ANTELOPE VALLEY Palmdale Forest City Realty Trust Inc. plans to sell the Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale as part of a 10-property, $3.2 billion portfolio. Based in Cleveland, Forest City has already sold two malls to Australian retail giant QIC Ltd., including the South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach on Dec 27. Forest City expects QIC will close on another four properties, including the Palmdale mall, in early 2018.The final four malls in the portfolio will close when Forest City secures replacement assets for the cash generated from the divestitures. The Antelope Valley Mall hosts nearly 100 tenants, including JC Penney, Macy’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods. It is located at 1233 Rancho Vista Blvd. QIC entered the U.S. market in 2013 by forming a joint venture with Forest City. CONEJO VALLEY Camarillo CI Jets has added a Dassault Falcon 7X aircraft to its fleet, the first heavy jet for the charter company. The Falcon 7X will be available immediately to take passengers to the Americas, Canada and the Caribbean. Worldwide service will start in 2018. Sarah Oberman Bartush, chief marketing officer and director of business development, said the addition of the Falcon means the firm can provide service for clients looking to fly long distances, such as to Florida or New York. “Once we launch worldwide service, clients will be able to go non-stop to Europe and many other international cities,” Bartush said in a prepared statement. The Falcon 7X uses a digital flight control system that Dassault developed for its military fighter jets that provides more precise handling and reduces workload for the pilot. The aircraft has a wingspan of 85 feet and a range of 5,959 nautical miles.CI Jets is owned by Channel Islands Aviation and offers other aircraft management services in addition to charter flights. Thousand Oaks Amgen Inc. expects to pay between $6 billion and $6.5 billion in taxes as it repatriates money from overseas operations, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Thousand Oaks biotech did not state how much money it planned to move back to the United States, nor did it give a timeline for moving the money. It issued the filing in reference to the “expected impact of U.S. tax reform legislation on the company.” The company said under the new tax law, its U.S. income generally will be taxed at 21 percent, the usual U.S. corporate income tax rate. Money from foreign countries and Puerto Rico generally will be taxed in the U.S. at 10.5 percent by using applicable tax credits. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY Canoga Park US Nuclear Corp. has signed a letter of intent to be the exclusive manufacturer of medical isotope generators for a nuclear medicine company. US Nuclear would make the devices for MIFTEC, owned by Magneto-Inertial Fusion Technologies Inc. in Tustin. As part of the deal, US Nuclear would take a 10 percent ownership in MIFTEC. Currently there are no suppliers for this equipment in the United States. Radioisotopes have a variety of uses in the medical field, including treatment of cancer and in medical imaging. US Nuclear has three subsidiaries – Technical Associates in Canoga Park, which makes radiation detection equipment; Overhoff Technologies in Milford, Ohio, which specializes in tritium detection equipment; and Electronic Control Concepts, also in Milford, which makes voltmeters to check industrial and medical x-ray machines. Glendale A leading stock-monitoring website has put out a list showing DineEquity as the worst-performing restaurant stock of 2017. Seeking Alpha, a website for stock watchers and analysts, said that among all restaurant companies with market capitalizations of at least $300 million, DineEquity’s stock was down 35.5 percent for the year with only a week left. The Glendale restaurant company, which mostly franchises IHOP and Applebee’s restaurants, saw same-restaurant sales decline 2.5 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively, through the first nine months of the year. Julia Stewart, the longtime chief executive and chairwoman, resigned in February amid the dreary numbers. North Hills New Horizons has named John Brauer as chief executive. The North Hills nonprofit, which helps those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said Brauer will guide the organization to expand its facilities and services. Brauer replaces Roschell Ashley, who has held the position of interim chief executive for nearly a year. Brauer joins New Horizons from Union Station Homeless Services in the San Gabriel Valley, where he was chief executive. He previously was chief executive at NW Works Inc., a Virginia nonprofit serving individuals with intellectual and other disabilities. “We are extremely pleased to have an executive of the caliber of John Brauer take the reins of New Horizons,” John Bunzel, chairman at New Horizons, said in a statement. “His experience in nonprofit management, and providing services to those with intellectual disabilities specifically, makes him the perfect person to partner with our board and senior staff in growing New Horizons.” North Hollywood J.H. Snyder Co., an L.A.-based real estate developer, has arranged $68 million in bridge financing from Meridian Capital Group for 5250 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood in anticipation of tenant turnover. The nine-story, 179,000-square-foot Class A office building in the NoHo Arts District is 100 percent occupied by seven tenants, including the Art Institute of California and Kaiser Permanente. The majority of the leases will be up in the next several years, necessitating a flexible loan that will allow J.H. Snyder to continue operating the property on its terms, said Seth Grossman, senior managing director at Meridian. “It was critical to tailor a loan with ample structure to prepare for that roll,” Grossman said in a statement. The increasing strength of the North Hollywood real estate market was a key factor in Snyder’s decision to take out the bridge loan, according to the firm. Snyder purchased the building in 2009. Sylmar Tutor Perini Corp.’s subsidiary WDF Inc. has won a contract with the New York City Housing Authority for the Sandy Recovery Program Restoration at Baruch Houses. The contract will add about $172 million to the Sylmar construction company’s revenue stream. The project includes restoration and infrastructure improvements to the Baruch Housing complex, which consists of 18 buildings on 28.5 acres in Manhattan. The public housing complex’s upgrade will add new roadways, sidewalks and green spaces, as well as new flood elimination systems and improvements to sewer and storm management systems. Architectural improvements include the rehabilitation of building entrances and portions of all buildings damaged in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy. Work on the project will commence in early 2018 and finish by mid-2021. SANTA CLARITA VALLEY Valencia A joint venture company has made a majority investment in Valencia’s Flavor Producers Inc. Flavor Producers makes flavors and extracts for the food and beverage industry, focusing on organic and natural flavors. The buyer is Ceba-Tech Speciality Solutions of St. Louis. Ceba-Tech is a partnership formed early this year between Chicago-based GTCR, a private equity firm, and Charles A. Nicolais, a veteran executive in the specialty chemicals and ingredients industry. Ceba-Tech’s mission is to acquire companies and assets in that field. Flavor Producers will remain independent and keep its three facilities and research and development groups in Valencia, Cincinnati and Linden, N.J. “I am thrilled to be part of the next chapter of Flavor Producers by partnering with Charles Nicolais and GTCR,” said Jeff Harris, chief executive officer of Food Producers, in a statement. “I believe their industry experience and resources can add significant value as we continue to grow organically and through strategic acquisitions of proprietary capabilities and businesses.” GTCR Managing Director Sean Cunningham, in a statement, said: “The company has an excellent track record of growth driven by a customer centric focus and high-quality products, and we look forward to committing additional capital to support both organic initiatives and strategic follow-on acquisitions.” Financial terms of the transaction were not announced. – Compiled by Stephanie Bedolla
