Iwerks Entertainment Sold to SimEx Inc. Iwerks Entertainment Inc. of Burbank and SimEx Inc. have signed an agreement and plan of merger. The agreement provides that SimEx will acquire Iwerks in exchange for cash, approximately 63 cents per share of Iwerks common stock. The transaction is subject to shareholder approval and other customary closing conditions. If the two companies combine, it is expected that Iwerks will retain its brand name and identity and will continue operations in Burbank under the existing Iwerks management team. Iwerks Entertainment Inc., founded in 1986, provides 8/70 Large Format Theater systems worldwide and ride simulators. SimEx builds turnkey special venue attractions that feature film or digital projection, simulation technology and themed environments. Horizon Bank Begins Stock Offering A new bank to be based in Encino has announced an offering of 700,000 to 800,000 shares of its common stock at $10 per share. Horizon Bank, a recently incorporated independent bank, will concentrate on local business as well as the independent community pharmacy industry. Subscribers will receive one warrant for each five shares of common stock purchased. Martin M. Cooper is chairman of the Horizon Bank board; David M. Breslow is vice chairman; and C. Ellis Porter president and CEO. Other directors of the bank are: Douglas D. Bernards, Larry Cohen, John A. Cronin, Mohammed (Bill) Eletreby, Kirk M. Hayes, Joel Hoffman, Louis Krokover and Albert M. Lapides. Need2Buy Named ‘Best of Web’ Need2Buy Inc. has been named by Forbes magazine as a “Best of the Web” business-to-business company. Need2Buy is profiled in the fall 2001 edition of Forbes ASAP, which features the “most promising” Internet-enabled businesses as selected by the editors. The publication singled out Need2Buy for its collaborative design and supply-chain collaboration solutions. It also cited Need2Buy’s capabilities for enabling electronics manufacturers to manage component inventory and locate hard-to-find parts. Since launching its open online marketplace for the electronics industry in May 1999, Need2Buy has attracted a user base of original-equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers and franchised distributors. Vitesse Warns of Impending Losses Vitesse Semiconductor Corp., which makes chips for fiber-optic networking equipment, said its fiscal fourth-quarter loss will be greater than expected because of continuing slow sales. The Camarillo-based company said it now expects a pro forma loss of 12 cents to 15 cents a share for the quarter ending this month. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial/ First Call had forecast a 9-cent loss. Sales will be $37 million to $40 million, compared with a previous forecast of $50 million. Moorpark Melodrama Sold Thousand Oaks developer Larry Janss has purchased the historic Melodrama Theater in Moorpark, with plans to renovate it and begin showing first-run movies and plays by April. Janss paid $275,000 for the 73-year-old playhouse on High Street and expects to spend $500,000 more on renovations. In the late 1800s, Larry Janss’ great-grandfather, Peter Janss, bought 3,000 acres in what is now the west side of Los Angeles and, in the early part of the last century, his grandfather, Edwin Janss, donated 600 acres to build UCLA. The remaining land became what is now known as Westwood. Larry Janss, president of the Lawrence Janss Co. and chairman of the Gold Coast Performing Arts Assn., produced a series of documentaries in the 1970s, winning an Emmy for “Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang.” He developed Gold Coast Plaza and Janss Village in Thousand Oaks. His family developed the Janss Marketplace. The Melodrama, built in 1928, was owned by Linda and Harvey Bredemann of Moorpark from 1986 to 1999, when it closed after Linda Bredemann filed for bankruptcy. American Commercial Bank, which originally was asking $600,000 for the theater, sold it to Janss. Attack Impacts Entertainment Industry The immediate paralysis caused by last week’s terrorist acts has given way to a flurry of entertainment-related postponements and cancellations that promise to have a negative short-term impact on Hollywood. But the larger question of how the industry emerges from these unprecedented events will depend on consumer behavior in the months ahead. “There’s no particular or unique impact on the entertainment industry beyond what any other industry is dealing with,” said Ron Silverman, managing director of the Los Angeles office of Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. “In the long run, it depends how enthusiastically people will attend entertainment centered venues like amusement parks and theaters where large crowds of people congregate,” he said. The struggling exhibition industry also has much to lose if people stay away out of fear or ambivalence. “The economics of the industry don’t change much unless the consumer is very rattled,” said Lee Westerfield, a broadcast analyst with UBS Warburg. “The financial markets bow but they don’t break with this type of an event.”

Wendy Furth Title: President, Southland Regional Association of Realtors Age: 47 Education: B.A. in English literature, UC Davis; M.A. in screenwriting, UCLA Career-turning point: Getting involved at the state and national levels with the California Association of Realtors Most admired people: Frank Lloyd Wright and Walt Whitman Personal: Married, no children Hobbies: A 32-foot race boat, horseback riding, violin Even to Realtors Association President Wendy Furth, the Strength of the Valley Residential Real Estate Market Defies Explanation Even before last Tuesday’s attack on the World Trade Center, the American economy was in question. Growth in the second quarter, while not exactly at a standstill, managed an increase of a mere two-tenths of 1 percent. Inventory overloads particularly in the telecommunications sector had caused business to come to a near standstill in some regions and industries. And even consumer spending, one of two supposed pillars holding the economy up, was drawn into question when a Consumer Board survey found consumer confidence falling in two consecutive months. That left one pillar standing: residential real estate. Fueled in great part by successive interest rate reductions by the Federal Reserve Bank, home sales have continued to be steady in most parts of the United States. So have median sale prices. According to research by the U.S. Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, after adjustments for inflation, home prices across the country have grown 18 percent in the last four years, the fastest four-year pace since the agency began collecting data in the mid-1970s. Demand has kept those prices high. According to the U.S. Census, the national vacancy rate for owner-occupied homes is 1.7 percent, down from 2.1 percent 10 years ago. If that sounds like good news to anybody thinking of selling a house, it only gets better in the San Fernando Valley. Median home prices nationwide have climbed 6.4 percent over the last year; in the Valley, 11.3 percent. At the end of July, the median price of a home here was $270,500, a historic high. And while total home sales are down throughout California, they are up 16.3 percent over last year in the Valley. What makes the Valley residential real estate market so much hotter than an already hot national market? Business Journal editor Michael Hart asked just that question, and a few others, of Wendy Furth, president of the Southland Regional Association of Realtors. Question: How is the residential real estate business in the San Fernando Valley these days? Answer: We had predicted back in October things would slow down a little bit. With the election and everything, we had a little bit of a slowdown in November through January. In February we weren’t really too sure. But after March hit and April and May and June came around, it’s just been through the roof again. I am having a real problem this year coming up with new headlines every time we get new statistics. Consumer confidence could not be stronger in the real estate product. Properties still have a very short stay on the market. At this point, we have less than two and a half months of inventory. That’s what is stimulating the economy Buyers come to me knowing we’re very possibly at the very height of our market. But we’re seeing what Alan Greenspan is doing with those interest rates. They see what their payments can be and they know they need to buy. Because of tax reasons, it’s still the best investment you can make. They are anxious to buy and with 6-percent interest rates, they’re happy to buy. There’s very little inventory and the interest rates have stimulated the economy. Q: It’s all really that easy? A: No, of course not. I’m telling all of my clients, “Please don’t take out equity lines. Don’t make the mistake we might have made last time.” Let’s learn from our lessons. Let your house appreciate. Let it fluctuate. It’s like your stocks. They go up, they go down, you just forget about it. But with real estate you still get that tax break at the end of the year. Q: What are sales like? A: We keep appreciating between 11 and 12 percent every year, and we’re already there for this year. Our median prices have now hit an all-time high and that scares me. I caution sellers: Let’s not let these prices go to our heads. Let’s not let them go through the roof. Q: What are you afraid could happen? A: I’m afraid that we could overappreciate again like we did in the early ’90s. Obviously, what’s happening with interest rates is making the affordability factor just a little bit easier to swallow. There hadn’t been anything affordable out here, especially when the rates were up in the 9 (percent)s and 10 (percent)s, but as interest rates go down, a first-time buyer can buy. It scares the heck out of me though that what he’s buying is worth a quarter of a million dollars. Q: What happened in the early ’90s that might not be the case now? A: We had a national recession that we had to live through. We were hit hard, as was everybody else in the nation. You take all of California and we were hit just like the Bay Area and Orange County. They now are having a different predicament. They are ending up with so little inventory and their prices are so high that people who want to live where they work are incapable of purchasing. In Silicon Valley and San Francisco proper, there’s absolutely nothing for them to buy and, if they could, they put a bid on a property that’s $1 million and there are eight other offers. All that overbid process is an ugly business. That’s what happened in the San Francisco area and in Orange County. They’ve already plateaued, they’ve gone as far as they can go and it’s a scary spot. Q: What makes the situation so different in the San Fernando Valley? A: The main factor is affordability. This is where people want to purchase homes because they can get so much more for their money. They can get more land, more home. Out here in the Valley we’ve been so desirable for so long because we have areas comparable to the estates of Beverly Hills. We have our Bell Canyons and beautiful properties south of Ventura Boulevard, but you get a lot more for the money. For $3 million you get a lot of acreage, so much more than over the hill. We’re still very affordable. The Valley is a very big place. We have a lot more inventory. That in itself keeps the prices down. Q: What about reports that there is not as much activity at the lower end of the housing market as at the top? A: I don’t know what the factor is, but that is the indication we’ve been looking for that the market is going to slow down. We have a lot more inventory now in that lower end. We have a lot more building going on, for instance, in Sylmar, in that northeastern end and an awful lot more building going on in Santa Clarita. There are more and more people willing to drive up the 5 to Santa Clarita. I expect the market to slow down a bit, but it always tends to slow down traditionally as we get to October and November anyway. I hope that’s true. Q: Why do you want that? A: Because otherwise we end up in a frenzy, a price frenzy. Sometimes the market tends to become very unruly, as is evidenced by what’s going on in Northern California. I’d like to see property values remain calm here. I don’t want to see multiple offers. I want to see one buyer make a bid on a house and I’d rather not see the appreciation continue to be as out of control as it has been. Otherwise, we end up pricing ourselves out of the market. And if we do end up with a slowdown or a recession, which we’ve seen in the stock market, and if there are layoffs, that’s going to affect us.

After last week’s terrorist attack on New York’s World Trade Center, members of the San Fernando Valley’s Middle Eastern business community are cautiously returning to work, still fearing a potential backlash because of their cultural heritage but hoping for the best. Many of the Valley’s Middle Eastern merchants were leery of possible vandalism or other incidents against Arab-Americans due to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, suspected to have been carried out by Islamic terrorists. Art Tosunyan, manager of 1 Hour Discount Photo of Encino on Ventura Boulevard, said business has been slow since the New York disaster early last week. “We have a big Persian clientele and it’s gone. I can’t explain it,” he said, speculating many of his clients would rather stay home. Many Valley Middle Eastern business owners whose shops were largely empty last week refused to comment for this story. Lily Adeli, an Iranian immigrant who owns the French Bakery in Encino, said her customers are slowly returning to her Ventura Boulevard shop. “People want to keep a low profile and I can understand that. It’s a very emotional time for everyone,” she said. “I hope no one does anything to this community. We are all Americans.” Unlike some Middle Eastern groceries near downtown Los Angeles whose storefronts were vandalized last Wednesday, Adeli’s shop and others in the Valley remained untouched by any backlash. Incidentally, Adeli said, her mother was on a plane from Australia to Los Angeles when the attacks took place. “The airline called me up and asked what country she was from, where I lived, what my address was and things like that. It made me very nervous,” Adeli said. The flight eventually landed safely at LAX after the plane’s pilot convinced air traffic controllers the aircraft didn’t have enough fuel to land in Canada, Adeli said. Adeli, like other area business owners, decided to close early Tuesday after the attack on the twin towers. It was an easy decision to make, she said, since there were few people out shopping anyway. Other businesses owned by Arab-Americans, including several restaurants and hair salons along Ventura Boulevard, remained closed Wednesday and Thursday, many with hastily written notes in Arabic taped to their front doors. Meanwhile, Rahim Maltiboor, owner of Prestige Estate Properties in Encino, said he kept his Ventura Boulevard office open all day after the attacks, but admitted that little business came his way as a result. Maltiboor, who is Iranian, said many of his customers and colleagues who are from the Middle East have not experienced a backlash from anyone as a result of the New York attacks, but said most of his colleagues are keeping a low profile. “Like anyone, we’re all very shocked and saddened that anyone would do such an attack. It’s very shocking to anyone,” he said. But none of those interviewed said they planned to reinforce security at their businesses, saying it’s unnecessary. Yahia Abdul Rahman, director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, still fears a backlash against Arab-Americans, but said only some sporadic vandalism had been reported in the Middle Eastern community in the days following the attack. Rahman, whose council oversees 67 Islamic centers in Southern California, said he fears growing anti-Muslim sentiment as efforts to identify suspects in the New York disaster develop. Already, some groups are asking people who wear traditional Islamic attire to remain indoors for the time being. But Farah Dada, who owns Salon Ferferi in Tarzana, said she has no fears. “I’ve never had any problems with anyone. I can’t imagine it,” said the hair salon owner. While business at the shop dropped off on Tuesday, it returned to normal on Wednesday, Dada said, noting that she had a steady string of customers by midday. Jahan Faghihi’s Allstate Insurance Co. office in Tarzana closed early Tuesday, but was open for regular business hours the next day. “There’s a little business, but it’s been quiet,” said Faghihi’s assistant, Brenda Vasquez.

A developer is set to close escrow on the San Fernando Valley Swap Meet and, if all goes according to plan, he intends to move it three miles away and replace it with a big-box retail center sometime in 2003. Randy Roth, owner of Sherman Oaks-based Roth Properties, said he has purchased the 35-acre site at Arroyo Avenue and Glenoaks Boulevard for $28 million. He plans to build an alternate location in Sun Valley for the outdoor marketplace, not far from where roughly 1,000 vendors have gathered thrice weekly to sell their wares baby clothes, power tools, second-hand furniture, herbs, fresh fruits and vegetables for the last three decades. Roth said he has long sought a way to buy the 420,000-square-foot lot in order to attract a retail development that would help revitalize the otherwise mostly industrial area surrounding the swap meet. “This is a very underutilized site and a marketplace that just hasn’t had the opportunity to grow,” said Roth. Roth said he also has purchased a 40-acre swath of land in Sun Valley where he intends to build a new facility for the vendors that will be partially covered with a roof and have air conditioning and permanent restrooms. Escrow could close on that property as early as next month, he said. The restrooms at the current swap meet open Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from dawn until about 2 p.m. are portables. And, save for canvass stall covers and makeshift walls made from ubiquitous blue plastic tarps, there is no protection for the vendors or their customers from inclement weather, including the heat of the brutal north Valley summertime sun. “My family has been in that part of the Valley for years, and I was born here and raised here,” said Roth. “So we are being very proactive. We are 100-percent committed to presenting the city with a project that will not displace the current vendors and offering them a better facility with better services.” San Fernando Mayor Cindy Montanez said the swap meet generates about $500,000 in sales tax revenue annually for the city, which it would lose once the swap meet shuts down. Because it’s privately owned, the city has no real control over what is built there should the land be sold, but Montanez said the city supports Roth’s project because, although a retail center would generate significant revenue for the city, the chief concern is for the vendors. “This is a project that we have to be very careful about,” said Montanez. “We have to make it a very efficient process for both sides and we absolutely cannot move forward with the new project until we know that the vendors are up and running and taken care of. And it’s our understanding that Mr. Roth intends to provide a much higher quality facility for the vendors on the alternate site.” Roth said he could not disclose the exact location of the alternate site because doing so would threaten to stall the project. He did say the new site would be built before the existing swap meet is shut down, disrupting operations as little as possible. “There may be a temporary dip in business, but it shouldn’t be longstanding,” Roth said. Roth also said his plan calls for giving vendors relocation assistance and, although he declined to give details of how it would work, a program designed to help the vendors eventually purchase the swap meet for themselves. “The benefits the vendors are receiving from the relocation far outweigh any temporary setbacks,” said Roth. “I’m reluctant to give out any specifics of the relocation plan because it is fragile and we are working to fit many pieces together, so I don’t want to jeopardize it.” Roth said he intends to hold meetings with the vendors to inform them of the plans but, as of Tuesday, neither the swap meet’s on-site manager, Leticia Calderon, its security director, Bill Moreno, nor the vendors themselves appeared to have any knowledge of the takeover. “We’ve been down this road before,” said Moreno, “but this is the first time we’ve heard about this particular plan.” Roth’s company is also preparing to build a 650,000-square-foot industrial complex on the long-shuttered Brandford Landfill in Arleta, which could spur growth in that portion of a long-neglected part of the Northeast Valley. This is not the first time the swap meet, which typically gets about 2,000 customers through the gates on the days it’s open, has been on the market. In May of 2000, Los Angeles-based Regency Realty Corp. attempted to buy the property from the owners, Richard Dunn and William Hannon (who is now deceased), for a big-box retail project. Word of Regency’s pending project prompted a slew of protests by vendors that coincided with three bomb threats made to the city of San Fernando. Dunn and Hannon initially signed an option with Regency to sell the property, also for $28 million, but when Regency said it was only willing to pay $16.5 million for the parcel, the deal fell through. In addition, the Regency deal included no solid plans to move the swap meet. This time, said Roth, the fate of the vendors is being taken seriously. Jose Lopez, a Lancaster resident who has sold second-hand goods at the swap meet for several years, said he is not opposed to relocation, as long as it’s to a better facility and there is no downtime. “What are you going to do?” Lopez asked. “All we ask for is some time. Time is the biggest factor here.” According to Roth, escrow on the current site is expected to close sometime in late December. He said it will likely be another year before the swap meet is shut down and the vendors are moved. He said he also plans to set up a free shuttle service at the new retail center to offer customers familiar with the current location a way to get to the new one, but also to provide a link between what he envisions as being two shopping/gathering places for the city and its residents. “The thing we are aware of that other (developers) may have forgotten is the fact that this swap meet is a local tradition,” said Roth. “We want to take care of those people who are used to coming to this site, but we also see it as a way to provide the city with a two-pronged retail experience.”

The heightened security restrictions mandated last week by the Federal Aviation Administration are expected to dramatically affect leisure and business travel in and out of Burbank Airport and, to some degree, Van Nuys Airport. Both facilities were shut down immediately following last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. As of Friday, neither Burbank nor Van Nuys had reopened. However, limited flights for emergency services and charter planes were being allowed to take off and land. Because the Van Nuys Airport is a general aviation facility, there are no ticket counters or check-in requirements. Nor are there X-ray screening booths for passengers. But the new restrictions are expected to have a particularly strong impact on those passengers accustomed to the quick and dirty commute in and out of the Burbank Airport, primarily much longer lines at ticket counters and security checkpoints all of which will significantly take away the convenience factor that makes the airport a popular alternative to LAX. The new restrictions include: – Elimination of curbside passenger check-in – Elimination of electronic ticketing – Ban on friends and family beyond security gates – Reduced number of carry-on items – Random ID checks on the ground and in flight – Elimination of front-row parking spaces. According to Victor Gill, spokesman for the Burbank Airport, passengers accustomed to arriving 20 minutes or so before a flight departure may want to start giving themselves closer to an hour or an hour and a half. Carry-on bag limits are expected to drop from two to one per ticketed passenger and, although there will be no more curbside luggage check-in, Gill said skycap service will be available for passengers who need assistance getting their luggage from the street to the check-in counter. “The curbside check-in service is certainly going to be a minus in the convenience department,” said Gill. “It’s one of the time savers that people have grown to count on here at Burbank. But what this all means is that passengers will begin having to get themselves accustomed to a new framework for travel.” Curbside passenger pickup and drop off has not been discontinued. However, drivers can expect longer delays on the airport roadway and greater scrutiny by an enhanced law enforcement presence. Passengers can also expect random security checks at check-in counters, in the terminal waiting areas and even aboard their flights. No one is certain whether the changes are permanent or will ease as time goes by. Many speculate the FAA will be adding to the list additions that, considering the ease with which terrorists managed to board plans on the East Coast, will undoubtedly call for tougher screening and training requirements for airport security personnel. Those workers are said to be among the lowest-paid aviation industry employees, with an average annual turnover rate of as much as 100 percent in some airports across the country. Knives are now banned on airplanes, as are other instruments that could be considered dangerous. And, said Gill, that means travelers will have to think much more carefully about how they pack for a flight, since even a pair of scissors could be construed as a weapon and result in delays. Gill said the heightened measures at Burbank’s two screening gates would slow things down somewhat, but lines should be shorter since family and friends will no longer be able to accompany passengers to their gates or meet incoming flights. Roughly 5 million passengers pass through the Burbank terminal each year. Melanie Jones, spokeswoman for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, one of the five commercial airliners that fly in and out of Burbank, said Thursday the company was still grappling with getting grounded passengers to their destinations as the FAA slowly began to clear flights for takeoff around the country. She said Southwest would be implementing “any new restrictions the FAA demands” but, until they make clear what those demands are concerning security staff, she could not comment on specifics for Burbank, including how many security screeners the airline employs and how many would be added. Burbank City Manger Robert “Bud” Ovrom said the Burbank Police Department sent a six-man “special security detail” team to the airport on the day of the attacks to augment the security presence there. But the city, he said, cannot afford to keep those officers at the airport indefinitely. So, in a rare show of solidarity, the cities of Glendale and Pasadena have offered to send their own detail teams to help fill the gaps. “For the long haul, having those extra police personnel at the airport would be a drain on us,” Ovrom said. The FAA has also required all airports to eliminate the front rows of parking spaces in lots next to terminals and Burbank expects to lose roughly 60 of its short-term parking spaces. However, Gill said, those losses could also be offset by the elimination of visitors to the concourse. The short-term lot has 433 spaces, and there are an additional 140 ground-level spaces for short-term parking outside the main short-term parking structure. The valet parking structure opposite the United Airlines terminal will also lose about 100 spaces over the next few days, Gill said. Passengers, including mid-week travelers who use the short-term lots, are being urged to use remote parking lots A, B and C. Van Nuys Airport, run by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), has been ranked the busiest general aviation airport in the world, with an average of 1,500 takeoffs and landings each day. There are roughly 800 aircraft based at Van Nuys, including 52 helicopters, 128 jets, 27 turbo props and 531 piston aircraft. According to Curt Castagna, president of the Van Nuys Airport Association and owner of Aerolease & Aeroplex Group, which runs several charter companies at the airport, each of the privately owned operators there is in discussions on how to beef up security beyond that already supplied by the 24-hour security team provided by LAWA. “Obviously as a result of what’s happened, we’ve been revisiting our procedures and there may be some more requirements coming as the FAA sets out more guidelines for facilities like ours,” Castagna said.

Dale Surowitz, CEO of the Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, is like many hospital administrators in that he has seen both the industry he works in and his career change drastically over the last several years. As the head of a medical center with nearly 400 beds, 1,350 employees and about 1,200 physicians who refer patients to two facilities, Surowitz has several metaphorical plates spinning at any given time. That was especially true when nurses at his hospitals went out on strike three years ago. Surowitz spoke to Business Journal editor Michael Hart about what he learned from that experience, the challenges that come with being a manager in the health care industry and the differences in that industry since “the good old days” when a hospital administrator’s most important job was keeping the physicians who use his hospital happy. “I feel like I never had the good old days. The challenge now is that you have a lot more constituencies and a lot more pressures. “When we had our action here, we had four threatened nurses strikes and two that occurred, one for three days and one for four. That was in 1998 and we came out just fine. “The key thing is that you can’t overcommunicate. You need to make it clear what your objectives are. You have to mean what you say. And when you say that’s all you can do, it better be all you can do because otherwise you diminish your credibility. “You’ve got to be relatively quick and decisive. And I learned that fear of the unknown is worse than the actuality. You find ways to get through it. “The net result is that we settled the strike. You don’t win or lose a strike, you endure it and move forward. “You’ve got to balance all the different constituencies, not the least of which is the community. You’ve got corporate pressure, of course. Patient satisfaction is now important. And you have to manage from a cost basis. You need to work collaboratively with employees and you’ve got to make sure you’ve got a good cadre of doctors. “We’ve just got a lot more people involved now. “In a hospital, you’re not producing a product. These are not manufacturing issues, they’re people issues.”

The phones at security firms in the San Fernando Valley began ringing almost immediately after Tuesday’s devastating terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Calls tripled at SOS Survival Products, a supplier of disaster relief and emergency preparedness training services, said Jeff Edelstein, president of the Van Nuys company. And current clients came in to update equipment, some of which dated back to the Northridge Earthquake. “People are a little hysterical,” said Muky Cohen, co-owner of The Chameleon Group Inc., a security and investigations firm in Canoga Park. “They don’t know exactly what to do, and the first thing they’re trying to do is upgrade their security systems.” Callers to the Building Owners and Managers Association in Los Angeles heard a recorded announcement advising them to close their buildings. By 10 a.m. the day of the attack, some 60 buildings throughout the city had been evacuated. But short of shutting down, those seeking ways to build a safe harbor against the onslaught of images from New York received few reassurances. Security measures instituted at the trade center since the bombing in 1993 rendered the building virtually impenetrable. In a sense, orchestrating the horrific collisions by air was the only way to get at the structure, experts said. “What happened (at the World Trade Center), unless you’re going to throw some sort of missile defense shield up, that wasn’t a breach of security,” said Jim McNulty, executive vice president of Pinkerton, an international security firm based in Calabasas. “That place has one of the greatest security programs in the world.” U.S. companies are expected to spend $35.5 billion on security programs and equipment annually by 2003, according to BOMA, a sum McNulty believes gives firms “a pretty good bang for our buck.” Short of evacuation, however, security experts concede that there’s little a company can do to protect against a terrorist. As the attack on the trade center showed, a fanatical group that wants to get at a target will, no matter the security system. “So we got it here in the States, and I think it will happen more and more,” said Cohen, a former paratrooper in the Israeli armed forces. “I hope I’m mistaken, but we’re dealing with religious fanatics being promised to be in heaven with 20 virgins, and they have nothing to lose. If you catch somebody like that and you execute him, it’s a reward for him. So it’s very hard to deal with him.” The good news is, it is not likely that terrorists of that sort would set their sites on Valley businesses or buildings. Their targets are typically high profile landmarks and economic nerve centers. But, security experts say, that doesn’t mean the Valley is safe from all threats. “There are no significant landmarks, but there are defense contractors,” said Jeff Winter, branch manager for Pinkerton. The Valley also is home to other typical terrorist targets: large, luxury high-rise buildings and religious institutions. “If you look at it from the Valley perspective versus downtown L.A., yes, the Valley would not be high up there in the targeting aspect,” said Gregory A. Duncan, president of Duncan Security Consultants Inc. “But terrorism is alive and well. Is it an everyday thing someone should be thinking about? Yes. Should they be building it into the company’s security systems? Yes.” Security officials, notoriously tight-lipped about the procedures they use or advise lest such intelligence falls on the wrong ears, nevertheless point out that most companies can take some steps to reduce risks and protect the safety of employees. “The terms we coin in the intelligence world are being a soft or a hard target,” said Duncan. “Hard being hard to get to, soft meaning soft. You build parameters around that.” Unlike earthquake preparedness, which revolves around what to do once an earthquake strikes, security experts say companies can take steps to minimize the threat of a terrorist strike before it happens. “As a precursor, you should take certain heightened measures to close entrances, to control packages and people entering the premises,” said H.D. “Doug” Bryant, Pinkerton area vice president for Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Experts suggest companies and buildings review and tighten controls for access to underground parking garages and enforce building sign-in procedures. Should disaster strike, the same procedures many buildings have in place for fire or earthquake emergency can be helpful in the event of a violent attack as well. “Actual evacuation is very similar,” said Geoff Craighead, vice president of high-rise services for Pinkerton. “I’m hearing that the loss of life (at the World Trade Center) has been minimized by the actions they took. They had a very good floor warden program to take control of occupants.” Companies have begun reviewing and updating many of these procedures. But while the events of the last week have heightened awareness, and even spurred action, security experts fear the new focus won’t last. For one thing, they point out, truly diligent security procedures would require giving up certain freedoms, even those as small as entering and exiting a building at will. “I think there will be a long and continuing debate over the willingness of Americans to give up personal freedoms over the long haul for the sake of security,” said Bryant. Then too, human nature being what it is, it’s not likely that companies will adhere as strictly to security procedures once the perception of an immediate threat subsides. “Like an earthquake, people tend to make their plans and preparations and their complacency is awakened, but then it’s one of those low-frequency, high-risk situations, and because it doesn’t happen that often, those emergency awareness techniques erode and become less important,’ said Craighead. “And that’s the problem. It’s a low-frequency, high-risk situation and those are the ones that cause the most danger and harm. Because when they eventually do happen, you’re not prepared.”

“We’re like newspapermen, only we sing about what’s going on instead of writing about it.” John Lennon, 1972 Imagine making a film about one of your heroes and his struggles against the excesses of the U.S. government; a story set against the backdrop of an unpopular war, a divided nation, and an embattled president with sagging approval ratings. David Leaf and John Scheinfeld did just that and without taking their story from current headlines. Instead, the pair reached back more than 30 years to a time of campus protests, street marches and when having “ex-Beatle” in front of your name drew instant attention. Then imagine that film receiving nationwide release, a first for LSL Productions, Inc., based in Studio City. And imagine further, the film coming at a time when the commercial appeal of feature length documentaries is at an all time high. “We are part of a wave of acceptance of a legitimate art form that can also be a successful business,” Leaf said. “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” hits the Los Angeles and New York City markets Sept. 15. Wider distribution comes Sept. 29, three days after the release of the 21-song soundtrack. Released by Lionsgate Films and made in conjunction with VH-1 Rock Docs, the film is part of progression for Leaf and Scheinfeld whose past projects delved into the careers of their heroes of stage and screen. The pair primarily made their documentaries for television. Not until 2004’s Grammy nominated “Beautiful Dreamer” about Brian Wilson and the “Smile” album did they approach a project like a feature film. They screened their next collaboration “Who is Harry Nilsson and Why is Everybody Talking About Him” at film festivals only, including one in late August that packed a theater in Santa Monica. The pair hope to piggyback the success of the Lennon film into a distribution deal for the Nilsson film if even for a limited theatrical run. While documentaries have always been in big demand for television, Scheinfeld said, that wasn’t the case for movie theaters. In 2004, a portly ideologue from Flint, Mich., changed that. Both Leaf and Scheinfeld reference the success of Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9-11,” also released by Lionsgate, as evidence feature length documentaries have a broad appeal. Last year’s surprise hit “March of the Penguins” and this summer’s global warning treatise “An Inconvenient Truth” showed that Moore’s success was not just a fluke. Brandon Gray, president and publisher of Box Office Mojo, a Burbank firm that tracks box office receipts, said there is a renaissance in feature length documentary films. With “Lennon” having a significant distributor and an aggressive marketing campaign it should do solid numbers at least by documentary standards at the box office, Gray said. “This documentary is political and the political documentaries that have pushed the right buttons have done exceedingly well,” Gray said. In its marketing campaign Lionsgate focuses on the political angle, launching a website called “The Grudge Report” and promoting the film in certain cities by dusting off the “War is Over” billboard campaign Lennon and wife Yoko Ono did in 1969. But Leaf pointed out the film is not about his and Scheinfeld’s politics or the current political climate in the U.S. “It’s about a great artist and what happens when he uses his art and steps into the world of politics,” Leaf said. Separately, Leaf and Scheinfeld said they wanted to get a “visceral” reaction from the audience, a sock in the gut from images and narration of a time when an insecure Richard Nixon so feared the influence the bespectacled Liverpudlian had over American youth his administration resorted to wiretapping, surveillance and deportation proceedings. Screenings of “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” for test audiences and the press have been positive, the pair said, with some viewers leaving inspired while others come out angry. “The younger people say ‘Where is our John Lennon,'” Leaf said. “The baby boomers say ‘Where’s John Lennon now that we need him.’ Their point is the same. People are walking out of the theater bowled over at being reminded why John Lennon was such an important figure in his lifetime and why he should remain an iconic figure today.” Fab Photos Before blending his music with politics, in the heady days of Beatlemania, John Lennon ran a comb through the hair of Herb Bleiweiss, art director of McCall’s magazine, when Bleiweiss visited the Fab Four in the Bahamas during the filming of their second movie. A photograph of that moment is among the never-before-seen pictures published in the September/October issue of Calabasas magazine, whose publisher is Bleiweiss’s son, Richard. Richard Bleiweiss was reminded of the photos taken by his father as he assembled the Hollywood Fashion issue of the high-end lifestyle magazine, communicating online with his father down in Florida about his experiences of spending time with The Beatles. Unfortunately, Herb Bleiweiss didn’t get to see the pictures run in the magazine. He died in July following a car accident. “There’s a large hole in my heart right now, but I will always have the fondest memories of the last weeks we spent working together,” Richard Bleiweiss writes in the publisher’s note of the issue. Sada Launches ZEROi A framed poster of The Beatles hangs in the kitchen area of Sada Systems, a holdover from the days when the one-story building in North Hollywood was a recording studio and Sada President Tony Safoian’s office was the control room. Instead of creating music from the warren of rooms, Safoian and his crew took the next step with managed systems, conceiving and implementing for small- and medium-sized businesses a virtual desktop called ZEROi. The philosophy of the Sada Systems, formed six years ago, is why should companies not in the information technology field develop an expertise in information technology? With companies outsourcing payroll operations, legal counsel, accounting services, why shouldn’t they do the same with their technology needs? So was ZEROi born, an Internet-based system where employees log onto a remote server to access their desktop and the applications needed for their day-to-day work. With ZEROi there’s no capital expense, no spending thousands of dollars on computer equipment, setting aside separate space for servers, and no on-site personnel to manage and maintain the system, Safoian said. What a business does need is a reliable high-speed Internet connection. Sada Systems has devised a way to bind two different types of connections together so there is a backup in the event one connection gets cut. “We’re excited to be ahead of the curve,” Safoian said. “We’re leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else doing this now.” Staff Reporter Mark R. Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or at [email protected].

Merchants are blaming city council shifts and funding delays at City Hall for a proposed business improvement district in North Hollywood that is a year behind schedule. The business district, originally expected to be up and running last January, may not see the light of day until December or January 2002 at the earliest, said Ken Banks, executive director of the North Hollywood Community Forum, a group that procures grants and administers those funds for community projects. “Things just got bogged down after (Los Angeles City Council President John) Ferraro died and then (Councilman Joel) Wachs left, so there was a void where nothing was being done,” Banks said. Ferraro died last April and Wachs announced in May that he would be moving to New York to work for a non-profit organization. A replacement for Ferraro has not been elected and, while Wachs has not yet resigned his office, he has spent much of his time recently preparing for his move. “We didn’t anticipate it would be this slow,” said Banks, who is coordinating development of the district. Joe Hooven, president of the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said business owners have grown weary and skeptical of the process. “People here are basically tired of waiting,” Hooven said. “They want some action and nothing is happening.” Brian Sheehan, owner of the Eclectic Caf & #233; on Lankershim Boulevard, said he doesn’t know when the district will become a reality. “After the MTA finished (subway construction), the big boom for business never happened. We need something to get things started,” he said. Banks said he at one time believed the business improvement district would be up and running this month, but because district organizers have had little or no response to requests from what is left of the offices of Wachs and Ferraro, little progress has been made in recent months. Dale Thrush, Wachs’ planning deputy, denied there had been any delays and said efforts to establish the district are progressing well. “The startup money was allocated in early June and they are proceeding accordingly,” Thrush said. “Everyone wants things done quickly, but it takes to time to draft motions, have them go through committee and then go back to council.” While the city council may have authorized $500,000 in startup funding for the North Hollywood business district, organizers have yet to see a cent of it. A city council vote was first scheduled on the North Hollywood district in March 2000. However, it wasn’t until eight months later, in October, that the council actually approved $2 million for the project. An initial $500,000 was to be released once the city signed a contract with the North Hollywood Community Forum to manage the district. After details of the contract were worked out in January, Banks asked Wachs’ office to write a motion asking the council to approve it and release the money. The motion to authorize the funding was drafted in April and got council approval in June. However, the money cannot be released and the district cannot begin work until the council also approves the contract with the North Hollywood Community Forum, an item that has yet to be placed on a city council agenda. Susan Levi, executive director of the Sherman Oaks Business Improvement District, said delays in establishing districts are common. “We were able to get started six months after we submitted our proposal, so it’s a matter of how much help a council office is and how well organized the BID proponents are,” she said. “There are some BIDs that took three years. You just never know when you’re dealing with City Hall.” According to the city process, those who want to create a BID must first get city council approval and then the approval of those business owners that would be affected. Banks said business owners in the area are expected to vote sometime this fall. Funding, all of which must still be distributed, would come from state transportation and beautification funds approved by voters in the mid-1990s. The new district would encompass a mile-long segment of Lankershim Boulevard between the Ventura Freeway and Burbank Boulevard, three-fourths of it in Ferraro’s former district and the northern portion in Wachs’. The business improvement district would charge each property owner a fee for membership, thus pooling resources to pay for services to help local businesses. Similar business districts fund sidewalk maintenance, landscaping improvements, additional parking and special events to attract shoppers. Merchants would also be eligible to receive funding for facade improvements or, in some cases, interior remodeling. Banks says that until the contract and a spending plan by his office are approved, the district remains in limbo. Thrush said the proposed district is in response to concerns by local merchants about the impact of a three-year subway construction project that closed sidewalks and traffic lanes, driving many customers away from local shops. Merchants say that, if the area is marketed properly, the nearby Red Line station would make it an ideal place for commuters to eat and shop. “Our next step is to do the study where we’ll determine the assessments and how much money we’ll need,” Banks said. In nearby Studio City, for instance, a business improvement district charges property owners about $1,200 a year, on a sliding scale based on building size. Since an initial feasibility study has not yet been done, it is impossible to predict what kind of fees a North Hollywood district would involve. If and when city council approval is obtained, property owners within the district would elect a board of directors, officially signaling its legitimacy. “There are a lot of things that we still have to hash out, like what promotions we’ll do first, but we want to start with an advertising campaign promoting the district,” he said. Levi said marketing must be a focus of the new district. “They have to show the community that they have a lot of things to offer,” she said. Thrush, who helped Wachs with the project from its inception, said business districts all over Los Angeles are subject to criticism.

Tony Lucente Title: President, Studio City Residents Association Age: 46 Education: B.A. in political science, Wittenberg University, Ohio Career-turning point: Talking an executive into making him a manager at the age of 25 Personal: Single, no children Tony Lucente of the Studio City Residents Association is a fan of neighborhood councils in a Valley that views them with suspicion Recently named to the board of directors of the new Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, 46-year-old Tony Lucente has become a point man for the Valley’s controversial neighborhood council movement. Approved by voters in 1999, neighborhood councils are intended to act as the lowest rung of representative government in the city. Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Association, says the councils have been slow in getting started but will ultimately prove pivotal in improving the quality of life in local communities by placing citizens closer to city government. Others see the neighborhood councils as little more than failed attempts to slow the momentum of a Valley secession drive. The Dayton, Ohio native isn’t new to community activism. In fact, the director of internal corporate communications for Nissan North America has been active in local issues for the past 14 years. Lucente took a high profile in an effort to resolve a noise dispute between residents and a controversial nightclub on Ventura Boulevard in 1996, culminating in Club Aftershock’s closing last year. He was instrumental in the establishment of the popular Studio City Farmers Market in 1999 and was a leader in the campaign for charter reform two years ago. Lucente is a member of the L.A. County Citizens Economy and Efficiency Commission, state Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg’s Business Advisory Commission, and the city’s Ventura Boulevard/Cahuenga Boulevard Specific Plan Review Board. In 1999, Lucente ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Charter Commission. Lucente spoke with Business Journal reporter Carlos Martinez about neighborhood councils, the secession movement, the Studio City Residents Association and his political aspirations. Question: Why are you so interested in seeing neighborhood councils succeed? Answer: I was a candidate for the L.A. Charter Reform Commission. I didn’t win but I’ve been active for charter reform, so I guess the mayor (Richard Riordan) thought that I would be a good candidate to be on this board. I certainly had views that I’ve developed over the years based on my experience on the community level and he thought that it would make a good fit. Q: There are conflicting opinions about the ultimate value of these councils. Are you prepared to deal with the criticism? A: There’s been a wide response, depending on what community you’re looking at. People are skeptical and they don’t know what the councils will be like. There were concerns because of the lack of specificity about the role of neighborhood councils, but we now have a clear idea of what we have to do. Q: What will your role on the commission be? A: I’ll be looking specifically at how these neighborhood councils are progressing and make sure that they get off the ground. Our role will be especially important as the very first neighborhood councils are formed. No one knows how many neighborhood councils there will be or how quickly they will come up to speed. Q: What is the benefit of these neighborhood councils? A: They establish a real opportunity for strengthening the community’s voice in city government that didn’t exist before. Certain communities like Studio City have strong residents groups and we’ve had a good relationship with business, but that’s not the norm by any means. This provides an opportunity that previously did not exist. Q: Given the interest in secession and suspicion about neighborhood councils, how can they ever be effective in Valley communities? A: It’s all part of the evolution of how people view city government. The question of secession will be raised in these councils possibly, but it will not be decided solely on the neighborhood councils. The bottom line is that people want to be heard by city government and that gives them the opportunity. If they support secession, that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean they’ll stop participating in the process. The area planning commissions were established as part of the new charter and they replaced the one big planning commission. It shows that neighborhood councils can work. I’ve seen a huge difference in how people engage in the planning process. We meet in the evenings and broaden participation and both developers and residents come up to me after the meetings and say, “We feel we got a fair shot at this thing and that we got a fair hearing.” Neighborhood councils provide the same service; it’s another mechanism in how they can improve city government. Q: What are some of the issues the councils could undertake? A: It could be several things and not just land use issues, but a wide range of issues, like crime and safety and all kinds of stuff. Things like organizing events in Studio City like the farmers market and the holiday parade. The councils are designed to be all-inclusive for both residents and merchants, and business plays an important role in shaping any community. Neighborhood councils will serve as an early warning where people will learn about projects. So while people have expressed concern that it’s going to provide less certainty and an added layer of bureaucracy, I’m comfortable that people will be involved in the process. Q: Your name occasionally comes up when elections roll around. What are your political aspirations? A: It’s no secret that I would like to serve the public in some capacity. But the timing has always been the problem, most recently for Council District 2, for Joel Wachs’ seat. I looked at the opportunity, but I felt that I’m most effective as a volunteer. Right now, I’m not seeking elective office, but it doesn’t mean I won’t in the future. I didn’t feel I was ready to put everything aside to run for Wachs’ seat, but I’m happy to remain a community advocate. Q: A hot issue in Studio City these days is the proposed senior housing complex at the site of the Studio City Golf and Tennis Club. What’s your take on that? A: It’s the wrong place for this project. We’re in desperate need of open space it’s been proven again and again and we just feel that this would be the wrong thing in this community. Our efforts are all directed toward maintaining it as a public space and purchase the property somehow, if that’s what it takes. We have overwhelming support from the community and from elected officials, and that’s because this facility now serves a wide segment of the community. It’s one of the few places where people can enjoy open space in Studio City. I’ve characterized this as a “chain yourself to the bulldozer project” and I’m serious about that. Q: In the past, you’ve characterized the Studio City Residents Association as different from many neighborhood groups because of its close links to the local business community. Why is that important? A: A thriving business community helps support a thriving residential community, and vice versa. I really believe that. It helps to have relationships that cross all boundaries and have partnerships of all kinds that are effective. I’ve decided to operate the residents association like a business and get results. You only get results when you form partnerships and get collaboration instead of confrontation. But sometimes you have to confront business and it does get results. We want to work with business. When CBS Studio Center wanted to expand, we wanted to make sure that it could be done without impacting the surrounding residential community. A lot of our members work in the entertainment industry and they understood what CBS wanted to do but they also share a sense of respect for the neighborhood. So CBS ultimately shared our vision and we all realized that we were all shooting for the same thing. Q: How did you get involved in the residents association? A: It was Thanksgiving Day in 1987 and there was a developer that wanted to circumvent some city oversight. They decided to bulldoze some houses and the neighborhood went ballistic. So out of curiosity, I went to this meeting and they said they would help us in the neighborhood to organize. A couple of years later I was president.