coined in 2004 to describe the second generation of Internet service companies. It’s one of those buzzwords that mean a lot of things to a lot of people resulting in no easy way to define it but it encompasses blogs and the YouTubes of the world, said Benjamin Kuo, operator of the SoCalTech.com website. “It’s anything where there is a new kind of service where people are participating in generating the content on websites,” Kuo said. Innovations in technology extend into many industries – manufacturing, hospitality, retail, entertainment, and healthcare. The impact hits large and small companies alike. “You walk into a restaurant all the tables are done primarily through seating software and billing software,” said Key Information’s Morin. As a server host company and Internet service provider, ISWest might be expected to stay on top of the technology curve. Not so, said Drew Kaplan, chief executive officer and chief financial officer of the Agoura Hills company. An emphasis on customer service and solid business practices draws customers to ISWest, which had the number 33 spot on the fastest growing private companies list. ISWest reported a 22 percent revenue increase from 2004 to 2005.

The membership of the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce unanimously approved Nov. 15 merging with the Tarzana Chamber of Commerce. The Tarzana Chamber membership votes on the merger Nov. 20. The Tarzana business group proposed the merger to expand the organizations’ areas of influence and attract new members, Woodland Hills Chamber Executive Director Tinalyn Firestone said she had not heard from any member opposing the move.

Even with overall cars sales slipping in California, two car dealerships in the San Fernando Valley bucked that trend enough to be named among the Valley’s fastest growing private companies. The family-owned Bob Smith BMW dealership in Calabasas ranked No. 32 on the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s list with a 23 percent growth in revenues from 2004 to 2005. As of June 30, the dealership reported revenues of $93 million. Dealership President Tim Smith credited the upsurge in sales with moving to a new building along the 101 (Ventura) Freeway corridor from its long-time location in Canoga Park. “This area is really strong in the luxury car market,” Smith said. “Lexus and BMW are the two franchises doing the best.” Vista Lexus in Woodland Hills ranked No. 37 on the list with an 18 percent growth in revenues from 2004 to 2005. As of June 30, the dealership reported revenues of $33.5 million. Vista Lexus President Tori Shuken credits the dealership’s growth to its being family owned and employing long-time salespeople. Loyalty in its customers leads to repeat business and referrals to the dealership, Shuken said, while retaining salespeople leads to comfort for a potential buyer. “How nice for a three, four, five, or six time customer to walk in after 16 years and see that same familiar salesperson every time,” Shuken said. “It happens all the time here.” Overall new light vehicle registrations in the state dropped in the first half of 2006 when compared with the first six months in 2005, according to statistics from the California Motor Car Dealers Association. The 5.5 percent drop in California was sharper than the national decrease of 2.3 percent. During the second quarter of 2006 Toyota and Honda were the top two sellers with a combined 36 percent of the state’s market share, the association reported. Big Three decline The Big Three domestic automakers, by comparison ranked in single digits for sales and had decreases in sales compared with the first quarter. BMW had a 3.7 percent market share and Lexus a 3.6 percent market share for the second quarter, according to the CMCDA’s numbers. One reason for success for BMW dealers is the aggressive development of its models, with its 3, 6 and 7 series of cars all doing well, Smith said. “As long as they continue to provide fresh and exciting models for us, we will continue to grow,” Smith said. Lexus, the luxury auto division of Toyota, puts itself on the cutting edge with design and technology, Shuken said. “You don’t like to say it sells itself,” Shuken said of the dealership’s inventory. “We like to think we work harder than that but it does sell itself.” The Asian and European lines are extremely dominant in the California market and there is no reason to believe those lines won’t continue to increase market share, said Mark Rikess, president of The Rikess Group, a Burbank-based consulting firm for the auto industry. The strong brand identity the foreign car companies created does not bode well for the domestic auto market. “Even if domestic vehicles were on par from a quality standpoint with Japanese-made vehicles it’s really hard to convince the public of that in California as opposed to other parts of the country,” Rikess said. With the disposable income of Southern California residents, it is no surprise that a BMW and Lexus dealers would do well. But with the type of car one drives being a reflection of who you are, the dealerships are selling prestige as much as high quality and enjoyable cars, Rikess said. “There is an association that if I drive a BMW or drive a Lexus that sends a message that I am successful,” Rikess said.

What went wrong? That was the question business leaders from the San Fernando Valley asked themselves following the state’s rejection of renewing the Northeast Valley Enterprise Zone, an area that allows for businesses to receive financial assistance for hiring local residents. The Nov. 3 announcement from the Department of Housing and Community Development that the zone had been eliminated took many by surprise. “Here’s the Valley, the seat of manufacturing in the L.A. economy and we can’t qualify as an enterprise zone,” said Bruce Ackerman, of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley. “There’s something ludicrous about that.” The zone was created in 1986 and renewed in 2001. The boundaries included much of Pacoima and portions of Sun Valley and Panorama City. Businesses within the boundaries were eligible for local tax incentives, the most popular being an employee tax credit of $31,000 per employee over a five-year period. About 165 businesses use that tax credit. Others include a rebate on sales tax for certain equipment and parts purchases; a business expense deduction capped at $20,000; and a five-year subsidy from the L.A. Department of Water and Power. Businesses did express an interest in wanting to re-locate within the enterprise zone, particularly those that were hiring and wanted to take advantage of the employee tax credit, said Ken Hitts, director of business assistance with the Economic Alliance. The state’s decision to not renew the enterprise zone takes away “a carrot” to attract business, Hitts said. “When a company says what are the incentives for coming into the area that was one of the few tools available to us,” Hitts said. Three months ago there were indications the zone could be in jeopardy by failing to meet the requirement to include 51 percent or more of industrial and commercially-zoned land. ‘Not competitive’ The Los Angeles Community Development Department, the agency submitting the renewal application, knew the zoning mix couldn’t be met but banked on other factors to compensate the success of the zone over 20 years, the overall impact in terms of the number of businesses taking advantage of the incentives, and what the zone means to economic development activity. “We thought we had submitted a strong application,” said Cliff Weiss, a senior management analyst with the department. “I was very surprised that this one was not competitive.” The application includes such information as the number of low- to moderate-income residents, unemployed residents, and those below the poverty line; vacancy rates; an overview of business conditions; and future plans for the area. The Valley enterprise zone application was one of three submitted by Los Angeles. Enterprise zones in the South Central and Hollywood areas were approved by the state. The department had not yet sat down with state officials to discuss why the application was turned down, Weiss said. As one of the lead Valley agencies seeking the zone’s renewal, the Economic Alliance supported the application but never saw what was submitted to the state. “I don’t know how good it was or how incomplete it was or whether it didn’t meet the requirements,” Ackerman said. The Valley Industry and Commerce Association and the Valley Economic Development Center also backed the renewal. VEDC President Roberto Barragan said he wished the city had used the resources necessary to keep the designation and that the state in its selection process had taken into more consideration the needs of the zone’s residents as opposed to other categories not relevant to the underemployed and unemployed. Loss of the designation, however, does not spell doom for companies already using the tax incentives. Businesses continuing to employ workers hired before the enterprise zone designation expired can still apply for the employee tax credits. Additional help could be on the horizon for the Valley through legislation signed into law in September by Gov. Schwarzenegger that made changes to the enterprise zone regulations. The CDD is waiting to hear from the state its interpretation of those changes and whether the city would be allowed to extend the boundaries of its two enterprise zones to include the Pacoima area, Weiss said. The new law includes language that enterprise zone can extend their boundaries to include non-contiguous areas. For the present time, loss of the enterprise zone designation is not necessarily a deal breaker when it comes to businesses looking to relocate, Hitts said. Where a company relocates depends on what is important to them and with a vacancy rate for industrial property hovering in the 3 percent range a location in the former zone remains suitable if it keep the company in business, Hitts said.