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May 12, 2011 |
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Still Open For Business |
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| Where would LA be without its HQ companies? Besides helping to keep us off the unemployment rolls (and providing water coolers to chat around), they supply honorees for the Los Angeles Headquarters Association’s annual awards luncheon. |
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Yesterday we spoke with CresaPartners EVP Joe Faulkner, LAHQ’s incoming prez, at the 50th awards luncheon at the California Club. Joe tells us one of the org’s goals is to pick out and recognize the companies that are HQ'd in LA. “We always hear about the ones that are leaving, but actually we’ve got a lot of great companies here.” (Mattel and WET Design—the latter created the fountains at the Bellagio in Vegas—are just two feted in recent years.) Much of what CresaPartners does is dependent on companies expanding in California, and they’re not doing that too much. “A lot of people are staying put, renewing or taking short-term leases, but we definitely have seen a pickup in activity.” |
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| LAHQ outgoing president, First American Title’s Greg Schultz, with Deloitte partner Linda Sybrandt. She accepted the association’s Outstanding Company award on her firm’s behalf. (OK, Deloitte’s not based in LA, but it does employ more than 2,000 people in the downtown area.) The consulting firm was honored as a company that’s been critical to the success of other businesses in LA and an integral part of the community for its corporate philanthropy and outreach to nonprofit orgs. Linda says the firm recognizes that business “can and must play a larger role in advancing society,” citing Deloitte’s pro bono work, “IMPACT Day” volunteerism, and efforts to increase high school graduation and college enrollment. |
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| The Humanitarian Award went to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and its executive director, David Fields (with council president Claire Padama and A3K Consulting's Karen Compton). The Society operates three thrift stores, the Circle V Ranch Camp in Santa Barbara for low-income youth, and the Cardinal Manning Center, a homeless shelter and resource center on Skid Row. David tells us the org's also getting into affordable housing and wants to start a medical clinic. One of the priorities right now is to get the women and children at the Manning facility off Skid Row and into a safe environment with schools, jobs, public transit, hospitals, and malls—“the whole bit that we expect to have in America.” David says the Society’s looking to buy an existing property of eight to 20 units that it could rehab, or alternatively a site to develop a new facility using tax credits. If you know of a property and can help, email David at dfields@svdpla.org. |
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| The Spirit of Los Angeles award went to the Accelerated School founder Johnathan Williams. Accelerated began with elementary school students in 1994, and just a few years later, Time magazine was dubbing it Elementary School of the Year. Johnathan tells us parental involvement is so strong at the school that the parents “pushed us to open a high school ahead of schedule” so their kids could continue. The Wallis Annenberg High School was built with a generous grant from … well, you fill in the blank. The aforementioned honorees weren’t the only ones to get awards. Greg received the Harkness Award as a thank-you for his leadership of LAHQ over the past two years. |
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CLOSING THE BOOKS |
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| Electronic book readers are putting bookstores out of business, but it’s nice to know some folks are still building libraries. Just look at C.W. Driver, which just completed a pair of design-build library projects at 1275 Main St in Ramona (above) and at 124 S Mission Rd in Fallbrook. Regional VP Joe Grosshart says the goal was to build not just libraries but “cultural centers for each community.” To that end, the projects were built to achieve at least LEED Silver. The 19k SF Fallbrook facility has a green roof covered with 3,500 SF of plants. The 21k SF Ramona library boasts a 5,000 SF photovoltaic system that produces 20% of the building’s energy needs—patrons can track energy consumption/production on a digital display. It also offers a sanctuary with cozy lounge seating and a fireplace. Sounds like the perfect spot to snuggle up with your Kindle. |
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POWER POINTS |
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Data center do’s and don’ts were the topic of the 7x24 Exchange SoCal Chapter’s spring meeting at McCormick & Schmick’s in Irvine. Jones Lang LaSalle’s Michael Siteman (far right) is president of the chapter, consisting of professionals in the data center industry. Gensler’s Eric James (third from left), the chapter’s board secretary, moderated a panel of IT experts from the likes of Ticketmaster and Allergan. They shared stories about their companies’ data center and IT migrations—what went right, what went wrong, and how to avoid catastrophes in the future. Others at the function included Qwest’s Aaron Wykoff, Clune Construction’s Alison Kermode, Kristy Rainwater, and Syska Hennessey’s Jerry Burkhardt. |
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| Kicking things off: A presentation by SoCal Edison’s Joe Torres, Tod Sword, and Greg Ertel, who’s holding the mic. The trio provided a slew of info about the utility’s incentives to trim power costs and improve energy efficiency, as well as Edison’s fiber solutions. The 7x24 group focuses on improving end-to-end reliability for developers, users, operators, and vendors involved in the data center industry. The event was sponsored by Latisys and annual sponsor Clune Construction. |
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| Got data about real estate deals? Send it to julie@bisnow.com. |
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