Team of Brokers Benefits From the Drive to Valencia By JACQUELINE FOX Staff Reporter Many a broker has been in on one real estate deal or the other in the Santa Clarita Valley since Newhall Land & Farming Co. first launched one of the largest and most valuable land liquidations in history during the late 1960s. But few have had the kinds of careers Doug Sonderegger and Craig Peters of CB Richard Ellis have. CB Richard Ellis took the lead on both commercial and industrial development opportunities in the Santa Clarita Valley early on. In fact, the company locked in an exclusive to represent Newhall Land on industrial sales and leases inside Newhall’s Valencia Gateway project, L.A. County’s largest master planned high-tech and industrial center. And for the last 13 years Sonderegger and Peters, senior vice presidents at CB, have dominated the industrial real estate scene in the area, controlling roughly 80 percent of the market for land sales, investments and long-term leasing, including most Newhall projects. Sonderegger, 47, a Nebraska native and Sherman Oaks resident, has been with CB since 1982. He was already mining the Santa Clarita Valley when, in 1985, he was asked to train a rookie broker, Peters, 38, a Valley native and Santa Clarita resident. That was the beginning of what Sonderegger calls a growing trend in real estate brokering at CB and across the industry as a whole. “We are one of the oldest real estate ‘teams’ in the San Fernando Valley, so we were teaming up before teaming up was cool,” he said. Clearly, the formation of their partnership coincided with the beginning of a significant phase of industrial development in the Santa Clarita Valley, with Newhall leading the way. While the two broker transactions for other developments, their primary focus has been the 4,500-acre Gateway, which includes the Valencia Commerce Center and the Valencia Industrial Center. They have brokered sales of roughly 16 million square feet of industrial market space for the Gateway, and there are still 9 million square feet left to sell. “We started out here in Valencia when there was approximately 2.5 million square feet of industrial building space under roof,” said Peters. “Today, it’s just under 16 million. So we’ve seen a lot of development take place here over the years, and it’s been very exciting.” Sonderegger and Peters were number 1 on both the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s lists of top-producing brokers for industrial leases and industrial sales in the Santa Clarita Valley for 2001. All told, they sold 900,965 square feet of industrial space and handled leases for 320,641 square feet in the Santa Clarita Valley in 2001. Among deals they closed last year were: – The sale of a $20 million, 324,945-square-foot facility to PMRealty inside the Valencia Commerceplex I & II.; – The sale of a $9 million, 98,000-square-foot building on Avenue Paine in Valencia to Allecure Corp., the new biotech firm founded by former MiniMed owner Alfred Mann. – The lease of a 41,200-square-foot building to Desert Essence in a 5-year transaction worth $1.25 million. As hot as the industrial market may be now, Sonderegger and Peters both remember days, not too long ago, when getting developers or business owners to take a look at the Santa Clarita Valley was like asking them to drive to Timbuktu. “A lot of guys didn’t want to invest in the market out here,” said Peters. “Now, we have some of the greatest clients in the world.” “It was either, ‘Where is Valencia?’ or “I don’t want to go to Valencia,'” added Sonderegger. “Now it’s become a prestigious address.” The two said roughly half the business transactions they handle today involve relocations for established San Fernando Valley-based companies. Newhall Land may be the dominant developer in Valencia, but there are other non-Newhall transactions underway or still under negotiation that Sonderegger and Peters have brokered recently, or are expected to play a key role in down the road. The two recently represented Foster City-based Legacy Partners in the sale of 377 acres of former Lockheed aerospace land, now called the Rye Canyon in Valencia, for the new Mann Biomedical Park, already home to Mann’s Advanced Bionics. (CB Richard Ellis has exclusive rights to the Rye Canyon project.) Another 230,000 square feet of industrial building space on the south end of Rye Canyon is “under commitment,” according to Mike Haviland, Santa Clarita economic development director, and the Santa Clarita Planning Commission is set to approve another 220-acre business park nearby. And, considering the long-standing relationship CB and the Sonderegger/Peters team have established with Newhall, it’s a pretty sure bet their names will be connected with industrial projects planned for Newhall Land’s next big master-planned community: Newhall Ranch. According to officials with the city of Santa Clarita and Newhall Land, Sonderegger and Peters bring more than just a broker’s perspective to the table. They are active on several boards and commissions in the region and have played key roles as links between the city, developers and residents of the community. “I think what makes them unique to the area is that they have made a commitment to being available to us and meeting all our needs,” said Jim Brown, vice president of commercial and industrial properties for Newhall Land. “But they also have a tremendous professional ability out here in dealing with many of the property owners. They also have a community involvement that goes beyond the normal level, so they not only serve the community from a business standpoint, but from a personal one as well.” Haviland said that when he first went to work for the city 12 years ago he knew very little about real estate and, to this day, prefers to leave it to professionals. “My goal is not to edge into the territory of real estate professionals,” said Haviland. “So I’m very dependent on people like Craig and Doug. And it’s worked incredibly well. They really stand out as very rich in their understanding of the market here, and I couldn’t speak highly enough about them.”

Galleria, Empire Center Introduce New Era in Malls By CARLOS MARTINEZ Staff Reporter Developers of the San Fernando Valley’s two biggest retail projects of 2001, the rebuilt Sherman Oaks Galleria and the new Burbank Empire Center, both want to prove that a mix of offices, retailers and restaurants is the newest key to success in the mall business. Mark McGauhey, a retail specialist with CB Richard Ellis, said the right office-retail combination could turn the two developments into some of the most successful malls in L.A. County. The projects are part of a trend toward mixing business tenants with popular retailers, said Andrew Cohen, managing principal of the architectural firm Gensler & Associates, which designed the new Galleria. When Douglas Emmett & Co. acquired the Sherman Oaks Galleria for about $50 million and announced plans to remake the once popular hangout into an office and entertainment complex, it was hailed by many as a way to bring businesses and shoppers to the area around Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards. The Galleria had been popular with teenagers who used it as a gathering place and with filmmakers who made it the backdrop for a number of movies over the years, but tenants started leaving in droves in the early 1990s and it eventually closed in 1999. Unlike Burbank’s new 620,000-square-foot Empire Center mall, built on the site of the former Lockheed Aircraft plant, the new Galleria is more of a makeover than a full-fledged construction project. When the Galleria reopened last fall, it was no longer the mall of old, but a state-of-the-art office and commercial complex that locals say has been a long time in coming. Altogether, the Galleria’s hefty upgrade will cost around $100 million, according to Douglas Emmett. The project includes 700,000 square feet of office space and 300,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and movie theaters, all in an open-air complex, said Allen Young, a broker with CB Richard Ellis who is marketing the project for Douglas Emmett. Cohen said, “We basically took this vanilla white box and turned it inside out and developed courtyards, landscaping and office space with lots of natural lighting,” Cohen said. By designing a facility primarily with office space in mind, the new Galleria no longer has to compete with larger, more modern shopping malls, said Douglas Emmett CEO Dan Emmett. “It didn’t work as a regional mall anymore,” Emmett said. “It was just too small.” But by acquiring the mall and two nearby office buildings, Douglas Emmett was able to do something else: double existing office space in the Sepulveda/Ventura area to about 1.1 million square feet. Across town, Zelman Development Co. has built the Burbank Empire Center on the 103-acre former Lockheed Aircraft plant on Victory Boulevard near Buena Vista Street and Empire Avenue. Zelman President Ben Reiling said the company has spent more than $160 million to develop the mall and adjoining office space. “We feel that this project has something for everyone,” Reiling said. When completed, it will have 600,000 square feet of retail space, 600,000 square feet of office space and two hotels with a total of 350 rooms. The city of Burbank had been looking for a way to develop the place where Lockheed first built the World War II-era P-38 fighter plane but had abandoned in 1991 amid the deterioration of the aerospace industry. With the arrival of tenants like Hometown Buffet, TGI Fridays, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Costco, Reiling said the mall will live up to the city’s expectations. Burbank Community Development Director Sue Georgino said the center has been attracting a variety of customers. “You have young families that want to go to Target and make low-end purchases, but you also have families that come to the center for high-end purchases at Best Buy and other places,” she said. Like the Empire Center, the Sherman Oaks Galleria figures to meet local expectations as an office-retail-entertainment complex. The Galleria’s biggest tenant is Warner Brothers Animation with 150,000 square feet. Other top tenants include Pacific Theaters, with a 4,000-seat, 18-screen multiplex, and Tower Records, with a 50,000-square-foot mega-store full of CDs, videos and books. The new atmosphere will attract new customers, said Young. “You’re going to see a lot of families and a lot of business people,” he said. The mall project is in keeping with similar recent makeovers at other Valley malls, including Fallbrook, Topanga Plaza and Promenade malls. The Promenade, for instance, has undergone a $35 million upgrade that added new restaurants and shops to its lower level. Although the Galleria may long be remembered as the inspiration for Frank Zappa’s “Valley Girl” and the scene of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” others say the old mall long ago outlived its usefulness. “It was too small and it couldn’t really compete with the other malls in the area,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association.

Newhall Land Markets Biotech in Order to Sell Property By SHELLY GARCIA Senior Reporter In October, Newhall Land and Farming Co. hosted a conference about the biotech industry. Topics on the agenda included issues such as growth and future prospects for the sector, things that would be of particular interest to those who work in the industry. But the reason for the conference had little to do with running a biotech company. The event was part of a marketing effort to attract biotech companies to Valencia, a master-planned community developed mostly by Newhall Land. Some of the industries that helped to build the Valencia community have matured. Other businesses have been hit hard by the recession. But biotech, Newhall Land officials believe, offers some of the strongest prospects for future corporate tenants. “We’re marketing to a variety of different companies, but biotech is one of the stronger and growing Southern California industries,” said Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for the real estate company. “And with all the predictions that you read about the aging population, there’s going to continue to be a lot of growth in the industry.” Newhall’s success at attracting business to its industrial parks has been formidable. About 1 million square feet of space was absorbed annually through much of the 1980s and 1990s. But the pace slowed last year in the industrial sector, and Newhall officials believe that some of the company’s strongest prospects for growth lay with capitalizing on the interest by like-companies to cluster in close proximity. “We have in the last couple of years done a lot of analysis on the types of businesses that already exist in the Santa Clarita Valley because we know it makes sense for industries to cluster together,” Lauffer said. Biotech, in particular, may be especially attracted to what Valencia offers, namely large expanses of available land at costs lower than many other communities, others say. “It’s a smart move because biomed and nutriceuticals (nutritional supplement manufacturers) need inexpensive land because they end up putting a significant amount of tenant improvements in the buildings,” said Larry Kosmont, president and CEO of Kosmont Cos., a real estate consulting firm. “They need clean rooms and there are some environmental issues they have to meet. Second, they rely on a highly educated population for a workforce, so at some level being out in the suburbs, whether its Newhall or Conejo, they both work.” The availability of relatively inexpensive land in Valencia has long been a draw for many types of companies. But the economic downturn has affected Newhall as it has other real estate developers. In 2001, Newhall sold five industrial parcels totaling 16.8 acres, compared to 11 parcels totaling 58.8 acres in the prior year. It leased 890,039 square feet in its two business parks, Valencia Industrial Center and Valencia Commerce Center, compared to 1.3 million square feet in 2000. In its financial reporting for the year ended Dec. 31, 2001, Newhall said, “As a result of the general economic slowdown and amount of new space on the market from prior years’ land sales, Valencia’s industrial vacancy rate in November and December 2001 was over 13 percent, compared to 4.3 percent at December 2000.” The commercial sector fared better in 2001, totaling 75.5 acres sold compared to 49.7 acres in the prior year. Among the biotech companies already in Valencia are AlleCure Corp., a company that develops products to treat immune system disorders; Advanced Bionics Corp., makers of the cochlear implant; and Second Sight, a company researching devices to correct blindness. In the past month, Alfred E. Mann, the founder of MiniMed who is considered a biotech pioneer, acquired about 160 acres in Valencia’s Rye Canyon Business Park for a biomedical center from another buyer, Legacy Partners. And Specialty Laboratories Inc., which provides laboratory testing services, last month announced that it planned to build a 200,000-square-foot facility to house its laboratory and administrative offices on a 13.8-acre site it acquired from Newhall. But except for Specialty Laboratories, the other biomed companies located in Valencia are direct descendents of Mann’s companies. So far, the biotech companies in the Southern California region have been scattered, unlike communities such as San Diego, Northern California and Boston, where there are highly visible centers of the industry. And last summer, USC hosted a conference hoping to stimulate the growth of the industry in the region at which Mayor James K. Hahn solicited suggestions on how to bolster the biomed presence from industry leaders. “L.A. has some presence, it’s just a little more dispersed,” Kosmont said. “So it’s a good market to go after.” A just released study by Kosmont Partners also ranked Santa Clarita as the least expensive city in which to do business, a feature that Kosmont believes can also help to support Newhall’s marketing efforts. Events such as the conferences attract not only industry practitioners, but real estate brokers, lawyers who specialize in the sector and others who can potentially spread the word about Valencia’s emerging biotech cluster to other companies. “We’re hoping to do another seminar this fall,” Lauffer said. “We think it’s a good way of bringing industry professionals together.”

At the Top: Brokers Who Made the Big Deals in 2001 Ken Ashen Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis Ken Ashen may be known as a jack of all trades in the commercial real estate industry. Which is fine with him: doing so has kept him one of CB Richard Ellis’ top 10 producing brokers in the San Fernando Valley office for the last decade. Since joining CB in 1978, the Thousand Oaks resident has focused on industrial markets. Some of Ashen’s most significant deals include the sale of the 66,408-square-foot Westlake City Center and the former headquarters of Guitar Center on Lindero Canyon Road to a private investor. Gregory K. Barsamian Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis Gregory Barsamian, a former engineer, calls himself the industrial cleanup guy. Why? Since his arrival at CB Richard Ellis in 1994, he’s focused heavily on representing transactions for developments of former industrial land sites, many of which are contaminated. In 1999, he managed the sale of a 100-acre parcel in Valencia to a New Mexico cleanup firm. The land is now earmarked for a 2.5 million-square-foot mixed-use development including 3,000 homes. “I like what I do because I get to see the transformation of a development site through the cleanup process and into the development stage,” Barsamian said. W. Jay Borzi Principal Secured Capital Corp. Over the last several years, Jay Borzi and his partner, Stephen Silk, have been involved in more than one multi-million-dollar deal. But the one that grabbed attention for them in the San Fernando Valley this year was the sale of The Trillium on Canoga Avenue in Woodland Hills. Borzi and Silk represented both the seller and buyer in the $134 million, 655,000-square-foot, five-building deal. That, along with the sale of 801 N. Brand Ave. in Glendale among others, accounted for more than 1 million square feet of San Fernando Valley office space the two negotiated sales of in 2001. Borzi, with Secured Capital Corp. since April 2000, previously spent 16 years with Cushman & Wakefield. Tom Dwyer First vice president CB Richard Ellis Because he works in the same part of the Conejo Valley he’s lived in for decades, Tom Dwyer, who handles leases and sales of commercial and research and development space in the area, said he brings more to the table than your average broker. “I grew up in the Conejo Valley, so I’m able to work in my own back yard,” he said. “And I bring my specialty knowledge of commercial transactions and my personal relationships with our clients into the mix, which gives me a deeper understanding of their needs.” Dwyer represented buyers and sellers in investment property deals worth roughly $36 million in 2001. Barbara L. Emmons Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis After 13 years with CB Richard Ellis, Barbara Emmons knows a thing or two about the Valley industrial and office markets. For starters, she’s only one of a small group of women in that end of the business. And, because she deals primarily with office park leases and sales, she represents a market that, she says, presents some interesting challenges. “I think the hardest thing in the Valley is it’s such a mixed market,” said Emmons. “There’s not a lot of class-A product. It’s kind of a scrappier market. We don’t have a lot of institutional quality real estate. You’re dealing with a lot of different owners versus large owners, so you have to be a little more creative at finding clients and working with a lot of different people.” Emmons recently negotiated a 5-year lease at Cascade Business Park on Sherman Road, representing roughly $2 million worth of business. Paul Farry Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis Paul Farry began his career with CB Richard Ellis in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1984, where he launched the first two industrial bases for black entrepreneurs during the early days of the dismantling of apartheid. Today, Farry focuses on strategic planning for developers’ projects in the West Valley. He recently secured a 10-year, $11.5 million lease in Camarillo for New Focus. Thomas A. Festa Senior vice president Grubb & Ellis Co. For Thomas A. Festa, on Grubb & Ellis Co.’s list of top 10 producers in the L.A. region for the past four years, real estate is just a matter of being prepared. Since joining Grubb in 1996, the 20-plus-year real estate veteran has developed a prestigious client list and a reputation for guiding owners in complex sales and leasing transactions for office and R & D; projects. In the past two years, Festa has leased or sold over 1 million square feet of office space, including the 327,000-square-foot Westlake North Business Park as the exclusive leasing agent for CalPERS. In 2001, Festa represented CalPERS and the Westlake North developer, Investment Development Services, in selling the first phase of the project for $27.1 million. He also represented Pacific Realty Group in the sale of Thousand Oaks Financial Plaza, a $13.9 million deal. Said Sam Monempour, who has partnered with Festa, “He comes up with deals that you would never think of, and he puts two and two together very quickly.” Brian S. Forster Executive Vice President TOLD Partners Inc. Brian S. Forster’s voice mail message says he is not available because he is out closing deals. There was no arguing with that excuse in 2001. Forster, in real estate for more than a decade, leased a total of 366,073 square feet and sold a total of 238,527 square feet of office space in the greater San Fernando Valley region last year. Among the most notable of those transactions: Forster represented Duesenberg Investment Co. in the acquisition of a 115,720-square-foot office building, Westlake Plaza Centre I, for $22 million, and the purchase of a 41,307-square-foot office building at 200 N. Westlake Blvd. for $9.5 million. Forster also represented J.D. Power and Associates in leasing a 133,000-square-foot office building in Westlake Village and Meridian Health Care Management Inc. in its lease of an 80,000-square-foot Warner Center building, an eight-year deal valued at more than $17 million. Nick Gregg First vice president CB Richard Ellis Many of the older industrial facilities along the 101 Corridor all the way through Camarillo are being replaced with newer industrial and commercial developments. And that’s exactly where Nick Gregg, a 17-year CB Richard Ellis veteran, has focused his efforts recently, handling leasing and sales for existing and build-to-suit space. “I’ve enjoyed representing companies in leasing and purchasing industrial and office real estate in the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County,” Gregg said, “and I think now is an excellent opportunity for companies to acquire corporate real estate and lock in attractive facilities costs.” In one of the most substantial deals he was involved in last year, Gregg represented the seller of a 66,000-square-foot facility at Westlake City Center to a large insurance firm. Bill Inglis Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis Anyone looking for a little history on leasing activity at Warner Center since its construction in the late 1970s might want to start with Bill Inglis. Inglis, a Woodland Hills resident, was the original broker on the project. After seven years overseeing leasing activity for Warner Center, he left to handle leasing and sales for other markets in the Valley. However, Inglis returned to his old post as director of leasing back at Warner Center in January. “Who says you can’t go home again?” quipped Inglis, who will mark his 30th anniversary with CB Richard Ellis next month. Chris Jackson Senior associate Grubb & Ellis Co. Chris Jackson is the rookie member on his team, but you might not know that from the results he’s attained. Since he joined Grubb & Ellis in 1998 after graduating from Woodbury University with a business degree, Jackson has worked in real estate sales and leasing and last year, he won top rankings in each of those categories. In 2001, Jackson landed in the number three position for top producing industrial leasing brokers in the Santa Clarita Valley for a six-year, 39,000-square-foot deal he negotiated on behalf of apparel maker Coogi Australia in Valencia. He also won the number two spot as a top producing broker for industrial sales in the Santa Clarita Valley for his work representing Earle Properties in the sale of a 90,000-square-foot industrial building in Valencia. James F. Lindvall Senior vice president Grubb & Ellis Co. Name a blue chip tenant of the San Fernando Valley or its environs and James F. Lindvall has likely had a hand in the company’s real estate transaction. The senior vice president began his career with Grubb & Ellis Co. in 1988, and since then has worked with such clients as Universal Studios, Homestore.com, Dole Foods and Arden Realty, among others. A leasing specialist, Lindvall in 2001 also was a member of the team that helped to sell the 137,762-square-foot Westlake North Business Park building. James Linn Senior vice president Grubb & Ellis His team members call James Linn “the closer.” That gets a self-conscious laugh from Linn, but the 15-year real estate veteran does concede that his experience pays off. “Every deal has a little different nuance,” Linn said. “If you’ve closed 10 deals, you’ve probably learned 10 things. If you’ve closed 100 deals, you’ve probably learned 100 things. Since joining Grubb & Ellis Co. in 1991, Linn has worked with a range of clients, from Investment Development Services to Kraft Foods and Bank of America’s investment development services division. Although he continues to work throughout the San Fernando Valley, Linn now focuses much of his time on the Santa Clarita Valley. In 2001, he represented the seller, Earle Properties, in the sale of a 90,000-square-foot industrial facility in Valencia. Doug Marlow Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis You might say Doug Marlow has a hand in building the Santa Clarita Valley office market from the ground up literally. In 2001, the senior vice president for CB Richard Ellis represented Newhall Land and Farming in office lease deals in the region totaling more than 87,000 square feet, including a 30,000-square-foot lease with Exp@nets, a networked communications provider, and Mercury Insurance Group, which inked a 31,461-square-foot deal. But perhaps more significant for Valencia are the deals Marlow transacted that will result in future tenants. In 2001, Marlow, along with his partner David Solomon, represented Newhall in the sale of 13.8 acres in the Valencia Corporate Center to Specialty Laboratories Inc., a testing services company that will move its corporate headquarters from Santa Monica to a 200,000-square-foot build-to-suit in 2003. He and his partner also transacted a land deal for 60 acres at Rockwell Canyon Road and McBean Parkway, which will house the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Industrial tenants and developers have long sought out the Santa Clarita Valley, creating a 15 million-square-foot market in the region. But the office market, with under 2 million square feet of space in Valencia, has lagged behind by comparison. Marlow, a 13-year veteran of CB, figures that the office market will grow as large as the industrial sector. But, he says, selling land for offices takes a different strategy from your typical office deal. “You’re not dealing with a tangible product,” Marlow said. “What you’re dealing with is a vacant piece of land, so you have to convey the vision to the user, not only the end product, but also the vision of Valencia Gateway.” Sam D. Monempour Senior associate Grubb & Ellis Co. When Sam D. Monempour began working on the sale of Westlake North Business Park, he had the advantage of representing a well-known product in a great location. But that didn’t mean the job was easy. “Anytime you have a project of that size you have to be aggressive, you have to cover the entire market and you just can’t leave any stones unturned,” he said. Monempour, who joined Grubb & Ellis’s internship program three years ago and has worked as a broker for the past two years, has represented tenants including Intel and Prudential Life Insurance. In 2001, his role handling marketing on the sale of Westlake North Business Park’s 137,762-square-foot office building landed Monempour in the number three spot for top producing brokers in the office sales category in the Conejo Valley. Monempour represented the sellers, Investment Development Services, which developed the property, and CalPERS. Craig Peters Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis When Craig Peters began a training program at CB Richard Ellis in 1985, he had no idea it would lead to the formation of one of the first “broker teams” in the industry. Nor did he know that, together, he and partner Doug Sonderegger would represent transactions for one of the largest land developments in the region, brokering industrial deals for Newhall Land and Farming’s Valencia Gateway project. Together, the team represented sales for industrial buildings of more than 900,000 square feet in 2001. Tony Principe Vice president Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services Take a look at the list of deals Westcord Commercial Real Estate’s Tony Principe participated in during 2001 and you get the feeling he follows the old adage, “If you find something you’re good at, stick with it.” And what he’s good at is the Conejo Valley. While Principe is involved in the commercial real estate industry throughout the region, the Conejo Valley and the 101 Corridor all the way to Oxnard is the area he knows best. Principe represented both the landlord and the tenant in the 10-year, $9 million lease of 125,000 square feet in Camarillo to Cardinal Restaurant Supply. He also represented the seller in the $20.4 million sale of 81,000-square-foot Westlake Plaza Center III on Townsgate Road in Westlake Village. Steve Robertson First vice president Daum Commercial Real Estate Services By all accounts, Steve Robertson had a very good year in 2001 with a number of major deals, topped by the $1.4 million sale of a 17,000-square-foot industrial building in Valencia. A resident of the Santa Clarita Valley, Robertson has been with Daum for two years and has previously worked at a number of area real estate firms, including TOLD Partners in Woodland Hills. While much of the Santa Clarita Valley remains undeveloped, Robertson said a slow-growth movement has begun, similar to the one that sprang up in Orange County in the 1980s. “I see growth slowing, but not just yet,” he said. Robertson holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA. Bennett Robinson Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis As a two-time recipient of the CB Dog Soldier Award for excellence in the industry, Bennett Robinson has staked out a firm spot in the Valley industrial market. He’s represented more than 14 million square feet of transactions worth more than $500 million since he came aboard 14 years ago. “I just do what’s right,” said Robinson. “At the end of the day, you just think about the client and do what’s right and everything else comes pretty easy.” Robinson is ranked by CB Richard Ellis as one of its top 50 brokers in the country, and the second highest industrial specialist in Southern California. John A. Sabourin Vice president Colliers Seeley John A. Sabourin said being a team player is important to him. And, after teaming up with Marc Spellman in 1990, the two of them have been responsible for some of the biggest real estate deals in the San Fernando Valley. After graduating from USC with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Sabourin joined the Faulkner Co. where he learned the ropes of the commercial real estate business. He later joined Lee and Associates where he teamed up with Spellman. Although the lease in late 2000 of 296,000 square feet to Health Net was the area’s biggest deal, his lease of a 324,000-squre-foot industrial building in Pacoima a year earlier was a personal best. Madeline Schwartz First vice president CB Richard Ellis Madeline Schwartz got her start in the commercial real estate business at a boutique brokerage house in the Valley 28 years ago. She’s spent the last 20 years at CB Richard Ellis, representing buyers and sellers on transactions for commercial office space, including leases on a 71,255-square-foot development on Calabasas Road in 2001. “I enjoy doing both leasing and sales,” said Schwartz. “I think it’s a good mix. A deal is never made unless both people compromise. It’s been very exciting. “When I started 28 years ago Warner Center wasn’t even built yet, and I feel that I’ve been part of the transformation of the Valley.” Gerald C. Scullin Principal Delphi Business Properties An industrial real estate broker since 1987, Jerry Scullin is in the fortunate position of negotiating leases and sales for nearly 700,000 square feet and calling it an “average year.” “Well, it was average over the last five or six years,” Scullin of Delphi Business Properties said. “I can’t complain.” Scullin was involved with the deal that made the 142,000-square-foot former Applause building on Variel Avenue in Woodland Hills the new home of Optical Communication Products Inc. He said 2002 could end up a good year for him as well – if he can find the properties his clients are looking for. “Purchase opportunities are king right now,” Scullin said, “but there’s very little product out there so far.” Stephen R. Silk Principal Secured Capital Corp. Stephen Silk, along with his partner at Secured Capital Corp., Jay Borzi, clearly appears to be among the winners on the San Fernando Valley commercial real estate scene in 2001. Silk and Borzi negotiated the $134 million sale of The Trillium on Canoga Avenue in Woodland Hills. Silk represented the seller, Commonwealth Partners LLC, and the buyer, Beacon Capital Inc., in the deal for the 655,000-square-foot, five-building complex. Silk joined Secured Capital in April 2000 after 16 years with Cushman & Wakefield. At both firms he has specialized in representing institutional real estate investors. The other substantial Valley deal Silk and Borzi were involved in last year was the sale of 801 N. Brand Ave. in Glendale. Bruce Simpson Partner Delphi Business Properties Bruce Simpson of Delphi Business Properties was the negotiating muscle in 2001 behind a $6.7 million deal that saw Hugo de Castro and William Feldman buy five buildings (87,600 square feet) near Nordhoff Avenue and DeSoto Street in Chatsworth. He represented both the buyer and the seller in the transaction in a style that led him to be named his company’s Broker of the Year in 2001. Simpson focuses much of his energy on the West San Fernando Valley and Conejo Valley, taking credit for more than 375,000 square feet in industrial property sales in 2001, along with more than 300,000 square feet in industrial leases. Michael Slater Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis Specializing in lease and sales of office, high tech and R & D; space, Michael Slater has been named one of CB Richard Ellis’ top producers in the West Valley five times in the last six years. Slater, who has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UCLA, said sincerity and strong ethics have played a key role in his eight-year career with CB. Among his larger transactions in 2001 was a seven-year lease for Guitar Center’s new 69,000-square-foot headquarters in Westlake Village. Slater says, it’s the diversity of the job that keeps things interesting. “Every day is a different day,” he said. “You never know what that next phone call is going to be all about.” Douglas R. Sonderegger Senior vice president CB Richard Ellis Doug Sonderegger likes to think of himself as one of the pioneers of broker partnering, something he said was relatively unheard of 15 years ago when he first met his current partner, Craig Peters, who came to Sonderegger as a trainee. “We were teaming up when teaming up wasn’t cool,” Sonderegger said. Today, he and Peters handle virtually every industrial sale and lease transaction for Santa Clarita’s dominant developer, Newhall Land and Farming, with much of the last decade focused on Newhall’s Valencia Gateway, an 18.5 million-square-foot master-planned center for business, technology and industry. Newhall has tapped Sonderegger as Broker of the Year every year since 1995. Marc Spellman Vice president Colliers Seeley Marc Spellman was planning on a professional football career when he enrolled at Tarkio College in Missouri on an athletic scholarship. Sports on the college level, however, helped him realize commercial real estate might be a more likely calling. Today, the 36-year-old Spellman and his business partner John A. Sabourin are among the area’s top real estate agents. In 2000, the two landed the Valley’s biggest office lease deal when they closed an agreement with Health Net worth about $100 million for 295,786 square feet of office space. Spellman got his start at Lee & Associates in 1988 where he teamed up with Sabourin before both moved on to Colliers Seeley two years ago. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tarkio College. Nigel Stout Associate vice president Grubb & Ellis Co. For Nigel Stout, the key to being an effective real estate broker is matchmaking. “It’s finding the property and then find the owner or user that best fits that,” said Stout, who began his career at the real estate company in 1994 as a research analyst. Of course, the devil is in the details and that, say those who work with him, is where Stout excels. “Nigel is good at figuring out ways to solve the problem,” said Chris Jackson, who worked with Stout on the sale of a 90,000-square-foot Valencia building for $5.7 million. That deal landed Stout in the number two spot for top producing brokers for industrial sales in the Santa Clarita Valley in 2001. Stout, who consistently places in the top 10 for brokers in Grubb & Ellis’s Los Angeles North office and the top 20 for the metropolitan L.A. area, also earned a spot in the Circle of Excellence awarded to the top 10 percent of Grubb & Ellis brokers nationally. Mark Sullivan Executive vice president and branch manager Julien Studley Mark Sullivan joined Julien Studley in 1986 and in his first year was voted rookie of the year. He hasn’t had much time to look back; today he heads the company’s West Coast health care task force and entertainment services group and has been co-branch manager of Studley’s Los Angeles office since 2000. One of the biggest – and most challenging – deals Sullivan got involved in (with teammate Jonathan Wechsler) is the sale of the former Applause building in Woodland Hills to Optical Communication Products. “It was a very challenging request because we had to create an opportunity,” Sullivan said. When none of the properties in the Valley fitted Optical Communication’s needs, Sullivan and Wechsler went out and found what their client wanted – even when it wasn’t on the market. Kevin Tamura Executive vice president Daum Commercial Real Estate Services Kevin Tamura said the current economic climate doesn’t bother him a bit. While some industries are struggling to stay afloat, commercial real estate in the Valley keeps chugging along, said Tamura, who last year was among the area’s top brokers. Thanks to low interest rates and marketable properties, Tamura led his sales office with 196,770 square feet in real estate sales in the Valley last year. Tamura is a graduate of Cal State Northridge where he received a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Ross W. Thomas Principal/Owner Delphi Business Properties To many people, Ross Thomas IS industrial real estate in the San Fernando Valley. Indeed, it seems anybody around the Valley commercial real estate scene for any length of time has almost certainly done business with his company, Delphi Business Properties. Thomas started investing in San Fernando Valley property himself 22 years ago with a 6,000-square-foot facility in North Hollywood. Today, besides the deals he does for others, his personal holdings exceed 650,000 square feet. In 2001, Thomas brokered the sale of a 120,000-square-foot property in Sun Valley to Industrial Holdings and the lease of a 99,000-square-foot property on Woodley Avenue to USA Wireless. As evidence that Thomas has a very high profile way beyond the San Fernando Valley, he was recently installed as president of the American Industrial Real Estate Association. Paulette Toumazos Vice president Daum Commercial Real Estate Services A business graduate of Cal State Northridge, Paulette Toumazos started her work life as a paralegal in a downtown Los Angeles law firm. But when she tackled a project involving small property development, Toumazos knew commercial real estate would be in her future. Today, Toumazos is one of the area’s top commercial real estate brokers, an honor she shares with her partner, Angie Weber. Specializing in space in high-rise office buildings, Toumazos said she particularly enjoys the challenge of putting a deal together. In their biggest transaction of the year, Toumazos and Weber closed a $1.5 million lease in a medical building in West Hills last December. Toumazos has been with Daum for two and a half years. Previously, she was with Wilkins Randle Real Estate in Sherman Oaks. Angie Weber Vice president Daum Commercial Real Estate Services Angie Weber grew up in the real estate business. With a father as a developer, Weber learned the ropes early as she heard his stories about the business and traveled with him to his various development properties. Today, Weber is perfectly comfortable handling multimillion-dollar deals for her institutional clients and the occasional entrepreneur with her partner Paulette Toumazos. She worked at Arden Realty, Beitler Commercial Real Estate and Wilkins Randle Real Estate before joining Daum two and a half years ago. It was at Wilkins Randle that she started the longstanding business partnership with Toumazos. Weber is a USC graduate with a B.A. in communications. Jonathan Wechsler Associate Julien Studley As one part of the team (with his Julien Studley colleague Mark Sullivan) that found Optical Communication Products a building in Woodland Hills when nobody else seemed able to, Wechsler appears clearly to be in his element when it comes to the brokerage business. The truth is, compared to Sullivan who has been with Studley for 16 years, Wechsler is a relative newcomer, having started his career and his tenure with the firm in 1999. Nevertheless, he managed to close deals on 146,000 square feet in the San Fernando Valley last year. What’s his secret? “Practice, practice, practice,” he said. “I have a good feel for the business development aspect of this business.” That’s not all, said Sullivan. “Jonathan came to us with a great deal of experience and from a family of real estate executives,” Sullivan said. Brent Weirick Vice president Colliers Seeley Last year may have been a bad year for the economy in general, but Brent Weirick didn’t notice a thing as he completed some of the biggest deals of his career in 2001. After selling a five-building project in the North San Fernando Valley for $5.5 million, Weirick followed it up with the $7 million sale of an industrial building in Pacoima. The 39-year-old Weirick has been with Colliers Seeley since he became a broker 15 years ago. He is a graduate of the University of Tulsa where he played football and majored in history and real estate.

On Top of the Territory – Valley Commercial Real Estate Scene Brian Forster of TOLD Partners believes knowing the inventory better than many of his competitors is the secret to his success By SHELLY GARCIA Senior Reporter Brian Forster learned everything he knows about real estate from a part-time job at Footlocker. Well, sort of. When he was 15, Forster, now executive vice president and co-owner of TOLD Partners Inc., used to sell circles around the full-timers at Footlocker because he spent most of his time in the stock room and, unlike his more seasoned co-workers, knew the inventory well. So well, in fact, Forster could service a dozen customers while his counterparts were still working with one. So well he once found a pair of shoes in the exact style and size a customer requested when the lights had gone out in the mall and the stockroom was pitch black. “When guys come into real estate I always tell my Footlocker story,” Forster said. “The moral of the story is, when you’re out on the street and canvassing, you know more about what’s happening in the marketplace than you’re ever going to know from what CoStar (the main real estate broker’s data base) tells you. The better you know your inventory, the easier you can make your deals and the quicker you can make your deals.” In 2001, Forster represented tenants and landlords in lease deals totaling 735,664 square feet and in nearly $52 million worth of office sales totaling 238,527 square feet. The 35-year-old real estate broker represented J.D. Power and Associates in a Westlake Village lease for 133,000 square feet of space and Meridian Health Care Management in an 80,000-square-foot deal in Warner Center. But perhaps the transaction that turned the most heads was the sale of three of the best Conejo Valley office properties at prime prices to multi-millionaire John E. Anderson, the highly respected entrepreneur for whom the UCLA School of Management is named. Question: How did you get connected with John Anderson’s firm, Duesenberg Investment Co.? Answer: It was actually John Anderson himself who called. I had a sign out in front of 200 N. Westlake Blvd. for leasing. He said, “I’m interested in buying 200 North Westlake.” I said, “Well, the building is not for sale.” He said, “Your sign is there,” and I said, “It’s for lease.” He said, “Well, what do you have for lease there?” and I said, “Absolutely nothing. It’s fully leased.” He says, “Why do you have your sign up if it’s not for sale or lease?” I said, “It’s for gentlemen like yourself to call me and tell me what you need, and it’s my job to find that.” He said, “I have 55 million bucks and I want to buy three of the top properties, the trophy buildings, in Westlake Village.” Q: The sellers of the Conejo buildings were demanding very high prices. Was it difficult to bring those demands to Anderson, especially considering his reputation as a savvy businessman? A: John wasn’t too concerned about what he was paying for the buildings, other than the fact that he wanted the best locations in Westlake Village. Maybe he overpaid, maybe he didn’t. On a price-per-square-foot basis, I don’t think any other properties out there sold that high. But he’s got the best tenants in the market, and it’s the best location in the market. I might be a successful broker, but John is one of the most successful men in the world, and if he’s buying at astronomical prices he knows something we all don’t. I looked at what he said about the stock market being bad and he needed to reposition some funds and I didn’t question him because of who he is and what he knows and how well he’s done for himself. We went after another property in the marketplace and the sellers tried to (charge more than the property was worth) and John basically said ‘good luck.’ So there is a point where he will say no. Q: How was your business in 2001 compared to 2000? A: I’d almost say a 50-percent increase, and I had a great 2000. In talking to other managers of other local offices, no one will touch me probably in the state as far as what my numbers look like. Even if I did half of that in 2000, I still had a phenomenal 2000. I don’t know if I’ll top what I did last year, but I’ll keep trying. Q: Your numbers are particularly impressive given that you are a much smaller brokerage than some others. How have you managed to compete so well? A: One of the things that I do is I literally surround myself with people I want to do business with. With Arden Realty, I was the first broker they ever hired. I used to do 1,000-foot deals with Dick Ziman. (Since then Arden has gone public and Ziman is now CEO.) With Meridian I started with a 5,000- or 7,000-foot deal seven or eight years ago, and I’ve moved them and helped them grow into this 80,000-foot behemoth tenant. As these tenants grow, they’ve grown with me. Q: You’ve said the deal that really represented a turning point in your career as a broker was the sale of developer Moshe Silagi’s office portfolio in Conejo to Arden. How did that $60 million deal come about? A: I got a call from Richard Ziman, it was 6 o’clock and I was on my way home. He said, “You know, I really want to buy some property in Conejo,” and I said, “All right, let me get back to you.” So instead of going straight home, I made a left turn and went to Moshe Silagi’s office. It was 6 o’clock and no one was in the office except Moshe. He barely knew who I was, and I said, “I want to buy all your buildings.” He said, “I get calls like that all the time from brokers,” and I said, “You don’t know me that well, but I do a lot of business with this real estate company, and I was told by them to come meet with you.” I thought I’d stretch the truth a little bit. The next morning he sent me a fax of all this property, operating expenses, everything. It never got out in the market. Moshe never solicited another broker. Q: Why was that deal so significant? A: It was an extremely complicated deal, and it made me get involved with the operations of the individual buildings, and there were many buildings involved. What I’ve done with some of the money I made, I bought a few buildings, I’ve developed properties, so it’s enabled me to do things and extend my business to not just being a broker. So it’s given me a different perspective than your average broker. Now when I’m sitting across from someone, I’m meeting them eye to eye. Now they want to hear what I have to say, where before I was just a guy who was peddling property. Q: How did you know you wanted to get into real estate when you were in college? A: It was my first year at Northridge, and I knew I wanted to do something in business, and this guy comes up to me and says, “Are you a business major? So am I.” I said, “What are you taking?” He goes, “I don’t know, but I just read Forbes and they said the best business to be in is real estate.” So I said, “It sounds good to me.” I ended up choosing that major because of the conversation I had with that guy. Brian S. Forster Title: Executive vice president and co-owner, TOLD Partners Inc. Age: 35 Education: B.S. in real estate and finance from Cal State Northridge, 1989 Most admired person(s): My father, Richard Ziman and John Anderson Career turning point: Representing Arden Realty and Moshe Silagi Development in the purchase/sale of a $60 million portfolio. Personal: Engaged

The Valley’s 2001 Commercial Real Estate Winners How 2001 Real Estate Award Winners Were Determined With this special report on commercial real estate activity in 2001, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal inaugurates what it anticipates will be an annual ranking of the most active real estate brokers and the most significant transactions in its coverage area. This first listing is limited to office and industrial properties. In coming years, we expect to expand the rankings to include land, multi-housing and retail transactions. All results and rankings are based on information supplied by real estate brokerages. Real estate brokerage offices in the San Fernando Valley region were contacted and asked to supply data on their top performing brokers and on the largest office and industrial transactions they had during 2001. The size of the deal was measured by square footage involved, not the dollar amount. Results were then tabulated to determine the top performing brokers and the largest deals for each of three regions: the San Fernando, Conejo and Santa Clarita valleys. Where two or more brokers were involved in a single transaction, we assigned the total square footage of the deal to each broker. That often resulted in a team of brokers achieving the same ranking. For purposes of defining regions within the coverage area of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, transactions that involve properties in the San Fernando Valley portion of Los Angeles, Agoura Hills, Burbank, Calabasas and Glendale are considered the San Fernando Valley. Transactions involving properties in Camarillo, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village are considered the Conejo Valley. Transactions involving properties in Acton, Canyon Country, Santa Clarita, Newhall, Saugus and Valencia are considered the Santa Clarita Valley. The top brokers are ranked by the total square footage of deals they completed during 2001. In the case of lease activity, leases had to be signed in 2001, regardless of when the tenant moved into the property. In the case of sales, the deal had to close escrow during 2001. To be considered a new office or retail development, the development had to have opened in 2001.

Fulcrum Microsystems Expands With Move to Calabasas Media & Technology by Carlos Martinez After outgrowing its last location, three-month-old startup Fulcrum Microsystems is finally settling into a new home in Calabasas. The company, which received $16 million in startup funding in October from New Enterprise Associates, Worldview Technology Partners and Infinity Capital, moved to a 17,000-square-foot facility from a 12,000-square-foot building in Pasadena last month. “We felt the Valley was really the place where we should be,” said Fulcrum Vice President Mike Zeiler, citing the high concentration of tech firms and the area’s large pool of technical talent. Fulcrum was established in January 2000 by Andrew Lines and Uri Cummings who taught at Caltech. The two sought to develop a new kind of semiconductor based on component speed rather than an internal clock as many in use today, Zeiler said. “Every time a clock ticked, it sent out a signal, so when a component ran at a different speed, the semiconductor still operated on the clock instead of the speed of the component,” Zeiler said. Last year’s venture capital funding compelled the company to look for larger quarters to continue its work. “But we still have deep ties with Caltech and so we hope to continue to draw talent from there just as we have in the past,” Zeiler said. Fulcrum is scheduled to bring its first product to market by the end of 2002. No Satellite Downturn Officials at Camarillo-based California Amplifier Inc. insist they’re not worried about the merger of EchoStar Communications Corp. and DirecTV, their two biggest clients in the satellite component business. “So far we haven’t been impacted, but even after it’s completed, we don’t see a negative impact for us,” said Greg Dare, manager of marketing and communications for the company, which makes components for satellite reception and wireless devices. “We’ve received some positive responses from both companies and we don’t see a change in the immediate future.” The merger would leave just one company to handle satellite-based TV services. About 70 percent of Cal Amp’s sales come from its satellite business, the remainder from its wireless components unit. In 2001, the company reported $5.2 million in net income on $125 million in total sales, compared to a $1.4 million loss on $85.6 million in sales the year before. NBC Defends Programming NBC West Coast President Scott Sassa said the network is unfairly being criticized for its recent decisions to accept liquor ads and to conduct a special stunt using Playboy Playmates for its reality program “Fear Factor” opposite the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Co. last month. Sassa said the network was merely counterprogramming against Fox. “The fact is, we’re just having fun and the beauty of America is that you don’t have to watch it,” he said. Sassa said the network’s decision to carry hard liquor ads was consistent with its goal of presenting advertising that does not offend. He said the ads are strictly regulated and are similar to those independent stations have been carrying for the past six years. At this point, neither ABC, CBS, Fox, WB nor UPN carry hard liquor ads. Sassa said the network was forced to abandon its decades-old ban on such commercials due to compensate for declining ad sales in 2001. In the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2001, NBC’s posted revenues of $1.05 billion was 45 percent less than the $1.89 of revenue for the same quarter of 2000. The network blamed the revenue drop on a sluggish ad market, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a $50 million loss related to the folding of the XFL, a league owned by NBC and the World Wrestling Federation. NBC is a unit of New York-based General Electric Co. Quintek Begins Medical Trials Camarillo-based Quintek Technologies Inc.’s Panamed unit has begun clinical trials of its proprietary line of therapies for treating HIV and AIDS. Chip Parrish, a spokesman for the company, said the first phase of the trials will involve 60 patients in the advanced stages of AIDS, and will take about six months. The company estimates revenue for the therapies could exceed $24 billion over 10 years, once the therapies are approved. Parrish said the company is seeking to expand into new markets and new technologies with its Panamed unit. Quintek formed Panamed in October, after the company obtained the rights to distribute its line of therapeutics for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in emerging countries. The company’s core business, however, is developing software and electronic equipment to preserve digital data. DIC Focuses on Education Despite losing its bid to takeover Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Saturday morning time slot to New York-based 4 Kids Entertainment, DIC Entertainment Inc. is not shut out from the valuable time period after signing a deal with 4 Kids. DIC spokesman Anthony Penman said the Burbank-based cartoon studio will produce a half-hour educational program that will be shown Saturday mornings on Fox. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The program, which is still being developed, will allow Fox affiliates to comply with federal regulations that require TV stations to provide a minimum of three hours of educational programming for children. DIC had been in the running to take over the 8 a.m.-to-noon slot on Saturdays on Fox when 4 Kids signed a deal worth $100 million with the network. Litton Gets Navy Contract Northridge-based Litton Guidance and Control Systems, a unit of Litton Industries Inc., has been awarded a $17.9 million contract with the Navy to upgrade communications equipment on an unspecified number of S-3B Viking aircraft. Under the agreement, the work will begin in the next two months at the company’s Northridge facility and will be completed by April 2004. SunGard Receives Award Calabasas-based SunGard Trading Systems’ Global Trader has been named the Best Risk Management Software by industry trade publication FX Week. Global Trader streamlines product order management and transaction processing for foreign exchange and fixed income. SunGard is a unit of Pennsylvania-based SunGard Data Systems Inc., which processes transactions for more than 50 banks worldwide. Staff reporter Carlos Martinez can be reached at (818) 676-1750 ext. 17 or by e-mail at [email protected]

TDK Profits From Electronic Arts Turndown of ‘Shrek’ By CARLOS MARTINEZ Staff Reporter Coming off its first profitable quarter after three consecutive losing ones, TDK Mediactive Inc. CEO Vincent Bitetti can thank his luck for noticing a picture of something called “Shrek” on a studio wall a couple of years ago. For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the video game maker reported net income of $827,825 on total revenue of $16.5 million, compared to $142,446 in net income on $3.8 million in total revenue in the same quarter a year ago. The revenue jump was mostly due to the popularity of its new “Shrek” video game, said Bitetti, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the unusual circumstances that led to the company’s deal to secure the licensing agreement for the animated movie. “I was at Amblin Entertainment (a unit of Dreamworks LLC) and I saw this picture they had of Shrek and I was immediately interested,” Bitetti said of the October 2000 meeting at the studio. “But they said this other company was looking to do a game.” That other company, Santa Monica-based Electronic Arts Inc. and a major player in the video game industry, had a so-called “first look” right on any DreamWorks gaming project. EA and DreamWorks made the first-look deal in 1998 when the studio got out of the video game business itself by selling DreamWorks Interactive to Electronic Arts. “We expressed our interest and we pursued it. We didn’t wait for them to come to us,” said Bitetti, whose company kept tabs on whether EA would pick up its option on “Shrek.” But once TDK learned EA had passed on “Shrek,” it was quick to pounce on the new property in January 2001. EA officials would not comment, but Bitetti said it was likely a fantasy character like Shrek did not fit neatly with EA’s core business of sports-based video games. TDK felt it would have a good shot at landing and successfully marketing “Shrek” because the game was similar to other children’s games it had developed, Bitetti said, like the dinosaur-laden “Land Before Time” and “Wendy the Good Witch.” TDK was able to secure the contract with Dreamworks and quickly began developing the game for the new Microsoft Corp. Xbox platform that was issued in October. “Shrek” accounted for 70 percent of TDK’s sales in the last quarter of 2001. “We felt from the beginning that we would have an excellent year because of Shrek,” said TDK CFO Martin G. Paravato. Michael G. Gardner, managing director of capital markets for Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc. in Los Angeles, said TDK’s holiday comeback was hardly a surprise given the popularity of the film “Shrek” and the two new game platforms, Xbox and the Nintendo Co.’s GameCube. “Anytime you’re marketing games for new game platforms, it’s going to be a good year,” Gardner said. The company’s momentum could continue through next year as part of a general five-year cycle that follows the launch of new game platforms, he said. “If the company continues to execute and develop new games, they could have an even bigger year,” said Gardner, who would not predict potential sales numbers or a target for the company’s stock, citing a typically unstable gaming market. Traditionally, video game makers can count on sales growth through the first three years after the launch of a new game platform, followed by a steady decline as game buyers hold off on game purchases, waiting for the next new game console to hit the market. Paravato said TDK was also able to capitalize during the holiday season on other licensed games like “Casper the Friendly Ghost” for PlayStation 2; “The Land Before Time” from the movie of the same name for the Xbox; and the company’s first original title, “Lady Sia,” for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. “But it’s too early to tell what we’ll do the rest of the year,” he said. “We just don’t have enough information.” This year, the company is planning to issue 17 more games, compared to 13 in 2001, including an additional “Shrek” game and an “Aquaman” game based on the comic book superhero. In doing so, the company hopes to generate enough interest among analysts to return to Nasdaq, Bitetti said. It was delisted in 1999 and is now traded on the OTC Bulletin Board.

How a Techie Followed the Money to Win Brokers Over Real Estate by Shelly Garcia One of the things that I’ve always liked about covering the real estate scene in the San Fernando Valley is just how easy it is to get brokers to talk about their deals. Deals are, after all, what brokers live for. Which makes Rick Pelz’s accomplishments all the more noteworthy. In January, Pelz, vice president and CIO at Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co., landed on Computerworld magazine’s list of the 100 premier information technology leaders in the country. It is a list that also includes folks like Michael E. Cromar, vice president of e-business and global business process for IBM Global Financing, and Bob Bickel, chief technology officer at Hewlett-Packard Co., all worthy recipients, I’m certain. But their clients know technology, they like it. Heck, they breathe it. When guys like Cromar or Bickel sit down to work with others in their company, they all speak the same language. Pelz, on the other hand, would seem to be a fish out of water in the real estate biz, an engineer in a world of glad-handing, people people in relentless pursuit of their next deal. His job, when he joined Marcus & Millichap in 1998, was easy enough for a techie: set up a centralized, Web-based network that far-flung brokers could use to access listing and sales and marketing tools and send e-mails, among other tasks. But in 1998, brokerage houses were pretty much the insects of the information technology evolutionary chain. (Pelz says it’s still the most sophisticated system in use in the brokerage business, where many companies outsource their computer services.) And unlike his former “clients” at Bank of America Corp. or Pacific Gas & Electric Co., where Pelz set up similar systems, brokers didn’t want to devote a nanosecond to technology. Pelz not only had to get up to speed on how the real estate business works, he had to make the system so seamless brokers would buy in and use it. And he had to do all that while cajoling the brokers into paying attention and offering input and perspective on their needs. “In a brokerage they give you about a minute, and in banking they give you about a day,” Pelz said. What earned Pelz the respect of his broker colleagues along with his recent award was his ability to break through the culture gap to get the broad-based support he needed to build the system, and it didn’t come without a few mistakes. Pelz found he had to start over when his first assumptions that brokers would be willing and able to spend time inputting data and managing their databases turned out to be unrealistic. “I realized the broker makes no money doing that, so you’ve got to get the broker out from behind the desk and into the field,” said Pelz. He also had to find a solution that was attractive enough to get brokers to give up the systems they had been using, systems that, it turned out, were as individual as the brokers themselves. “Every broker had their way of doing a deal, of managing a contact, of doing a listing proposal, of doing a marketing package,” said Pelz. “They don’t like change. The big challenge was to get all of them to migrate to an IT solution that would increase their production.” How did he do that? “Rick’s had to sell his technology as something that will help our brokers make more money,” said Bill Millichap, chairman of the company. “Rick knew that took speed, reliability and the vision to bring us incrementally along.” Yeah, but how did he do that? I asked Pelz. “Keep it simple and make it productive,” he said, an answer that I suspect doesn’t begin to explain the complexity of the process he went through. Medical Facility Leased Up Rolling Oaks Medical Center, a Thousand Oaks facility developed by Amoroso Cos., has been fully leased to six tenants: Kidney Center of Thousand Oaks, Comprehensive Imaging Center, Dr. Melvin Hayashi, Thousand Oaks Dental Center, Southern California Orthopedic Institute and Thousand Oaks Surgical Institute. The 38,000-square-foot medical center is the first of a two-phase development that will also include a 40,000-square-foot hospital. Michael Slater and Tom Dwyer, brokers with CB Richard Ellis, represented Amoroso. Sublease Activity Stirs Some of the growing inventory of sublease space was filled in recent weeks. Axius/Autoshade, a maker of automotive accessories, subleased 126,662 square feet of warehouse space at 700 Science Drive in Moorpark from its former occupant, Aldik Flower. Bob Kahn at CB Richard Ellis represented Axius. CB’s Craig Peters and Doug Sonderegger represented Aldik. eBuilt Inc., a software company based in Irvine, subleased 9,600 square feet of office space in North Hollywood to two tenants. Herzog Productions, an entertainment firm, and Media Temple Inc., a web-hosting company, signed on for the remaining four-year terms at 4640 Lankershim Blvd. The combined transactions are valued at $700,000. Robert D. Erickson, a broker with Cushman & Wakefield, represented eBuilt. Trevor Belden with Lee & Associates represented Herzog and Gil Canton of CB Richard Ellis represented Media Temple Westlake Leases Among the new tenants at Westlake Corporate Centre, an 85,000-square-foot office complex at 2659 Townsgate Road and 875 Westlake Blvd. in Westlake Village are: Cain Technologies, an electronics firm; Eugene Lee, physical therapist; Barbara Freedman, psychologist; Philip Black, attorney at law; Heidi Ellis Buschow, speech therapist; and Nagy Protection Services. Tony Principe and Alisa Barbarino, brokers with Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services, represented the landlord, Johnston Group. Senior reporter Shelly Garcia can be reached at (818) 676-1750, ext. 14, or by e-mail at [email protected].