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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

AROUND THE VALLEYS

San Fernando Valley ENCINO Real estate firm SK Management Co. has divested two of its core lines of business. The commercial property management firm has sold its apartment management business to affiliates of WinnCompanies in Boston, and its homeowners association management business to Partners Community Management in Pasadena. The company did not disclose financial terms of either deal. SK President Bruce Steinbaum said in a statement he is “extremely pleased” with the transactions, which were made as part of the company’s succession planning process. Financial advisory firm Calabasas Capital advised SK Management on both transactions. RESEDA The Los Angeles City Council has approved plans for a residential development that will add 27 units to the housing inventory in Reseda, according to city records. The proposed four-story multifamily project would be built across two parcels at 6834-6840 N. Baird Ave., replacing a pair of existing buildings. Designed by architect Richard Welsh, the complex will accommodate 44 vehicles in its parking. Four of the units are being earmarked for low-income households. Bell Canyon-based LBMP Baird LLC is the developer while the site is owned by SIUL Holding Trust. UNIVERSAL CITY NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service officially rolled out nationwide July 15 following a limited-access period that started April 15 for some customers of parent company Comcast Corp. The Universal City-based service offers a free ad-supported option as well as premium tiers. Subscribers to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex products and Cox’s Contour app will have free access to Premium Peacock. Combined, Comcast and Cox subscribers give Peacock a total of 24 million potential viewers. Peacock’s free tier offers more than 7,500 hours of programming, and the premium tier provides more than 15,000 hours for $4.99 a month. Both of those tiers are ad-supported. The service is launching with nine new series, including the Peacock original “Brave New World” and the BBC drama “The Capture.” Peacock said only a “sampling” of the new shows will be available on the free tier. WINNETKA Grocery Outlet Bargain Market has opened a new location at 19718 Sherman Way in Winnetka. The store has created about 25 jobs, according to the company. Grocery Outlet, based in Emeryville, operates by purchasing bulk closeouts and excess inventory from name brand food manufacturers, then selling them to the public for below retail value. With more than 350 locations throughout Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho and Pennsylvania, it is one of the largest budget banners in the grocery industry. It is run by local independent owner-operators Walter Calderon and Martha Campos. WOODLAND HILLS Signature Bank is expanding to Southern California with four new private client banking offices, including one in Warner Center. The New York-based bank has hired Judi Prejean, formerly senior vice president at Bank of the West in Los Angeles, as executive director of West Coast banking operations. Prejean will be based at the Warner Center branch, which expects to open this summer. Other branches are planned for Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Ontario. In all, Signature will hire 45 people as part of the West Coast expansion. National labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips has opened an office in Woodland Hills with Los Angeles Managing Partner Todd Scherwin serving in the same capacity at the new location. The Valley office, located at 21600 Oxnard St., is the firm’s sixth in the state; its other locations are in Irvine, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco. “Our Woodland Hills attorneys are already fully embedded in the Valley’s communities as trusted business advisors and serve as key resources to clients on workplace law issues, so this office is a natural fit for our firm’s growing California footprint,” Scherwin said in a statement. “We are excited to be a part of this community, particularly in the Warner Center as it continues to be a thriving business area and expect to grow Fisher Phillips’ presence in the Valley over the next few years.” L.A. City Council member John Lee announced an expansion of his Small Business Relief Fund into Watts, San Pedro, South L.A., and the west San Fernando Valley. The fund will provide interest-free loans to sole proprietors and small businesses in City Council districts 3, 9, 12 and 15 that have been unable to access government grants and loans. That includes West Valley territories of Woodland Hills, Canoga Park, Reseda, Tarzana and Winnetka. Money from loan repayments will be recycled back into the fund and reissued as loans to other small businesses. To be eligible, businesses must have normal revenues under $1 million and 15 or fewer employees. Applicants must submit proof of 12 months of timely paid rent through March 2020, and must have submitted an Economic Injury Disaster Loan Application to the Small Business Administration. The expanded fund is the result of a partnership between Lee and the organization Change Reaction. The nonprofit’s founders, Greg and Jodi Perlman, donated $1 million to Lee’s office in April to create the Council District 12 Small Business Angel Fund. So far, it has issued about $400,000 in loans to 30 small businesses in Lee’s District 12. Ventura County THOUSAND OAKS Amgen Inc. this month announced an additional investment of $421 million in Chinese biotech Beigene, adjusting its stock ownership to 20.3 percent. The company initially invested $2.7 billion in cash for 20.5 percent ownership of Beigene in October. In a statement, Amgen said its additional investment “reflects Amgen’s confidence in the progress the companies are making in their ongoing oncology collaboration in China,” referring to the companies’ agreement to advance 20 medicines from Amgen’s pipeline. Beigene also agreed to commercialize Amgen drugs Xgeva, Kyprolis and Blincyto in China as part of the collaboration. VENTURA The Ventura County Economic Development Collaborative has launched Business Forward, a website it hopes will serve as a one-stop virtual information hub for local business owners. The collaborative is a private, county-funded nonprofit that provides business consulting, funding and other initiatives to support the region’s economy. It designed Business Forward as a central repository listing the collaborative’s resources and services alongside those offered by Ventura County and its 10 cities, the county’s Workforce Development Board, local chambers of commerce, business associations and incubators. That includes specific resources for women and minority-owned businesses, tax and permit assistance and subsidized employee training. Business Forward went live earlier this month. WESTLAKE VILLAGE Shareholders of ImmunoCellular Therapeutics have voted to implement a reverse stock split at a ratio not less than 1-for-3 and not greater than 1-for-10. The exact ratio will be determined by the company’s board of directors on or before Dec. 31. ImmunoCellular, which had been researching cancer therapies at a location in Calabasas and later Westlake Village, sold its assets for $1 million to an unnamed private biotech company last summer after a fall from grace that involved securities fraud charges, failed research concepts and multiple high-level resignations. ImmunoCellular had curtailed its operations and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in October 2018; its stock now trades on the over-the-counter market. A massive multi-property office portfolio, totaling 256,602 square feet in Westlake Village, has traded for $55 million, according to brokerage Newmark Knight Frank. The portfolio consists of two buildings covering 195,906 square feet located at 2801 and 2815 Townsgate Road; and a two-building, 69,707-square-foot campus found at 100 and 200 N. Westlake Blvd. The seller is Topa Equities, and the buyer Omninet Capital. “The buyer and seller are very sophisticated private family offices, which further validates the narrative that a majority of the sales taking place right now involve noninstitutional investors,” Newmark Knight Frank Executive Managing Director Sean Fulp said in a statement.

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