May 12-25, 2015

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May 12-25, 2015

www.lbbusinessjournal.com

SPECIAL REPORT – REAL ESTATE

Local Real Estate Markets To Benefit From Improving Economic Fundamentals ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer ew household formation is N expected to drive demand in both the regional multi-family

“This is our brand presence on the West Coast.”

Rory Hepner, General Manager Vehicle Distribution & Logistics Mercedes-Benz USA

Welcome To Long Beach’s Newest Corporate Citizen ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer hen Mercedes-Benz USA began converting two old airplane manufacturing buildings W off of Lakewood Boulevard into the new base for its West Coast area operations, the cavernous 1.1 million-square-foot space was totally empty save for construction workers digging up concrete floors that were several feet thick. Now, Mercedes’ signage graces the main entrance, the building is painted and what was recently a vast, empty space is now home to three of the company’s business units – its Western Region Offices, Vehicle Preparation Center and Learning & Performance Center.

In an interview at Mercedes’ new facility located across from Douglas Park, Rory Hepner, general manager of vehicle distribution and logistics, told the Business Journal that construction on the fa(Please Continue To Page 20) cility is about 98 percent complete and should

and single-family residential real estate markets this year, according to economists. The same positive economic fundamentals driving that household formation, such as increasing income levels and sustained job growth, should also help boost the retail real estate market and demand for industrial space, while the office market is expected to make some strides thanks to growth in the health care field, according to Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

“A lot of adults that had delayed entry into the housing market are [now] starting to enter the market,” Gary Painter, director of research for the University of

have been working within Long Beach for a long time, it [instills] a sense of pride,” he said.

Garcia is quick to point out, however, that while being the city’s first openly gay mayor is historic simply because he’s first, it’s not particularly relevant to his office. “Regardless of the fact that I might be the first openly gay

each year, and, not only is it a chance for attendees and participants to celebrate and be seen for who they are, it also gives an economic boost to the city and local businesses.

Started in 1984, the Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival and Parade is now in its 32nd year.

Though the first celebration consisted of just a small parade, the celebration has expanded to include a festival with famous musical acts and has become the second largest event in Long Beach after the Toyota Grand Prix.

“Pride weekend,” as it is called, draws about 80,000 to 90,000 people over a two-day period, generating about $10 million in economic impact to the city, ac-

(Please Continue To Page 8)

(Please Continue To Page 9)

■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer housands of people from T across the nation and the world attend the Long Beach Les-

The Local LGBT Community: A Growing Political Presence he mayors of Long Beach T and Signal Hill are both openly gay. And, if you ask them, it’s not that big of a deal. But with two openly gay mayors and other

“out” elected officials running the show in one of the state’s most populated metropolitan areas, the very fact that their sexual orientation doesn’t matter anymore represents a major shift from years past – and, perhaps, serves as an example for other areas of the

Long Beach Business Journal 2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212 Signal Hill, CA 90755-2139 562/988-1222 • www.lbbusinessjournal.com

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PAID Los Angeles, CA PERMIT NO. 447

country where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals are still struggling to gain the general acceptance of their communities, let alone get elected to office.

In an interview with the Business Journal at Harvey Milk Promenade Park, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia reflected on what his election as the first openly gay mayor of Long Beach has meant to his constituents.

“I have gotten a lot of feedback from the LGBT community,” he said, noting that those within that group were some of his biggest supporters in his run for mayor. “It has all obviously been very positive. I think for a lot of the community, particularly those who

(Please Continue To Page 15)

Long Beach Pride Celebration, In Its 32nd Year, Provides Economic Boost To City

bian & Gay Pride Celebration

■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer

Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate, told the Business Journal.

“That has been the missing ingredient in the housing market – household formation among young residents of Long Beach and the rest of Southern California,” Kleinhenz noted. “If that materializes this year, some of that should translate into an uptick in home sales activity. It will certainly translate into upward pressure on apartment rental prices, too.”

Real estate developers seem to be putting a lot of stock in the prediction that younger generations will start moving out into apartments this year. “For the county as a whole, building permits were up 47 percent [in this first quarter] compared to the first three months of last year,” Kleinhenz observed. “Most of that increase is in multi-family units.”

INSIDE CITY HALL

AQUARIUM UPDATE

A New LBBJ Column

By Former Councilmember Gerrie Schipske

Lots Going On At The Aquarium Of The Pacific – Interview With Chief Exec Jerry Schubel

See Page 4

See Page 12

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2 Long Beach Business Journal

Inside This Issue 4 7 8 12 14

Inside City Hall

• New Column By Former Councilmember Gerrie Schipske

MAY 12-25, 2015

15 26

Leadership Long Beach

• An Invite To Partner To Create Positive Change

Focus On LGBT Community

• A Growing Political Force, Continued From Pg. 1 • Pride Celebration Impact, Continued From Pg. 1

28

Aquarium Of The Pacific

• An Update About The Aquarium With Jerry Schubel

Newswatch

• Transit Board Selects BYD To Provide New Buses • Bonds Issued To Complete Marina Rebuild • City Commission To Examine Permitting, Projects

30 31

Special Report: Real Estate • Quarterly Update On Local Real Estate Sectors

In The News

• China’s Deputy Consul General Visits LD Products • Moffatt & Nichol To Be Honored By Boy Scouts • Police Department Promotions; New Academy • First Station Installs Drought Tolerant Landscaping • Mayor Garcia Aims To End Veteran Homelessness

Perspective

Realty Views By Terry Ross HealthWise By Nima Ramezan, M.D. Trade And Transportation By Tom O’Brien Small Business Dollars & Sense By Ben Alvarado Effective Leadership By Mick Ukleja

Art Matters

Presented By The Arts Council For Long Beach

The Nonprofit Page

Presented By The Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership

Free: Long Beach Business Journal Digital Edition, Monday Morning Coffee, NewsFlash Sign up at: www.lbbusinessjournal.com • Follow us on Twitter: @LBBizJourn

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2015

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4 Long Beach Business Journal

INSIDE CITY HALL

Where There’s Smoke . . .

■ By GERRIE SCHIPSKE Contributing Writer Note to LBBJ Readers: I will be writing a regular column in this space using my experience as the city’s first public information officer (way back in the late 1970s) and my eight years on the city council (2006-2014).

Hopefully, I can provide some insight as to what happens (or not) inside Long Beach City Hall and bring more transparency to our local government. The opinions expressed in this column are mine and not necessarily those of the Long Beach Business Journal.

Where there’s smoke . . . there’s usually supposed to be a Long Beach firefighter ready to put it out. But according the postings on Twitter and Facebook by the L.B. Firefighters Association, that might not be the case.

“We need more Fire Engines and Rescues! . . . We are severely understaffed here in LB! We haven’t seen staffing levels this low since the mid 1930s . . . We are out of Paramedic Rescues available to respond to 911 calls. We are utilizing Orange County Fire and calls into LA City Fire as well.”

Firefighters publicly objected to the budget cuts proposed by the former mayor, Bob Foster, and Fire Chief Mike DuRee that resulted in the elimination of fire engines at several stations. They argued that the cuts not only jeopardized response times but were a slap in the face after their association took the first step toward cost reductions and agreed to employees paying their share of pension costs.

However, the tipping point for the firefighters was DuRee’s aggressive advocacy of an experimental redesign of the paramedic delivery system. Called “Rapid Medic Deployment” (RMD), the new system cuts one firefighter paramedic from each rescue unit and replaces them with a lesser trained non-firefighter emergency medical technician. Long Beach is the only city in Los Angeles County to try such an experiment.

The chief praises RMD as providing “better service” for residents. The firefighters association vigorously counters in a posting: “the Fire Chiefs (sic) experimental Paramedic deployment model is continuing to fail! We are out of Paramedic Rescues available to respond to 911 calls. We are utilizing Orange County Fire and calls into LA City Fire as well.”

The frustration of some of the firefighters about the apparent lack of concern by city management regarding the condition of the city’s fire protection and paramedic services has apparently gone beyond public postings on social media and escalated into a recent vote of “no con-

May 12-25, 2015 fidence” against DuRee. (Neither the city manager nor the president of the firefighters association would confirm or deny what several firefighters have told me about this vote.)

The bad blood between the rank and file and the chief took a nastier turn when someone posted at fire stations an e-mail containing a “2014 FDLB Top 20” list. The city’s human resources director, Debbie Mills, demanded in a memorandum sent to “All Fire Department Personnel,” the removal of the list “from any public facility,” alleging that: “This publication is offensive and unacceptable. This list uses racist and misogynistic monikers and epithets about your co-workers, colleagues, Fire Managers and elected officials. Both the City Manager and Fire Chief DuRee are certain the list and the language used are not reflective of City of Long Beach employees and our Fire Department in particular.”

The city immediately launched an investigation and, according to several sources, all firefighters are being interrogated by an outside law firm (no doubt at considerable expense to the city) in order to find out who wrote the list.

Meanwhile, the issues raised by the firefighters concerning equipment and staffing remain unaddressed.

Let’s see if actual “response times” are included in this year’s budget, or will taxpayers continue to be told that everything is fine?

May 26 column: Should Long Beach taxpayers reject setting up a special fire protection assessment district to fund fire and paramedic services or should fire and police services be contracted out to L.A. County?

(Gerrie Schipske is a native of Long Beach, an attorney, registered nurse practitioner and full time instructor at CSULB Department of Health Care Administration.

She was elected to both the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees and the Long Beach City Council.

She is the author of several books on Long Beach history and her blog, www.longbeachinside.blogspot.com.) ■

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May 1

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May 12-25, 2015

LEADERSHIP REAL ESTATE LONG INDUSTRY BEACH

Long Beach Business Journal 7

Partnering To Create Positive Change In Local Communities ■ By MITRA NOVIN Government Relations Manager The Boeing Company LLB Class of 2007 I am both a Boeing Global Corporate Citizen and a Long Beach Corporate Citizen. I am fortunate to be a 13-year employee of The Boeing Company for many reasons, but one that I personally value is our commitment to being actively involved in the community.

One way Boeing and Boeing employees stay connected here in Long Beach is through our long-time partnership with Leadership Long Beach, a local leadership development organization for business, government and nonprofit professionals.

Boeing has been involved with Leadership Long Beach since their very first leadership class 26 years ago, and since that time more than 20 Boeing leaders have graduated from their leadership programs.

I was chosen to participate in the Class of 2007, where I joined 27 other leaders from across the city to participate in the 10month program to get connected and learn about the issues and challenges in our community and how we can work together to make Long Beach the best that it can be.

In my year, I learned a great deal about

your organization get our amazing city.

Leadership Exchange more engaged in the And since then I Business Mixer community. Leaderhave continued to Thursday, May 21, 5:30 p.m. reception, ship Long Beach is stay involved, transi6 p.m. program; Gunn-Jerkens offices, hosting a new busitioning to the Lead3950 Cover St.• To attend, call 562/997-9194 ness mixer in the ership Long Beach Board of Directors and volunteering for burgeoning Douglas Park district on their numerous community initiatives Thursday, May 21, as a way to meet with and activities. With their network of more alumni and get more information on how than 1,000 alumni, the connections I’ve to get involved in Long Beach.

To attend the event or for more informade through the organization have mation about Leadership Long Beach, helped me not only form great friendOscar Cosby at 562/997-9194 or ecall ships, but also professional connections mail at o.cosby@leadershiplb.org. that have come in handy.

You can also register online for a free Boeing and the Employees Community Fund (ECF) continue to support Leadership Long Beach and its various leadership programs. This past year, Boeing funded scholarships for nonprofits and arts professionals to participate in the adult leadership classes, and our employees participated in both their Institute and Executive programs.

Boeing is also a big supporter of the Youth Leadership Long Beach program, a similar leadership program for emerging high school leaders. In February, we hosted the 35 members of the Youth program at our Seal Beach Operations Center as part of Engineering Week. This visit provided the chance to introduce youth to STEM-related careers, meet with our engineers and learn about career opportunities at Boeing.

I highly encourage any local business leaders to learn more about Leadership Long Beach and how it can help you and

ticket at http://leadershipexchangemay2015.eventbrite.com.

(Leadership Long Beach was founded in 1989 by some of our community’s most influential and visionary stakeholders. These founders envisioned the formation of a civic improvement program that would serve the community by educating and motivating leaders on issues important to the future and sustainability of our city. Over the last 25 years, more than 1,000 alumni have graduated from our leadership programs. For more information, check us out at www.leadershiplb.org or www.facebook.com/leadershiplongbeach.) ■

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8 Long Beach Business Journal

FOCUS ON LGBT

LGBT Growing Political Presence (Continued From Page 1)

mayor . . . [or] the first Hispanic mayor, for me, I’m just the mayor. And that means representing everybody equally.” He’s also the youngest mayor the city has ever had, but that’s also beside the point.

In a separate interview at Signal Hill City Hall with Councilmember Mike Noll and recently elected City Treasurer Larry Blunden – both also openly gay – Mayor Larry Forester had similar sentiments.

“It [being gay] should never have been an issue,” Forester said, in reference to becoming an elected official. Noll and Blunden agreed.

But it once was. And to move past that era to a point where local LGBT elected officials are now political fixtures on Openly gay elected officials have had a strong presence in the City of Signal Hill for the past two commissions, boards, city councils, the decades. Councilmember Mike Noll (left) was elected to office in 1992, while Mayor Larry Forester state legislature and even as mayors, the (center) was elected to council in 1999. Larry Blunden, pictured with Noll and Forester, was road first had to be paved – and it had elected city treasurer this year. All three are openly gay, and emphasized that the local LGBT comsizeable potholes. some munity feels more at ease being represented in city government. (Photograph by the Business JourWhen Noll first ran for office in Signal nal’s Evan Patrick Kelly) Hill in 1992, a major regional newspaper singled him out for being gay, he recalled. “It was kind of a disappointment. They would bring up that these people are running – and then he’s gay and he’s running,” he said. “So when I was interviewed I said, ‘You know, I’m not running on a gay platform. I’m running to help make Signal Hill a better place to live and work.’”

Some of Noll’s opponents also shone the spotlight on the fact that he was gay – and not in a pleasant way. “Some of the people who were running got real nasty in the last minute [campaign] stuff that would go out. They would call it hate crimes now. It was just very derogatory,” he recalled.

Forester experienced similar issues when he ran for city council in in 1999. “But it never seemed to have an effect on my being elected,” he said.

“I think we paved the way in the beginning because it was a little bit more of a hostile environment, and Signal Hill was very conservative,” Noll said.

Gerrie Schipske, who formerly served in elected positions on the Long Beach City College (LBCC) District Board of Trustees and later on the Long Beach City Council, recalled that, during her first foray into the political world in the 1970s and ’80s, the attitude towards the LGBT community was “awful.”

“My first experience with politics was that I worked in Congress for an elected official, a member of Congress. I certainly couldn’t be out in that office,” she recalled.

“In fact, she had a deputy field person [for] whom I understood they had hired an investigator to find out whether or not he was Mayor Robert Garcia is the first openly gay mayor of Long Beach – as well as the city’s youngest and first Hispanic gay.”

Later, working in governmayor. Garcia said he has long been active in supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. As mayor, ment for the Central Intelligence he is most focused on fiscal responsibility, safety and infrastructure for the betterment of all of his constituents. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly) Agency, she was afraid she’d be

May 12-25, 2015 found out for being a lesbian and get fired.

“You were considered a security threat . . . because they thought you were at a high risk to be blackmailed,” she said.

In 1978, she came to work for the City of Long Beach, where a former city manager – whom she noted she has utmost respect for – half-jokingly told her that LGBT individuals weren’t typically hired at city hall.

When she was elected to the LBCC Board of Trustees in 1992, the attitude towards LGBT officials “wasn’t as positive as it is today,” Schipske said. At the time, the Long Beach City Council had been debating whether or not to grant the same benefits to employees in domestic partnerships as to those they granted to married employees, which resulted in a former councilmember comparing samesex partnerships to human relationships with inanimate objects or animals.

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, a rapid shift towards acceptance of the LGBT community took place, Schipske noted. “I think that has a lot to do with the fact that people came out to their families. It’s hard to demonize somebody you know and love.”

Forester also said there was a shift in attitudes in the same time period, which he attributed to public awareness about HIV and AIDS. Forester at one time was the only mayor in the country openly living with AIDS, he noted.

Garcia’s and Blunden’s experiences running for elected office in the past year illustrate how much has changed since those like Forester, Noll and Schipske first entered the political scene. “Larry [Blunden] came in and it was never an issue. He ran unopposed,” Forester said.

“I received, when I ran for council and for mayor, very little pushback from the fact that I was gay,” Garcia recalled. “Certainly when I ran for council there were a couple times when you knock on a few doors and somebody might make a comment or two, but you know, people have their own opinions and their own judgments, and that’s okay. I have always just tried to be positive,” he said.

“There were a few moments in both elections where some folks you could tell were not comfortable with it, but I think overall my election as mayor showed that they city as a whole is very a supportive city,” Garcia reflected. He pointed out that Long Beach is one of three large American cities with openly gay mayors – the others being Houston and Seattle.

While all agreed that being LGBT is no longer much of an issue locally in terms of getting elected to office, Blunden pointed out that those like Noll and Forester first paved the way. “I think Mike and Larry brought a whole new professionalism to the city by being out,” he said. “With Larry and Mike and [former Signal Hill Councilmember] Ellen Ward all on council, you set an incredible example for the whole country of what the council can do and how they can work together and support all these different things that come up – all the LGBT issues along with running the city on a responsible level. You guys were incredible, actually,” Blunden said to Forester and Noll.

Ward, a lesbian, served on the city council for about eight years with Forester and Noll. At the time, that made the Signal Hill City Council majority LGBT. (Please Continue To Next Page )

May 1

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2015

May 12-25, 2015 “Long Beach has a very large LGBT community – it is known for having one of the largest in the State of California. So it’s good to have [elected] representation,” Garcia said. “There has been elected LGBT leadership in the area for a while, and I think that’s a good thing.”

That representation continues to grow, both locally and throughout the state. A few years ago, Forester helped to form an LGBT caucus within the League of California Cities. “We fought for that caucus,” Forester said. Noll added, “It took us years.” The caucus has grown from a handful of members to 150 members, with Forester now as president.

Similarly, the state legislature also has an LGBT caucus. Formed in 2002, the caucus has seven members, including State Sen. Ricardo Lara, whose district encompasses a large portion of the City of Long Beach.

“We have come a very long way,” Schipske said. “I think we still have a long way to go, because our community should also be working with our communities that need some support for their civil rights. It’s not a matter of just us.”

When asked what other parts of the country where the LGBT community is less accepted and not as represented in government can learn from cities like Long Beach and Signal Hill, Garcia said, “You know, that it doesn’t matter if their mayor is gay. They can still call the cops.

The streets are still going to get fixed.

There is no difference . . . It’s the issues that matter.” ■

xt Page )

FOCUS ON LGBT

Pride Celebration (Continued From Page 1)

cording the Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride, Inc. (LBLGP), the nonprofit that organizes the annual event, which this year takes place on May 16 and 17.

With a goal of “educating, encouraging and celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) inclusion and pride,” the event includes a parade down Ocean Boulevard with more than 200 marching groups and floats.

The festival celebration on Shoreline Drive includes five large dance areas and a main stage that has featured such musical artists as Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah and the Village People.

This year, Salt-N-Pepa, an all-female hiphop trio from the ’90s, will be the headlining entertainment on Saturday while Patti LaBelle will be performing on Sunday.

“It gives us visibility,” said Denise Newman, LBLGP co-president. “The LGBT community a lot of times is invisible, and so what the parade really does is showcase individuals who you wouldn’t think have great standing in the community and puts everything on full display . . . We’re a cultural group that enjoys going out, having fun, interacting, shopping, listening to music, having some degree of camaraderie and being able to do all that openly and honestly.”

The event is also considered an “economic engine” for the city, said Frank Rubio, vice president of the festival, who added that more than 50 percent of attendees come from outside the local area. During the weekend event, most hotels are fully booked while

Long Beach Business Journal 9

Bob Crow is one of three founding members of the Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival and Parade along with Judi Doyle and Marilyn Barlow. Now in its 32nd year, the event has grown to become the second largest special event in Long Beach after the Toyota Grand Prix. Crow is pictured outside the headquarters of the Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride, Inc., office at 1017 Obispo Ave. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

attendees also patronize local businesses, from restaurants to movie theaters, he said.

“When people come here to stay, they’re taking advantage of all the opportunities available to them in the City of Long Beach,” Rubio said, adding that business in the downtown area, particularly along Pine Avenue, benefit from the event.

He pointed out that the Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival and Parade is also a “stepping stone” for other events to take place, generating even more revenue.

Aside from having an immediate economic impact on the city, the event also brings positive long-term benefits, said Steve Goodling, president and CEO of the Long

Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Goodling said that, in addition to hotels often selling out during pride weekend, the special event exposes many people from outside the area to the city and “reintroduces” them to Long Beach, drawing new conventions and interest in the city.

“Pride is a really great event to reintroduce many people to all of the changes that have occurred,” Goodling said. “These special events showcase our city beautifully.”

History Of Pride Though today the festival and parade are widely accepted by the city and the community at large, it wasn’t always that way.

(Please Continue To Page 11)

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May 12-25, 2015

Long Beach Business Journal 11

FOCUS ON LGBT

Pride Celebration (Continued From Page 9)

Bob Crow, one of three founding members of the event, along with Judi Doyle and Marilyn Barlow, told the Business Journal that the idea of hosting a parade came out of the notion to recognize the LGBT community in Long Beach instead of being in the shadows of the Los Angeles parade that takes place in West Hollywood.

The pride parade and festival in Long Beach is now the fourth largest in the country behind San Francisco, New York and West Hollywood, but during the formative years the parade organizers were met with dissension from the city and threats from the public.

Crow, 69, said in the early 1980s the thenLong Beach City Council tried to impose hefty permit fees in an attempt to prevent the parade from happening. Then-Mayor Ernie Kell was an open opponent of the parade and of gay rights in general, he recalled.

“He wasn’t an ally,” Crow said. “The mayor said we were like rats. When you turn the lights on, they run.”

The LBLGP, Inc. then filed a lawsuit against the city with help from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), claiming discrimination and violation of First Amendment rights. While some legal battles were won and some were lost, the ordeal educated both sides, he said.

With help from a grant provided by the then-owner of the Executive Suite, a longtime gay and lesbian nightclub, the first parade was launched in 1984; however, the event didn’t kick off without threats, Crow said.

Doyle, a longtime gay-rights activist in

To Attend The May 17 Parade – Long Beach, wore a bulletproof vest to the parade after receiving death threats over the phone, Crow said, adding that people were “scared to death” to be in the parade for fear of getting shot.

Crow added, however, that times have changed with regard to gay rights and acceptance, stating that the LBLGP, Inc. gets along “excellent” with the city today, especially given the fact that Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia is openly gay.

He added that even the city’s previous mayor, Bob Foster, presided over Crow’s wedding in 2013, which was the first gay marriage to take place in Long Beach after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned California’s ban on same sex marriage.

Crow said the pride festival and parade gives “strength” to the LGBT community in Long Beach while educating the public about differences in society.

“We’ve opened the world up to a lot of people to be what you want to be, to be yourself and don’t hide behind anybody,” he said.

Parade begins at 10:30 a.m. and runs along Ocean Boulevard from Lindero Avenue to Alamitos Avenue

Giving Back

For more information about the Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival and Parade, call 562/987-9191 or visit longbeachpride.com.

As attendance of the pride festival and parade has grown substantially, the event, which is run solely through volunteer efforts, has also become a major fundraiser for local nonprofits.

Money is raised through ticket sales, vendors and corporate sponsorships. Some major corporate sponsors of the event this year include the Port of Long Beach, Wells Fargo, Budweiser, Charter Communications and Bank of the West.

Newman said that the pride festival and parade is a major money generator for LBLGP, Inc. to provide grants to local charities. In fact, LBLGP, Inc. has provided more than $1 million to nonprofits since its inception, she said, adding that nonprofits

that apply for grants don’t necessarily have to do with LGBT issues.

“Most of the money that we’ve raised is given away,” Newman said. “We have given to churches and food banks. We give out grants and scholarships for kids going to school who need money for tuition. We also give money to Willard Elementary School for a third grade class to take an annual field trip to Knott’s Berry Farm.”

Newman noted that this year LBLGP, Inc. created a committee to honor LGBT men and women who have served in the military. All military personnel are invited to participate in the event this year at no charge and to march free in the parade. ■

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12 Long Beach Business Journal

The Aquarium of the Pacific has a live web feed at www.aquariumofpacific.org. of its West Coast Sea Nettles, a type of jellyfish found in the Northern Pacific Ocean.

(Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

AQUARIUM

May 12-25, 2015

The Aquarium of the Pacific is launching two new exhibits this summer – one about sea jellies and another about the rising sea level. Jerry Schubel, president and CEO of the Aquarium, said photographs of locations throughout the world contending with rising sea level issues will be placed in the Great Hall, where he is pictured, beginning June 1. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

Aquarium To Debut New Exhibits, Educational Programs And Events ■ By SAMANTHA MEHLINGER Senior Writer As summer approaches, the Aquarium of the Pacific is gearing up to launch new exhibits and related educational programs, plus new lectures and events – and there are even some baby animals on the way.

On May 22, the Aquarium is debuting a new exhibit simply dubbed “Jellies.” As part of the exhibit, new species of jellyfish, also called sea jellies, are to be integrated throughout the Aquarium. “These amazing creatures have been around for 700 million years,” Jerry Schubel, president and CEO of the Aquarium, told the Business Journal

May 1

1_LBBJ_MAY12_2015_PortAnniversary 5/9/15 2:35 PM Page 13

At left, Keith and Charlotte Lucas visit the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Shark Lagoon with their grandchildren, JT and Jada.

At right, penguins in the June Keyes Penguin Habitat gather around Karen Anderson, senior aviculturist, for feeding time.

(Photographs by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

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during a recent interview at his workplace. “They [jellyfish] have no brain, no central nervous system, no mouth, and yet they have survived when many other species have gone extinct,� he said, “so there may be some lessons there – to be simple and be generalist is not a bad thing if you want to last a long time.�

The Northern Pacific Gallery will feature comb jellies, umbrella jellies and sea nettles, plus a new area detailing the life cycle of sea jellies. The lion’s mane jelly, which has tentacles that can grow up to the length of a blue whale, is also featured in that gallery. Sea jellies found in local waters, including purple-striped jellies and egg yolk jellies, are to be on display in the Southern California/Baja Gallery. Plus, visitors will still be able to visit the existing moon jellies touch tank in the Wonders of the Deep Gallery, where other species of jellyfish on loan from researchers will be on display.

To complement the exhibit, Aquarium staff and guest speakers will host educational lectures on sea jellies, Schubel said.

Debuting on June 1 is a new temporary exhibit on loan from the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. Entitled “Sink or Swim: Designing for a Sea Change,� the exhibit will feature a series of photographs from around the world showing the impacts of sea level rise. “It is about coastal storms and sea level rise around the world, and how different areas are coping with it,� Schubel said. “I think it is a good picture of sea level rise and what’s in store for California.� “In addition to the photographs, there will be several short videos and there will be a film about it,� Schubel said. To kick off the exhibit, Schubel is co-hosting a webcast on the Aquarium’s website, www.aquariumofpacific.org, with sea level rise experts and the exhibit’s curator, Frances Anderton, on opening day.

Additionally, the Aquarium is hosting three lectures about sea level rise on June 24 and 25 and July 1. “In a period of two weeks, we have three lectures, so people could take essentially a mini course on sea level rise and what it means to California and the world,� Schubel said.

In addition to new sea jellies, the Aquarium may soon be home to more animals thanks to its breeding program. “We have a lot of luck in many of our animals mating.

Right now we have got at least four penguin eggs,� Schubel said.

The Aquarium is also trying to mate two rare birds called Guam Kingfisher birds as part of a program to repopulate the species in the wild. “To begin with, they wouldn’t even share the same tree. They’re now on the same tree on the same branch, although they’re about three feet apart I think,�

Schubel said with a laugh. “They’re moving in the right direction.�

Another new program planned later this year is a lecture series on the future of energy. “We’ll look at where will we get the energy from in the future, what kind of energy will it be, and how will we make those choices,� Schubel said. The series is scheduled to debut in September.

In addition to this lecture series, the Aquarium will continue to host various one-time lectures and events. For example, on August 16, the Aquarium is premiering a play about climate change called “Lollygaggers,â€? which was written by Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Joshua Willis. â–

Long Beach Business Journal 13

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14 Long Beach Business Journal

May 12-25, 2015

NEWSWATCH

Long Beach Transit Awards Battery Bus Contract To BYD Motors On April 27, the Long Beach Transit (LBT) Board of Directors approved an $11,069,319 contract with BYD Motors Inc. for 10 zero-emission batterypowered buses like the model pictured below. One boardmember, Maricela de Rivera, abstained from the vote, indicating during the preceding discussion that she believed “the ultimate decision [to select BYD] leaves a lot to be desired.” The contract is primarily funded by a grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The 40-foot buses will incorporate an inductive charging system with corresponding chargers located in the ground at bus stops so that they will be able to charge en route. According to Long Beach Transit spokesperson Kevin Lee, the bus model has passed Altoona testing, which is an endurance test required of all buses traveling U.S. roadways. BYD beat out two other bidders, New Flyer and Proterra, for the contract. Macy Neshati, BYD Motors’ vice president of sales, told the Business Journal that BYD won the contract because its response to LBT’s request for proposals offered the best value deal. He noted that BYD offered extended warranties on several crucial bus components, including a 12-year warranty for the batteries, which represents the entire life of the bus. “We applaud Long Beach for their forward-thinking decisions and the desire to be on the leading edge of cleaning up the air and providing the optimum bus service,” Neshati said. In an e-mailed statement, LBT President and CEO Kenneth McDonald said, “Zero emission bus technology is where public transportation is headed, and Long Beach Transit is now at the forefront . . . These vehicles will replace aging diesel buses in our fleet. This means cleaner air and a reduction in noise pollution. We are proud to represent Long Beach as a leader in technological advancement.”

(Photograph provided by BYD Motors)

City Issues $125 Million In Bonds To Finish Marina Rebuild And Pay Back State Loans ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer The Long Beach City Council on Tuesday, May 5, unanimously approved issuing $125 million in revenue bonds to finish rebuilding the dilapidated Alamitos Bay Marina and to pay back state loans that had financed earlier stages of the project.

The revenue bonds are secured with a pledge that the money will be paid back with interest through annual slip fee increases of 2 percent, starting in fiscal year 2016. City staff said the slip fee increases are “sufficient, competitive with the market and sustainable to support the bond issuance.”

According to a staff report, the city is using $49.2 million of the revenue bond proceeds to complete the marina rebuild coupled with the $10.9 million the council has already authorized from the city’s Tidelands Operating Fund, for a total project cost of $60.1 million.

However, staff noted that this funding does not cover landside improvements such as restrooms, parking lot improvements and landscaping.

In addition, $59.2 million in proceeds from the new revenue bonds will go toward paying back loans from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW). The bonds also preclude the need for the city to draw on a $16.9 million DBW loan that the city council approved in March. The rest of the bond proceeds will go toward an $8 million reserve and a $5 million contingency.

Fitch Ratings issued a rating of “BBB” to approximately $111 million of the marina revenue bonds, series 2015, with a rating outlook of “stable,” according to a statement.

The rating reflects the Long Beach marina’s “strategic location, near-capacity operations with waiting lists for slip rentals and stable historical performance.” ■

Economic Development Group Being Asked To Review Permitting, Projects ■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer Mayor Robert Garcia is recommending at tonight’s (May 12) Long Beach City Council meeting that the city’s recently appointed economic development commission (EDC) provide recommendations to the city council and city manager on various topics.

The mayor is recommending that the EDC provide recommendations on the city’s permitting process, the city’s long-range property management plan, sales tax leakage and development projects, including the Civic Center rebuild and Douglas Park projects.

The next meeting of the EDC is scheduled for Tuesday, May 26, at 4 p.m. in the third floor conference room of city hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd. ■

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May 12-25, 2015

Real Estate Sector To Benefit From Improved Economy (Continued From Page 1)

In Long Beach, real estate developers have nearly 2,000 apartment units planned or under construction, most of which are concentrated in the downtown area and being marketed to the millennial generation. Ensemble Investments, a locally based real estate development firm, is the latest to enter this scene. The firm recently submitted plans to the city for two residential new developments in the downtown area – a 113-unit building at 207 Seaside Way and a 95-unit building at 442 Ocean Blvd. Both will be constructed on existing parking lots.

Ensemble’s projects are being voted on by the Long Beach Planning Commission on May 21, as is a planned 216-unit multifamily development by Lennar Multifamily Communities on Ocean Boulevard.

Vacancy rates of multi-family units in L.A. County are around 5 percent, and should continue declining, according to Kleinhenz. A first quarter apartment research report from Marcus & Millichap estimated that the vacancy rate in Long Beach was 2.9 percent. Average rental rates in Long Beach “soared 6.6 percent in the last 12 months to $1,518 per month in this year’s opening period,” according to the report.

Increasing rents should cause some renters to consider buying single-family homes, Painter and Kleinhenz agreed. In California, sales transactions of singlefamily homes increased by 16.3 percent in March in comparison to the same month in 2014, according to the California Association of Realtors (CAR).

Inventory of available homes for sale remains well below the long-run average of about six months of inventory, with local real estate agents estimating there is currently only about a two months’ supply of homes for sale in Long Beach.

Kleinhenz said lower inventory levels might be here to stay. “I think the world changed with the explosion of information on the Internet relating to real estate, roughly about 10 years or so ago. If you look at the time period since then, you will see that inventory levels have been markedly lower,” he observed. “I think there was also a structural change in the housing market, and that we’re [going to

REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY

Long Beach Business Journal 15

New retail construction and renovations are taking place in Downtown Long Beach at The Pike, recently rebranded as an outlet center by property management firm Developers Diversified Realty Corp. Redevelopment at The Pike Outlets includes renovation of the façade and a redesign of walkways to be completed in fall 2015. Recently announced tenant additions include Nike, Forever 21 and H&M, which are scheduled to open this fall as well. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

continue seeing] these relatively low inventory levels going forward.”

Low inventory and high demand should continue to push up prices, Painter said.

According to Kleinhenz, prices for singlefamily homes in Long Beach increased by 6.4 percent in March in comparison to March 2014. Los Angeles County experienced a price increase of 9.5 percent in the same time period, he said.

The local retail real estate market may

also get a boost this year thanks to positive economic fundamentals, Kleinhenz noted.

“Some time in the latter half of this year, the City of Long Beach should hit a new record high for the number of employed persons,” he said. The current unemployment rate in Long Beach is 7.9 percent, he noted.

“The general growth in jobs and incomes has really unleashed growth in consumerfacing parts of our local economy,” Klein-

henz said. “Retail trade jobs have been on the rise, and eating and drinking places have been hiring in increasing numbers as well . . . It should help improve the demand for retail space,” he said.

There are three major new retail centers planned for Long Beach. In February, Newport Beach-based Burnham USA Equities announced it was planning a new retail area in Douglas Park. Construction is currently (Please Continue To Page 17)

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underway in Downtown Long Beach to transform the Pike At Rainbow Harbor into an outlet mall, and another waterfront retail center is planned at the southwest corner of 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

Job gains are also benefiting the local industrial market. In the first quarter of 2015, job counts in wholesale trade and transportation and warehousing – industries supported by goods movement through the local ports and typically housed in industrial spaces – increased by 2.7 percent combined, Kleinhenz said. “The fact that both of those segments are showing significant growth . . . tells us that that sector is expanding, it’s adding jobs and there will be increased demand for warehouse space and distribution center type space.”

Long Beach’s industrial real estate market is already healthy from an occupancy standpoint, with a very low vacancy rate of 2.8 percent, according to Lee & Associates.

To accommodate increasing demand, Sares-Regis Group plans to develop three light industrial buildings in a project called Pacific Pointe East at the southeast corner of Lakewood Boulevard and Conant Street, which will complement its other Pacific Pointe developments at Douglas Park.

The regional office market is still lagging behind other real estate sectors in terms of sales and leasing activity and vacancy rates. In the first quarter, “for the county as a whole, the vacancy rate for office space was 16 percent,” Kleinhenz said. “For the South Bay it was 23 percent in the first quarter.” In Downtown Long Beach, office space vacancy was about 21

Phil Jones, owner of Coldwell Banker Coastal Alliance, visits one of his company’s listings in Park Estates at 5441 E. El Cedral St. The property is listed at $2,399,000. “Homes [priced] $1 million or more are really moving at a quicker pace, believe it or not, than the median priced homes,” he told the Business Journal. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

percent in the first quarter, while offices throughout suburban Long Beach held a vacancy rate of about 18 percent, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report.

“For Long Beach in particular we will see improvement in specific segments of office space, particularly with respect to any medical-related office buildings,” Kleinhenz said. “Health care and social assistance employment has increased markedly over the last several years, and that was true in the first quarter of this year . . . so it continues to be a growing

segment of the economy,” he explained.

“I think you will see that spill over into increases in the demand for health carerelated office space.”

Long Beach Single-Family Home Cost Edges Up As Low Inventory, High Demand Persist

I

n March, the total number of singlefamily homes for sale in Long Beach

was exactly the same as in March 2014, as was the number of closed sales, according to local real estate professionals. But a 25 percent increase in pending sales in March indicates that activity is picking up.

Jeff Anderson, principal of the Anderson Real Estate Group of Keller Williams Realty, said that strong demand coupled with a tight inventory of homes listed for sale is causing properties priced at their market value to receive multiple offers.

According to Geoff McIntosh, owner of (Please Continue To Page 18)

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18 Long Beach Business Journal

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May 12-25, 2015

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Main Street Realtors, the demand to purchase single-family detached homes in Long Beach is very strong and “far outstrips the amount of inventory that we have.” McIntosh is the 2016 president-elect of the California Association of Realtors, for which he currently serves as treasurer.

“The inventory has actually tightened in the last year because the [number of] new [pending] sales has increased and we aren’t seeing a real uptick in new listings coming on the market,” Phil Jones, owner of Coldwell Banker Coastal Alliance, said.

There is about a two-month supply of homes on the market in Long Beach given the current pace of sales, according to Anderson and Jones. McIntosh speculated there might be as much as 3.8 months of inventory currently for sale. Either way, that’s far below the historic average of about six months of inventory, McIntosh noted.

The dynamic of low supply and high demand is causing sales prices to increase.

Anderson estimated the price of homes for sale in Long Beach increased about 8.5 percent from March 2014 to the same month this year, while Jones quoted a 10.8 percent increase and McIntosh said prices increased as much as 13 percent.

According to Zillow.com, an online residential real estate research and listings website, the median price of homes in Long Beach was about $483,100 in mid-April.

Most homes for sale in Long Beach are priced between $400,000 and $600,000, according to Jones.

“The inventory that we do have tends to be toward the upper end of the market, so

Geoff McIntosh, broker and owner of Long Beach-based Main Street Realtors, was recently elected

by California Association of Realtors (CAR) members as next year’s president-elect. McIntosh is currently serving his second year as the association’s treasurer. As owner of Main Street Realtors, he oversees 230 realtors. He sits on the board of directors for the National Association of Realtors, CAR, and the Pacific West Association of Realtors (PWAR). He is a past president of PWAR, the Greater Long Beach Association of Realtors and the Apartment Association Southern California Cities. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

the big void is in starter properties,” McIntosh said. Homes that would normally have been considered ideal for first-time homebuyers are now priced as much as $700,000, in some cases, he noted.

“Typically, first-time homebuyers make up roughly 40 percent of the market,” Jones said. Currently, that group makes up only about 25 percent of all homebuyers, he added. Upward pressure on rental rates caused by strong demand for multi-family housing should put pressure on some renters to buy a home, Jones said, but wages may not be increasing at a fast enough rate for potential first-time home-

buyers to bite the bullet and invest in property. “People are really stuck,” he said.

Condos offer a more affordable entrance into homeownership, with the median price in Long Beach at about $277,000. While there is a healthy inventory of condos for sale, pending sales were up 66 percent in March in comparison to the same month last year, which indicates that sales prices should continue to rise, Jones noted.

“Home prices are not going down so, if you are looking to buy something, now is the time to do it,” Anderson said. Interest rates are also likely to increase some time this year, McIntosh pointed out, which is

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May 12-25, 2015 another reason for those looking to buy a home to do so sooner rather than later.

Assuming more properties are listed for sale, the outlook for the next few months is good, Jones, Anderson and McIntosh agreed.

Strong Demand For Long Beach Multi-Family Properties Drives Sales, Price Increases

T

he local multi-family real estate market continues to be attractive for investors, thanks to positive market fundamentals including very low vacancy rates and strong, stable demand from renters. As the Federal Reserve considers raising the federal funds rate by the end of the year, demand to buy multi-family properties in Long Beach is growing even stronger as investors hope to take advantage of historically low interest rates before they rise.

“We’re in a market that is only getting stronger,” Eric Christopher, senior associate at INCO Commercial, told the Business Journal. “It is a very good market for buyers and sellers,” he said.

“In the last couple of weeks, a few properties that have been sitting on the market for quite some time all have had a tremendous amount of activity and offers, and are going into escrow,” Steve Bogoyevac, first vice president of multi-family investments for the Long Beach office of Marcus & Millichap, told the Business Journal. Even properties that he considered somewhat overpriced have been “flying off the shelves with multiple offers on them.”

Strong rental demand means that landlords will likely be able to increase rents by 10 percent this year, or even 15 percent with high-quality upgrades like granite countertops, Christopher said. This prospect, coupled with low interest rates and relaxed financing options from lenders, makes the market appealing for buyers, he explained.

Sellers have been able to get top dollar in recent months, Bogoyevac noted. “I have definitely seen price appreciation across the board for multi-family properties in Long Beach,” he said. “You’re getting the same level of activity no matter what kind of property [it is] or where it is located.”

While the inventory of properties for sale is too low to meet current demand, both Bogoyevac and Christopher said more property owners seem to be considering selling. Christopher said properties purchased near the bottom of the market in 2008 through 2010 have since appreciated in value and seem to be making up a lot of recent sales.

While Christopher said he expected sales prices to continue appreciating based on increased property values driven by rising rental income, he said he is urging potential sellers to list their properties sooner rather than later. “If you want to take advantage of a strong buyer pool, it’s here right now. You’re not going to get that much marginal equity if you wait until next year [to sell],” he said.

“We’re going to kind of see the same activity until there is a shift in interest rates,” Bogoyevac predicted. “That will be one of the key items that might cause the market to slow down a little bit in terms of [sales price] appreciation.”

Long Beach Business Journal 19

REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY Christopher agreed, but said interest rates may not increase until next year. “It will happen, but the inflationary pressure on the national level is not high enough to stimulate the Fed to raise [interest] rates,” he said.

“So basically, this year is going to continue just like it is right now, I promise you.”

Thanks to strong demand for apartments in Long Beach, several multi-family real estate developments are planned and underway within the city, most of which are concentrated in Downtown Long Beach.

The most recently revealed plans come from Ensemble Investments, a Long Beach-based company that intends to develop a parking lot behind the historic Breakers Building along Seaside Way into a 113-unit apartment complex.

Two multi-family projects in the East Village Arts District are slated for completion this year: the Edison Lofts, an

adaptive reuse project by Ratkovich Properties, and the brand new 6th Street Lofts

by Urban Pacific Multi-Housing LLC. Ratkovich Properties is converting a former city office building at 100 Long Beach Blvd. into 156 rental units with a projected completion date of September 2015, while Urban Pacific is constructing a 30-unit multi-family property scheduled for completion mid-year.

Other projects underway include the 223unit luxury complex The Current at 707 E. Ocean Blvd., the 222-unit Parc Broadway at 245 W. Broadway, the 69-unit Pine Square project at 250 Pacific Ave., and a 28unit residential complex being built in a former department store at 433 N. Pine Ave. The most recent multi-family project to receive approval from the city is the adaptive reuse of the historic Ocean Center building at 110 W. Ocean Blvd. into as

many as 80 multi-family units and ground floor retail. Construction is expected to begin this summer.

■ By SEAN BELK Staff Writer

Office Real Estate Market Remains Stable As Tenant Base Becomes More Diversified

T

hough occupancy of office buildings in Long Beach has improved slightly in recent months, the market overall has remained constant for the past few years, with no major movement in the number of sales or leases.

But, with economic conditions contin(Please Continue To Page 20)

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20 Long Beach Business Journal (Continued From Page 19)

uing to recover locally and across the nation, it’s inevitable that long-time vacancies will begin to fill up again, said local real estate professionals.

“There is still a way to go in terms of the vacancies that we have both in suburban and Downtown Long Beach, but

REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY the future looks brighter now than it has in quite some time,” said David Smith, senior vice president for CBRE, Inc. in the greater Los Angeles area.

He said there hasn’t been any major lease activity for office space in Long Beach; however, there has been a significant uptick in office space viewing tours and proposals,

which are signs of a more optimistic market.

The overall vacancy rate for Downtown Long Beach is at 18.9 percent while the vacancy rate for the suburban market, which primarily straddles the 405 and 710 freeways, is at 19 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s 1st quarter office report, ending March 31, 2015.

The report indicates that, in the 1st quarter of this year, downtown saw positive absorption of 40,000 square feet while the suburban market saw negative absorption of 25,000 square feet, meaning that, between the two submarkets, there was a gain of about 15,000 square feet.

Robert Garey, senior director at Cushman

levard

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May 12-25, 2015

This Long Beach Business Journal photograph, taken on March 6, shows the two large buildings east of Lakewood Boulevard and north of Conant Street that are being occupied by Mercedes-Benz USA. The company signed a 15-year lease for the facilities last year. On the west side of Lakewood Boulevard is the 261-acre Douglas Park complex, which has attracted numerous companies to relocate their headquarters to the site, with more on the way. The Mercedes-Benz Vehicle Preparation Center is already using its new facilities for the delivery of several thousand cars weekly coming through the Port of Long Beach and being prepped for Mercedes’ dealerships throughout the West. The Learning & Performance Center held its first class earlier this month in the new facilities, training Mercedes employees on everything from repairs to selling. Later this week, the Mercedes’ Western Regional Office is relocating from Irvine. The buildings, combined, total approximately 1 million square feet and previously housed commercial airplane operations for The Boeing Company.

Mercedes-Benz USA (Continued From Page 1)

be finished within a month. Design work was performed by Michael Volk Architects of Orange County, with Long Beach-based Norm Wilson and Sons, Inc. as the contractor.

Employees of the Vehicle Preparation Center and Learning & Performance Center have already moved into the facility, and employees from the Western Region Office are moving from their Irvine office to their new location in Long Beach on the weekend of May 15. When everyone is moved in, there will be about 200 employees on site, most of whom transferred from other locations, Hepner said.

But don’t expect fanfare any time soon.

Hepner said a grand opening likely won’t take place until the fall to ensure that all those who need to attend have enough notice. “This is our brand presence on the West Coast. That will be a big deal for us in the United States,” she said of the future grand opening.

The principal purpose of the building

is to house the Vehicle Preparation Center (VPC); if the vast Mercedes facility were a mall, that would be its anchor tenant, Hepner said. After Mercedes vehicles come in through the Port of Long Beach, they will be trucked to MBUSA’s new facility. “If all our logistics go the way we want, we’ll get one ship a week,” Hepner said. Each shipment has about 4,000 to 5,000 vehicles.

“We wash them, we check them, and then we do test drives on them,” Hepner said of the vehicles going through the preparation center. “We accessorize them, then we bring them in and we do other quality checks. Then they go out the other side of the building and they get loaded on trucks to be delivered to our dealers on the West Coast,” she explained. “The VPC is operational as of today. They did their first wholesale in this building last month, which was terrific and we exceeded our objective.”

Also operational is the Learning & Performance Center, which provides training to Mercedes’ dealership and corporate employee throughout its entire

Western Region. That means if you’re employed at a dealership in Oregon, for example, you’ll come to this center for training, Hepner explained.

“We have technical training: how to work cars, how to fix cars. We have retail training: how to sell cars. We have classes relative to interpersonal development,” Hepner explained. “Any car is fairly complex and you have to stay up on training.” The first class at the new Learning & Performance Center, which has several classrooms and training areas, took place on May 4.

According to Hepner, the Learning & Performance Center is also offering a relatively new program for people who have undergone basic training through other companies or schools, such as Universal Technical Institute, which is building an automotive trade school across the street at Douglas Park.

With classes held five to six days per week, an extra 150 people are typically at the facility, she said. The location is ideal to accommodate that traffic, with proximity to a hotel and quick-serve restaurants

right across the street, plus the Long Beach Airport, Hepner noted.

The last remaining business unit to move in is the Western Region office, which serves 82 dealerships throughout the Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Utah.

“The Western Region Office, they report up to the same individual that I do, the vice president of sales,” Hepner said. These corporate employees keep dealerships apprised of Mercedes’ programs and policies, assist them with their inventories and help them provide “exceptional” customer service, she explained.

Mercedes’ experience working with the City of Long Beach to get its operations up and running has been “terrific,” Hepner said. “I met with the previous mayor, Mayor [Bob] Foster, when we started and for the most part the city has been most welcoming and accommodating to us,” she recalled. “Even if there was an issue, we could go talk to somebody and get it resolved. I don’t think you can ask for anything more out of a city.” ■

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May 12-25, 2015 & Wakefield’s Long Beach office, said a dip in downtown vacancy was driven by the Ocean Center Building at 110 W. Ocean Blvd. being converted to residential, which forced office tenants to migrate to other buildings.

Other than that, however, the office real estate market in Long Beach continues to steadily improve along with the economy, he said.

“I think there’s going to be slow improvement,” Garey said. “I don’t think it’s going to be rapid, but I think it will mirror what’s happening with the country and the general economic conditions that we’re seeing on a national, regional and local basis.”

He said rental rates for office space are forecast to remain “stable” over the next quarter, adding that there must be more positive absorption in the market before rental rates start to rise again. Still, Garey added that, “at some point in the future, that will happen.”

Smith said that, on a positive note, the Long Beach office market has already borne the impacts of larger companies such as Boeing downsizing their office footprints, adding that the market has become more resilient and diversified as a result.

“There’s not a lot left in terms of mega users downsizing and giving back significant blocks of space,” he said. “The market has evolved substantially over time from reliance on a few very large users, particularly Boeing, to a much more diversified tenant base that has more small and medium-size users that are growing.”

Smith said the health care and technology sectors are primarily driving the office

Long Beach Business Journal 21 real estate market in addition to money management companies and law firms.

The medical office space in particular has seen some growth, said Doug Shea, principal of INCO Commercial.

In Los Alamitos, for example, prices for small medical office buildings have risen in the past year from about $1.45 per square foot to about $1.85 per square foot, with strong demand from doctors, psychiatrists and dentists surrounding the Los Alamitos Medical Center, he said.

“Everything around that hospital seems to be growing . . . and we’re seeing a lot of activity over there,” Shea said, adding that Class A and Class B office space in East Long Beach is also highly sought after.

With vacancy rates still in the double digits, there is no new office space currently being built on a speculative basis, Garey confirmed. However, Douglas Park, a mixed-used business district north of the Long Beach Airport, continues to see demand for new corporate headquarters and build-to-suit “flex space” that houses a mixture of uses, such as office and warehouse or office and light production.

Universal Technical Institute (UTI), a leading automotive trade school, is leasing more than 140,000 square feet of office and industrial space on 7 acres at Douglas Park for administration and classroom space.

The new campus, which is under construction, is set to open this August with capacity for 800 students and 80 employees.

“Our expansion into Long Beach brings UTI closer to students interested in careers in the growing transportation industry and (Please Continue To Page 22)

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Universal Technical Institute (UTI), a leading automotive trade school, is opening a new campus at the Douglas Park business district in Long Beach. The more than 140,000 square-foot training facility is currently under construction and is set to open in August. The campus will feature extensive “handson� experience supported by classroom instruction and interactive online learning. Pictured is Larry Hohl, president of UTI’s Long Beach campus. Inset photograph shows work for the interior of the facility. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly) (Continued From Page 21)

helps us meet local employers’ increasing demand for highly trained service technicians,� said Larry Hohl, president of UTI’s Long Beach campus, in an e-mail, adding that major auto dealers and truck fleet managers in the region are in critical need of skilled technicians.

Additionally, the health care industry has necessitated new, small medical office buildings.

Urbana Development LLC, a Long Beach developer, is completing work on a 90,000-square-foot medical office campus at Douglas Park. Long Beach Gastroenterology Associates and Laser Skin Care have finished their tenant improvements and are open to receive patients in their respective buildings, according to Richard Lewis, principal for Urbana Development.

Tenant improvement work for Columbia Pediatrics is to be completed in June while work on the Memorial Outpatient Surgical

Center will be finished in September, he said. In addition, Urbana also broke ground on a 40,000-square-foot corporate build-to-suit office for Nautilus International Holding Corp, parent company of Metro Ports, which is relocating from Wilmington. Foundation work is underway and the building is expected to be completed in December.

In Downtown Long Beach, the Security Pacific National Bank building at 110 Pine Ave. will retain its current use as office space instead of being converted to a multifamily property as previously proposed, city officials confirmed.

Becky Blair, president of Coldwell Banker Commercial BLAIR WESTMAC, said a reason why sales of small office buildings are doing so well and leases are hurting is because many firms are deciding to own their own buildings rather than lease, a trend driven by historically low interest rates.

She noted that the City of Long Beach is

putting 31 parcels up for sale as the first round of disposing former redevelopment properties, with plans to release request for proposals in months to come.

Blair said the disposition of redevelopment properties in downtown and in north and central Long Beach will be a “game changer� for commercial real estate development. However, she added that new office buildings won’t be needed until the overall office market in Long Beach is 90 percent occupied, which is considered healthy.

Industrial Real Estate Market Remains Tight With High Demand And Very Low Inventory

W

ith lack of available space and strong demand from buyers and tenants, the industrial real estate market in Long Beach and the surrounding area is

May 12-25, 2015 the most competitive it’s been in years, according to local real estate professionals.

In fact, the vacancy rate for industrial property in the South Bay market has continued to fall, dropping from 3.1 percent in the 4th quarter of last year to 2.8 percent in the 1st quarter of this year, according to the latest market report from local commercial real estate firm Lee & Associates.

The forecast for the rest of the year is that the vacancy rate will drop further, possibly below 2 percent, as the economy continues to pick up, Brandon Carrillo, principal of Lee & Associates’ Long Beach branch, said. He noted that improving economic conditions and historically low interest rates continue to drive strong demand.

Lance Ryan, senior vice president of marketing and leasing for Watson Land Company, which is based in Carson and which has large industrial property holdings in the area, agreed that demand is high but there is still a lack of quality supply. “At the moment, demand is outpacing supply,� Ryan said. “I would say we’ve rarely seen vacancy rates this low in the South Bay . . . There’s almost no new product. There are very few infill development projects going on. So, it’s really tight in all those ranges.�

Carrillo added that the last time there was such a low inventory was in 2006, when the vacancy rate for the South Bay market fell below 1 percent and users were forced to look to the Inland Empire for available space.

At about 3.2 percent, the vacancy rate for Long Beach is a bit higher than that for the South Bay, he said; however, vacancy for all submarkets is expected to fall further.

In contrast to the days of the economic downturn nearly five years ago – when lease rates dropped about 30 percent and landlords offered concessions to woo quality tenants – such offers are nonexistent today and lease rates have returned to “prerecessionary highs again� as competition has increased substantially, Carrillo said. “The pendulum has swung back in favor of landlords,� he said, adding that tenants aware of the changing market conditions are “making adjustments to secure quality product.�

According to Lee & Associates, the average asking rent for industrial property in the South Bay increased from 65 cents per square foot net in the 4th quarter of last

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2015

May 12-25, 2015

REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY

Long Beach Business Journal 23

Representatives of commercial real estate firm Lee & Associates are seen inside a 30,370-square-foot distribution facility that the company has listed. The building located at 1501 W. Wardlow Rd. on the westside of Long Beach has 3,595 square feet of office space, dock-high positions, parking for 45 cars and a large fenced yard area. The site is near the 405/710 freeway interchange. Pictured from left are Principal Brandon Carrillo, President Gregory Gill, Principal Garrett Massaro and Associate Ryan Endres. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

year to 67 cents per square foot net in the 1st quarter of this year.

Average sales prices, however, decreased from $127 per square foot in the 4th quarter last year to $113 per square foot in the 1st quarter this year. However,

Lee & Associates states in its report that, prior to the 1st quarter, the market saw three straight quarters of a “drastic average sales price increase.”

Ryan predicts lease rates will continue to rise this year as demand for industrial space

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is expected to stay strong with limited space available.

He said most users in the market are tied to international trade, including third party logistics companies and large retailers bringing import goods through the local

ports. Ryan said port congestion caused by recent labor disputes has for the most part subsided, though there may be some backlog to work through.

“As retail consumption continues to re(Please Continue To Page 24)

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24 Long Beach Business Journal (Continued From Page 23)

cover and rebound, our expectation is that those folks will continue to look for more space and larger volumes,” he said. “The flow of goods is moving again. There’s still a little catch-up to do, but I think that’s been largely worked off as we come into the second quarter.”

Construction of new industrial buildings has been primarily concentrated at Douglas Park, a mixed-use business district north of the Long Beach Airport that once served as a McDonnell Douglas aircraft manufacturing site and that now offers the most developable land in the area with close proximity to the 405 Freeway.

Last year, Mercedes-Benz USA announced it is leasing two former 717 aircraft manufacturing hangars that total 1.1 million square feet for a new West Coast campus. That project is nearing completion (refer to Page 1 story). This major transaction created a “halo effect,” according to Lee & Associates, in which Virgin Galactic then stepped up earlier this year to lease a 151,000-square-foot facility to build and design its LauncherOne satellite launch vehicle at Douglas Park.

In addition, Signal Hill-based 2H Construction has purchased two acres at Douglas Park to build industrial facilities totaling 40,000 square feet. And Shimadzu Aircraft Equipment Co., a manufacturer of precision aircraft instruments, has completed its 53,000 square-foot headquarters at Douglas Park and is relocating from Torrance.

REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY Sares Regis Group (SRG), which originally purchased Douglas Park, has been actively developing, selling and leasing property. SRG is planning a new 25-acre phase of Pacific Pointe East for three buildings totaling nearly 470,000 square feet of corporate headquarters and distribution facilities north of Lakewood Boulevard and across from the new Mercedes facility.

Still, Ryan said, most of the new industrial buildings at Douglas Park are either leased or sold prior to completion.

He said the future of industrial development will likely come from infill projects and through leveling or retrofitting existing buildings with updated aesthetics and functionality to meet today’s tenant needs.

Retail Market On The Rebound With Influx Of Investment And Sales Activity

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etail real estate in Long Beach is rebounding steadily, with an influx of investment and increased sales activity as landlords are seeing multiple purchase offers and more tenants signing leases, according to local real estate professionals.

While there are still a few “tough” spots with less traffic and low visibility where vacancies are harder to fill, other properties that are well maintained near heavily trafficked intersections and in dense areas are seeing more sales activity.

Adam Friedlander, senior associate with Marcus & Millichap, said the retail real estate sector has returned to pre-recession levels of 2005 and 2006, as occupancy rates have improved while leases and sales transactions are on the rise. He said, in some cases, the market is doing better than it was before the recession.

“We are seeing quite a bit of leasing activity taking place, and we’re also seeing deals trading hands,” Friedlander said.

“The [number] of sales that are occurring is remaining very strong.”

He said Long Beach has become a “very hot market to invest in,” adding that new developments downtown and across the city have boosted demand.

“A lot of redevelopment is going on,” Friedlander said “A lot of new tenants are being attracted to the area. New leases are being signed. So, it’s really a great opportunity to invest in Long Beach right now.”

Brian Russell, vice president of Coldwell Banker Commercial BLAIR WESTMAC, echoed that sentiment, stating that there appears to be more investment from outside the area coming into Long Beach with more properties changing hands than in previous years. He said sales prices for retail property are also increasing.

A major sale in Long Beach involved a single-tenant property at the Traffic Circle at 4400 E. Los Coyotes Diag. Russell said the property, where a new CVS Pharmacy was built, sold for $15 million, adding that it was the “largest transaction in a while.”

He noted that such large national tenants have very strong balance sheets and credit

May 12-25, 2015 history but often draw a rather low rate of return or capitalization (cap) rate for investors. Properties with small mom and pop tenants may have more risk but can produce a higher cap rate.

However, the fact that a buyer was willing to pay such a high price for a national single-tenant property shows investors are “willing to compress or lower their rates of return in exchange for [the investment’s] perceived safety,” Russell said.

In addition, last year, Orange Countybased investment firm Red Mountain Retail Group purchased the vacant shopping center in Bixby Knolls, formerly anchored by a Ralphs grocery store, at San Antonio Drive and Long Beach Boulevard.

The Trader Joe’s currently located at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Carson Street plans to relocate to the spot where Ralphs closed its doors while other tenants, including Crunch Fitness and Pet Food Express, are moving there as well.

Another major sale was Hooman Toyota of Long Beach’s purchase of a former Cadillac dealership site at Willow Street and Redondo Avenue, with plans to relocate from the Traffic Circle. The new auto dealership location is currently under construction. Russell said the auto dealership site sold for about $13.5 million with financing through Toyota’s credit corporation.

Aside from the automotive industry seeing improvement, restaurants are also experiencing strong growth right now, an indicator that people have more disposable income to spend, Russell said.

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May 1

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Other major players in retail right now are national pharmacy-related chain stores, including CVS and Walgreens. On the other hand, grocery stores and sporting goods retailers are starting to contract, as evidenced by Ralphs closing stores recently, Russell said.

Friedlander said most tenants signing leases right now are quick service restaurants, such as Chipotle and fast food chains, while convenience stores, such as 7-Eleven, and Hispanic supermarkets are also filling up space.

Though some tenants are still “aggressive” on deals, many landlords with quality property and in good locations are no longer in a position of having to offer

tenants concessions as in the past, Russell said.

Friedlander added that many landlords in heavily trafficked and well-maintained areas are able to hold firm on lease rates and in some instances raise rents.

New retail construction and renovations, meanwhile, are starting to pick up again. Major redevelopment downtown is taking place at The Pike, which was recently rebranded as an outlet center by property management firm Developers Diversified Realty Corp. (DDR).

Redevelopment at what’s now called The Pike Outlets includes complete renovation of the façade and a redesign of walkways, said Brandon Glenn,

Leases And Transactions

• Globe Con Freight System increased its leased space in Rancho Dominguez to 169,957 square feet in two buildings on Broadwick Street. The renewed lease for five-years is valued at $5.8 million. The firm provides transportation services, including harbor drayage, transloading services, retail distribution, fulfillment and nationwide trucking. Lee & Associates’ Don Smith represented Globe Con Freight in the transaction, and The Carson Companies, which owns the buildings, was represented in house by Todd Burnight.

• Connotate, Inc. signed a lease for 1,735 square feet of office space at 3777 Long Beach Blvd. in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach. The company is new to the city. The transaction was handled by Lee’s Coburn and McCullough.

• Shiny Objects leased 2,272 square feet of office space at 100 W. Broadway.

Lee’s Coburn and McCullough handled the transaction.

• Hype leased 3,992 square feet of office space at 249 E. Ocean. Lee’s Coburn and McCullough represented the landlord, Danari Ocean, LLC, in the transaction, and CBRE’s John Lane represented the tenant.

The following transaction were submitted

by INCO Commercial Realty: • J. Steven Pennington purchased an industrial building at 1520 Seabright Ave. in West Long Beach for $295,000. INCO’s Bill Townsend handled the transaction.

• Universal Property purchased an industrial building at 110 E. Anaheim St. in Long Beach for $1,185,000. INCO’s James Arias and Debra Orth handled the transaction.

• Sen Bin Lai, M.D., purchased an industrial building at 1974-1978 Santa Fe Ave. in West Long Beach for $600,000. The transaction was handled by INCO’s Arias and Paul Phillips.

• Lawn Fawn, LLC signed a four-year lease for a 2,405-square-foot industrial building in Rancho Santa Margarita. The transaction, valued at $122,553, was handled by INCO’s David Baker.

• Earlier this year, University Escrow signed a five-year lease for 2,463 square feet of office space at 10690 Los Alamitos Blvd. in Los Alamitos, The $257,137 transaction was handled by INCO’s Brad Miles and Orth.

The following transaction were submitted

by G J Property Services: • New Hope Joint & Spine signed an eight-year lease for 2,300 square feet of office space at the West County Professional Building at 14120 Beach Blvd. in Westminster. The $377,372 transaction was handled

by G J’s Don Johnson. ■

The following transactions were submitted by Coldwell Banker BLAIR WESTMAC: • Warren Resources of California sold a 7,197-square-foot industrial building at 2306 E. I St. in Wilmington for $273,486.

The transaction was handled by Coldwell Banker’s John Eddy and Tyler Rollema.

• PXE, Inc., dba/Packers Express, signed a four-year lease for 14,233 square feet of industrial space at 2401 E. Anaheim St. in Wilmington. The $478,908 transaction was handled by CB’s Eddy and Rollema.

• Christina Dary Lee and Christopher Credy Nget signed a lease for 1,025 square feet of office space at 817 Atlantic Ave. in Downtown Long Beach. The transaction, valued at $240,000, was handled by CB’s Becky Blair and Sheva Hosseinzadeh.

• Murphy Overseas, LLC signed a oneyear lease for 640 square feet of office space at 249 E. Ocean Blvd. CB’s Roy Gaut handled transaction.

• Recreation Fitness, LLC signed a three-year lease for 1,072 square feet of office space at 4234 Atlantic Ave. in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach. CB’s Eddy handled the transaction.

• Chestnut Loma Vista, LLC purchased an historic, multi-family apartment building at 604-614 Chestnut Ave. in Downtown Long Beach for $1,199,000.

The property covers 7,331 square feet of space. The transaction was handled by CB’s George Bustamante, Steve Warshauer and Cameron Jacques.

The following transactions were submitted by the Long Beach office of Lee & Associates: • The law firm of Adelson, Testan, Brundo, Noveli & Jimenez, which has offices in 13 states and numerous cities in California, signed a $1.48 million lease for 13,166 square feet of office space at the 100 W. Broadway building in Downtown Long Beach. It relocated from another building downtown. The landlord, Danari Broadway, LLC, was represented by Lee & Associates’ Shaun McCullough, Jeff Coburn, Dylan Espley-Jones and Say Jeon.

The law firm was represented by John Murray of Murray Aaronson.

• Mission School Transportation signed a five-year lease for a 43,510square-foot industrial building at 3195½ Walnut Ave. in Long Beach. Lee’s Brandon Carrillo, Jeff Coburn and Garrett Massaro handled the transaction.

spokesperson for DDR, in an e-mail. The redevelopment work is to be completed in fall of this year, with tenant fit-outs continuing through 2016.

Recently announced tenant additions at The Pike Outlets include Nike, Forever 21 and H&M, which are expected to open in the fall as well.

After opening at The Pike in 2013, Restoration Hardware has thrived and has doubled its square footage, Glenn said, adding that the store’s success has been “one of the major drivers of retail expansion at the property.”

In addition, Cinemark is converting all seating in auditoriums to “luxury lounges” and is installing a premium, large-format screen. Glenn said addi-

Long Beach Business Journal 25 tional tenants would be announced later this year once all parties execute leases.

A new retail development is coming to Douglas Park, a mixed-use business district north of the Long Beach Airport.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Newport Beach-based Burnham USA Equities, Inc. plans to build a retail center called The Village at Douglas Park with restaurants, shops and at least one hotel at Carson Avenue and Lakewood Boulevard.

Art Barrett, spokesperson for Sares Regis Group (SRG), which sold the property to Burnham USA, said construction of the retail center, however, isn’t expected to begin for months. City officials confirmed that no permit application has been submitted for the project yet. ■

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26 Long Beach Business Journal

IN THE NEWS

May 12-25, 2015

Long Beach’s LD Products Welcomes Deputy Consul General For People’s Republic Of China LD Products, a manufacturer and distributor of ink, toner and office supplies headquartered at Douglas Park in Long Beach, welcomed Sun Lushan, deputy consul general of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles and 15 Chinese consuls for a tour and luncheon on April 27. The consuls were guests of the Long Beach Mayor’s Office, the City of Long Beach and the Long Beach-Qingdao Sister City Association, whose mission is to promote international understanding by pledging to assist exchange and trade between the two cities. Also in attendance were Larry Uyeda, board chairman of the organization, and David Zanatta, past board chair. LD CEO Aaron Leon personally conducted the tour. “We were honored to have been chosen as one of three sites for this tour,” Leon said. “As an entrepreneur, I’ve experienced how important it is to maintain relationships with our manufacturers here in the U.S. and abroad. We look forward to a long and beneficial relationship with our Chinese counterparts.” Originally established by Leon in 1999 as an ink and toner supplier, LD Products has grown into one of the largest U.S. online retailers for all office supplies. According to Leon, LD Products is the 20th largest privately owned company in Los Angeles, and ships more than 1 million packages nationwide every year. Lushan is pictured above, center, with Uyeda at left and at right are Leon, Zanatta, Cookie Braude, business development consultant for LD Products and behind her, Frank Farina, vice president of business development for the company. (Photograph provided by LD Products)

Moffatt & Nichol Is Long Beach Boy Scouts’ Good Scout Of The Year On June 3 at its Distinguished Citizen Dinner, the Long Beach Boy Scouts is recognizing Long Beach-based engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol as the 2015 Good Scout of the Year for exemplifying scout ethics and values. The event takes place at 6 p.m. at the Pacific Ballroom at the Long Beach Arena, 300 E. Ocean Blvd. Moffatt & Nichol assisted the Boy Scouts in designing and installing a 100-foot pedestrian bridge at the organization’s Camp Tahquitz, located off Highway 38 in San Bernardino County. The project, shown here in a poster held by Moffatt & Nichol President Eric Nichol (left) and Long Beach Boy Scouts CEO John Fullerton, enables about 20,000 pedestrian crossings every year. “Being that this would be the only privately owned and funded bridge across a California state highway, there were many obstacles that we needed to overcome,” Fullerton said. “From right-of-way issues to determining Caltrans standards, Moffatt & Nichol provided professional services and guidance for over three years to make our camp safer.” “It was important for the firm to take part in the effort,” Nichol said. “Moffatt & Nichol believes it is essential to give back as much as possible in order to help promote and facilitate strength among communities in which we work.” (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

Police Department Announces Promotions; New Academy Class Begins The Long Beach Police Department held ceremonies at Long Beach City Council chambers on April 30 to recognize the promotion of 13 of its employees, including non-sworn personnel. With command staff and others looking on (back row), individuals promoted were, from left: Annette Petterson, promoted to maintenance assistant III; Mike Morales, to building services supervisor; Annie Khin and Tom Leary, to administrative analyst III; to the rank of sergeant, David Frazier, Jonathan Steinhauser, Ramiro Herrera, Eric Matusak, Stephanie Hall, Kenneth Green and Richard Chambers; to the rank of commander, Rudy Komisza; and to deputy chief, Michael Beckman. In other department news, a third police academy class in the past two years is underway with graduation anticipated by late this year, followed by a year-long field training program. “We are pleased the new academy class is under way,” said Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna in a statement. “These men and women have begun a process that will prepare them for a rewarding career in serving our community and make Long Beach a safer place for all people.” According to the department, the new academy includes 45 recruits, plus 3 recruits hired by the City of Gardena Police Department who are participating in this class. A press release announcing the class included this statement: “The 27-week course will challenge recruits mentally and physically as they are instructed in the many facets of law enforcement including criminal law, investigations, driver's training, report writing, policies, procedures, cultural sensitivity and awareness, human relations, problem solving and mediation skills,” (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

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2015

Long Beach Fire Station Gets New Drought-Tolerant Landscaping Long Beach city officials gathered on May 8 to showcase Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD) Station 19’s new drought-tolerant landscaping, which replaced a grass lawn. The fire station’s new landscaping fronts Clark Avenue, making it a “constant reminder to passersby that mandatory water conservation requirements have become the norm rather than the exception,” according to a joint statement from LBFD and the offices of Councilmembers Stacy Mungo and Al Austin. The new landscaping was made possible by incentive programs offered by the Long Beach Water Department. “The fire department’s spirit of service and commitment to ensuring the well-being of our community is exemplified in this latest action,” Long Beach Fire Chief Mike DuRee said in the joint release. “We are always striving to be at the forefront of promoting fire safety, especially given the severe drought conditions before us.” Pictured, from left, are: Long Beach Water Department General Manager Kevin Wattier, Councilmembers Austin and Mungo, Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners President Harry Saltzgaver, and Chief DuRee. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

Mayor Robert Garcia Announces Goal To End Veteran Homelessness In a press conference at the Long Beach Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Building on April 29, Mayor Robert Garcia announced his commitment to meet President Barack Obama’s challenge to U.S. mayors to end veteran homelessness in their cities. He was joined by Long Beach VA Director Michael Fisher and Long Beach Department of Health Services Director Kelly Colopy, as well as a crowd of veterans and media. The City of Long Beach and VA are collaborating to meet the goal by the end of the year. “The men and women who serve in our armed forces are the heroes of our community,” Garcia wrote in an e-mailed letter later that day. “No veteran should ever have to be without a home and a warm place to sleep. That’s why I’m proud to have announced today that the City of Long Beach will end veteran homelessness before the close of 2015.” According to a statement from the mayor’s office, veteran homelessness in Long Beach has already decreased 43 percent in 2015. Pictured, Garcia (right) speaks with veterans and Fisher (center) about his goal to end veteran homelessness in Long Beach. (Photograph by the Business Journal’s Evan Patrick Kelly)

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28 Long Beach Business Journal

May 12-25, 2015

PERSPECTIVE

HealthWise

Small Business Dollars & Sense

The dangers of Stroke

Five Financial Spring Cleaning Tips For Small Businesses

S

troke is the third leading cause of death for women. In comparison, stroke is the fifth leading cause of death for men. A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts, and part of the brain starts to die.

Stroke is not a disease that discriminates against age or gender. It is important to learn the warning signs of a stroke so you will be able By nima ramezan, M.d. to recognize them if one happens to you or a loved one. Once you know the signs, it is extremely important to get to the hospital immediately when the first symptoms appear.

It is important to learn the many warning signs of a stroke. If you think someone may be having a stroke, B.E. F.A.S.T: • B – BALANCE: Is there a sudden loss of balance or coordination?

• E – EYES: Are there sudden vision changes?

• F – FACE: Does one side of the face droop when the person smiles?

• A – ARM or Leg Weakness: Does one arm/leg drift downward when raised?

• S – SPEECH: Is their speech slurred or strange?

• T – TIME: If you observe any of these signs, call 9-1-1 immediately.

All these symptoms are seen in both men and women. The time to be most concerned is when symptoms are sudden and are severe or unusual. For example, headaches are common, but if you get a headache that hits severely and suddenly without a known cause and feels unlike any other headache you’ve ever had, that headache could be a warning sign of stroke. The most effective stroke treatments are only available if the stroke is recognized and diagnosed within the first three hours of symptom onset.

One way men and women can improve their odds for not having a stroke is to learn about lifestyle changes to reduce risk and if necessary, take medications, to lower stroke risk. General risk factors include: family history, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, lack of exercise and being overweight. In addition to the general risk factors, women are faced with unique risk factors which include: taking birth control pills, being pregnant, using hormone replacement therapy and suffering from migraine headaches with aura.

Things that put women at greater risk of stroke are related to female hormones, such as estrogen. Estrogen is a coagulant, which means it clots the blood more.

Women are at a higher risk of stroke when estrogen levels are high in the body, including at the later stages of pregnancy and right after delivery. Estrogen levels can be raised by birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy medications.

Each year, nearly 800,000 Americans suffer a new or recurrent stroke. Anyone, male or female, who experiences possible stroke symptoms, needs to seek medical attention right away.

(Nima Ramezan, M.D., is the medical director of the Stroke Program for the MemorialCare Neuroscience Institute at Long Beach Memorial.)

Effective Leadership Benefits From engaging Millennial employees

M

any organizations are rethinking, reimagining and reinventing the workplace. As they look at current trends, they become better at understanding future demographics. They are not looking simply to cope with the changes, but rather to use them as a backdrop for proactive learning.

By MiCk The changes have become a catalyst rather UklejA than a roadblock.

A learning organization is made up of learning individuals. That starts with the right questions: How could the changing demographics in our workplace make us faster and better at delivering services and products? What needs to be changed in our processes and procedures to make us more viable? How do we leverage this new generation in light of our future needs?

Since Millennials (1983-2001), will make up nearly half the workforce by 2015, proactive organizations understand the need to engage them.

I

t’s spring cleaning season and not just time to clean out your closets, it’s also a good time for small business owners to get organized.

Below are five tips that can help you stay on track this season: 1. De-clutter your Business Expenses: As a small business owner, you’re likely responsible for filing your taxes on a quarterly basis. With the April 15 deadline in the rearview mirror, think about next quarter and changes you can make today to better prepare. Keep your business

By Ben and personal expenses separate. Business checking and credit accounts AlvArAdo that are separate from personal accounts can help you maintain accurate and complete records of all business-related income and expenses.

It’s also a good time to find ways to reduce costs and cut unnecessary expenses. An easy way to audit your expenses is to print out a list of all expenditures from your bookkeeping system, and determine if they were necessary to keep your business running.

2. Dust off your Business Plan: Every small business should have a formal business plan to help with business decisions and strategic planning. If you have one already, now is the time to do a quick review and consider updates to reflect your current business needs and goals. From start-up to succession planning, a business plan serves as a guide through the entire lifecycle of a business. A business plan also may help you obtain business financing.

3. Take a Fresh Look at Payments: Now is a great time for business owners to evaluate all of the payment options offered including transitioning to chip card/EMV acceptance for credit card payments.

Credit and debit cards embedded with chips (EMV cards) is one important step to strengthening security. October 1, business owners who accept card payments with chipcard enabled devices will not be financially liable for fraudulent card transactions. Chip cards have embedded computer chips that create unique codes for every transaction, which better protects consumers and merchants.

4. Spruce up your Transition Plan: As a small business owner, you’re probably not thinking about selling your business or retiring, but it’s never too early to start planning for the future. There are many decisions to think about – whether you want to sell your business, pass it to a family member, cash out or wind down entirely – and this can sometimes be a daunting task. It’s helpful to start the process of business exit planning several years early.

5. Reduce your Cash Flow Burden: To run a successful small business, it’s essential that you maintain a healthy cash flow. Tracking your cash flow on a monthly basis can help you improve cash flow projections and better plan for expenses and business expansions.

Nearly every small business will face a time when it needs more cash than it has on hand. You may want to consider a business line of credit to help bridge any gaps your business encounters in cash flow.

Overall, it’s a good idea to add spring cleaning to your calendar. Refreshing business plans and reviewing your finances will enhance your bottom line, and impact your productivity for future success.

(Ben Alvarado, a 23-year veteran of Wells Fargo, is the president of the bank’s Southern California Region, which stretches from Long Beach to Orange, Imperial and San Diego counties.)

Future employees (mostly Millennials), will expect their workplace to reflect certain characteristics. And proactive organizations see them as advantages. Here are five.

1. A move toward “distributed” decision making. In traditional organizations decisions are made by central command because that’s where the information’s collected. But today, with the entrance of the Internet, there is a pipeline of information available to everyone. The skills for great decision making need to be diverse, dynamic and everevolving in order to keep up with rapid change. Pepsico does this well. They encourage two-way dialogue. They understand that a company must support bottom-up-decisionmaking power that is in alignment with organizational goals. It’s organic and unfettered by a hierarchical system.

2. A need for work flexibility to meet talent shortages.

Yes, there are places where virtual work doesn’t add value – mining, construction, manufacturing, etc. But the virtual work list is growing larger and larger. The attachment of certain skills to a company’s location is not as strong as it used to be. Organizations that engage the best of this new generation understand that they have a workforce that’s wired, plugged in, connected, and empowered.

3. More “premium” time spent on work-related issues.

We know there are negative risks to being freed from the 9 to 5 cubicle. It’s a natural tendency for an organization to focus on waning loyalty and excess socializing in the office. For Millennials the lines for both work and life are blurred. They might well be working at 10 p.m. somewhere

away from the office. That becomes premium time. Some companies have cultures that allow these two worlds to appropriately co-exist.

4. A transformation of traditional feedback to “microfeedback.” The days of an annual or bi-annual performance review have been replaced by a new and better process called micro-feedback. A person gets instant feedback that’s specific in real time. It possesses a greater probability of real behavioral change.

5. Replacement of “job hopping” for “climbing the corporate ladder.” What used to be labeled as a pariah is now seen as an advantage by some organizations. We’ve all heard about the dark side of job hopping. Yet consider an organization that loses an employee because they want additional career exposure. The other side to the equation is an employee bringing valuable knowledge from different cultures to the receiving organization. Here are two side benefits: It increases a company’s network potential; the organization gets better at retaining its best talent.

Successful organizations change the way they think. As they engage the new workforce, they embrace the future, which in turn braces them for a great adventure.

(Mick Ukleja keynotes across the country on topics related to leadership. He is president of LeadershipTraq and author of several books, including co-author of Managing the Millennials. His clients have included Fortune 500 corporations and non-profit organizations. Check his weekly blog at www.leadershiptraq.com.)

May 1

1_LBBJ_MAY12_2015_PortAnniversary 5/9/15 2:36 PM Page 29

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PERSPECTIVE

Realty Views how Will housing Market Grow?

D

espite a slowly improving housing market from the depths of the Great Recession and the housing bubble that began more than seven years ago, industry leaders from the new home market, the mortgage industry and the home resale sector are all looking for additional ingredients to get housing and home ownership back

By Terry pre-2007 levels. to roSS For starters, a recent study by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that only about one in four former homeowners who lost property during the housing crash will soon become buyers again as tight credit keeps many out of the U.S. real estate market.

Of the 9.3 million owners who went through foreclosure or were forced to sell at a loss, about 950,000 already have bought again and 1.5 million more are likely to make a purchase in the next five years, according to the report.

The U.S. homeownership rate fell to 64 percent at the end of last year, a two-decade low and down from a high of 69.2 percent in 2004, according to Census Bureau data. The ownership rate will drop to 63.5 percent by 2016 and plateau for years, according to report by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. “They (those that were forced out of homeownership) won’t be a significant factor to the housing market going forward,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR. “The majority of the 9.3 million won’t be coming back.”

The 9.3 million homeowners in the NAR study gave up their homes through more than 5 million foreclosures and 4 million other distressed transactions since early 2007, including short sales and deeds in lieu of foreclosure, Yun said.

The estimate that 950,000 buyers have returned to date is based on surveys showing they accounted for about 7 percent of existing home sales since 2012, when those who lost property to foreclosure became eligible again for Federal Housing Administration financing.

California, Florida and Arizona, which had the highest numbers of foreclosures early in the housing crisis, will see the biggest share of return buyers over the next five years, NAR said. Many who’ve repaired their credit and hope to purchase again, though, will face challenges in areas where home prices have recovered and

affordability is out of reach, such as the coastal areas of California.

From 2009 to 2013, tight credit stymied about 4 million potential homeowners, including both first-time buyers and socalled boomerang buyers who are coming back from losing property during the crash, according to a report issued earlier this month by the Urban Institute.

In Washington right now the debate is over how to re-energize the housing market without destabilizing the banking and mortgage institutions and yet create commonsense underwriting and lending standards. It is a tough balancing act considering most believe that strict mortgage underwriting is keeping many from re-entering the market, but that the loose lending that fueled the housing bubble and ensuing crash enabled unqualified people to become owners.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is urging Congress and federal regulators to ease tight mortgage guidelines in order to help build a more robust recovery in housing and lending, yet elected officials are wary of loosening the reins too much and then having to endure another bubble and billions in bad loans that the government was forced to bail banks out of.

Just last month the NAHB appeared before Congress to lobby for the Mortgage Choice Act and the Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act. Combined, these are designed to give consumers more choices and access to credit, and to ensure community lenders have the confidence to fund programs to buyers who in the past may have not qualified for these special programs.

In addition to congressional action, NAHB believes that federal agencies need to take action to alleviate burdensome regulatory requirements that are stifling lending to anyone but the most creditworthy borrowers.

Lenders are currently imposing credit underwriting standards that are more restrictive than those FHA, VA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require, making it more difficult for prospective home buyers to obtain financing.

Moreover, fees for government-backed mortgages are now higher and resulting in greater costs all the way around, even though the credit quality of the underlying loans has increased significantly.

NAHB is also urging congressional and/or regulatory action on legislation in the areas of appraisals on new construction and access to credit for home builders, both of which have problems that are resulting in dampening the supply of new housing.

If all of these industry factions and legislators can get on the same page when it comes to reworking these requirements, it will go a long way in helping the housing market recover more quickly.

(Terry Ross, the broker-owner of TR Properties, will answer any questions about today’s real estate market. E-mail questions to Realty Views at terryross1@cs.com or call 949/457-4922.)

Trade And Transportation The Future of Supply Chain Technology

By ToM o’Brien and SeAn ZoUeihed

A

mong the more interesting news items from the past few weeks was a report that a graffiti artist named Katsu defaced a six-story billboard in Manhattan. The billboard was a Calvin Klein ad featuring Kendall Jenner. That wasn’t the interesting part. The interesting part was how he did it.

He used a drone.

Drones have been put into service for military purposes of course, but their potential use in other areas is capturing more attention these days. Social commentary on the Kardashians aside, perhaps the greatest potential use is in the area of supply chain management. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has stated that delivery by drones will “be as normal as seeing mail trucks.”

This position would seem to be endorsed by other industry leaders. The Material Handling Institute (MHI), a trade association serving the MH and logistics industry, recently surveyed 400 supply chain execu-

tives about the future of technology for its 2015 Annual Industry Report. That report outlined eight key innovations which make possible customer-driven, next- generation supply chains. Four of these are already in wide scale service: inventory and network optimization, sensors and automatic ID, cloud computing and storage, and robotics and automation. Another two, predictive analytics and wearable and mobile technology, were deemed growth areas. The last two, 3D printing and driverless vehicles/drones, are categorized in the MHI report as emerging technologies.

Emerging is right. Airborne drones are already in use. Germany has approved use of a Parcelcopter delivering drugs and other supplies to offshore locations in the North Sea. Companies such as DHL and Google ¬– in addition to Amazon – have all made investments in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-related R&D. We should also expect to see drones used within the distribution center where they have the potential to be more flexible than forklifts and conveyer systems. The technology has been tested and used for palletizing, sorting, loading, and unloading containers.

Some of the major obstacles to implementation are not technological however,

but regulatory in nature. Amazon has been granted permission by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to undertake drone tests. However FAA Line of Sight rules, which require aerial drones to stay below 500 feet and within the line-of-site of the operator, have hindered commercial UAV development and use.

Other applications are also on the way.

Rolls Royce is developing drone cargo ships under a project called Blue Ocean.

A fully autonomous cargo ship without a human crew potentially means no living quarters, air conditioning, water or sewage, thus leaving more room for cargo space. For its part, Mercedes-Benz is developing a self-driving semi-truck designed to reduce both costs and human error behind the wheel.

There are risks of course, and the wide ranging use of unmanned vehicles of whatever type will have tremendous implications for society as a whole. The technology can help supply chains be more customerdriven, but the customer has to be comfortable with the technology in the first place.

We‘re not quite there yet.

Regardless of where the technology takes us, there will no doubt be changes to the way supply chains are designed and managed. For those of us in the university, this poses an opportunity and a challenge.

The MHI 2015 Industry Report quoted figures from the World Economic Forum

Long Beach Business Journal 29

Vol. XXVIII No. 9 May 12-25, 2015

EDITOR & PUBLISHER George Economides SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVE Heather Dann STAFF ASSISTANT Larry Duncan EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT SENIOR WRITER Samantha Mehlinger STAFF WRITER Sean Belk CONTRIBUTING WRITER Gerrie Schipske PHOTOJOURNALIST Evan Patrick Kelly COPY EDITOR Pat Flynn The Long Beach Business Journal is a publication of South Coast Publishing, Inc., incorporated in the State of California in July 1985. It is published every other Tuesday (except between Christmas and mid-January) – 25 copies annually. The Business Journal premiered March 1987 as the Long Beach Airport Business Journal. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited unless otherwise stated. Opinions expressed by perspective writers and guest columnists are their views and not necessarily those of the Business Journal. Press releases should be sent to the address shown below.

Office South Coast Publishing, Inc. 2599 E. 28th Street, Suite 212 Signal Hill, CA 90755 Ph: 562/988-1222 • Fx: 562/988-1239 www:LBBusinessJournal.com Advertising and Editorial Deadlines Wednesday prior to publication date. Note: Press releases should be faxed or mailed. No follow up calls, please. For a copy of the 2015 advertising and editorial calendar, please fax request to 562/988-1239. Include your name, company and address and a copy will be sent to you. Distribution: Minimum 22,000.

Regular Office Hours Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Business Journal Subscriptions Standard Bulk Rate: $28.00 1st Class: $70.00 (25 issues–1 year)

in stating that 600,000 manufacturing-related positions in the U.S. have gone unfilled because job applicants lack basic qualifications. With 1.4 million new logistics jobs expected to be added to the U.S. economy by 2018, the problem will become even more acute unless we as a nation do a better job of matching employer demand with an appropriately skilled workforce.

This means education has an important role to play. But it also means looking at our courses, our professional development offerings, and the kinds of financial support we make available to students for non-traditional, if valuable, training opportunities. Do they prepare students for the workforce of the future?

Answering this question will likely mean changing some standard operating procedures in (and out of) the classroom, but our effectiveness as educational institutions will require us to be a bit more nimble and adaptive, much like the workplaces we hope to prepare our students to enter. But a drone could never replace a teacher, right?

(Dr. Thomas O’Brien is the executive director of the Center for International Trade and Transportation at CSULB and an associate director for the METRANS Transportation Center, a partnership of USC and CSULB. Sean Zoueihed is a student in the CSULB College of Business Administration)

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ART MATTERS

Brought To You By The Arts Council For Long Beach • www.artslb.org

Architecture as Art: Long Beach Modernist Design and Beyond

Long Beach Business Journal 30 May 12-25, 2015

Art Matters to The LGBTQ Center of Long Beach

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■ By SARAH BENNETT ■ By APRIL ECONOMIDES Arts Council for Long Beach Staff Member

A

wise man once said, “Beautiful architecture is art that you can live in.” That man is actually 41-year-old Long Beach resident Nate Cole, owner of Unique California Property who lives in a mid-century modern work of art by architect Edward Killingsworth.

Cole, who received a 2014 International President’s Circle Award for Coldwell Banker, moved to Long Beach 12 years ago to buy his home, located in the Los Cerritos neighborhood. He calls it The Seeley Residence out of respect for its first owner, Patsy Seeley. He was fortunate to have Mr. Killingsworth and Mrs. Seeley meet at the house on the day he closed escrow in 2003 to share their stories.

Grateful he’s only the second owner and that the original exterior and interior design is intact, Cole explains, “A lot of times people buy architecturally

Nate Cole of Unique California Property. Photo by Neil Clemmons Harrison.

him to help restore Killingsworth’s Opdahl house, now a historic landmark, located in Naples.

“I knew I wanted to sell real estate with a focus on architecture,” Cole said. “I used to drive to Killingsworth’s Case Study Triad in La Jolla and just stare at it. I thought, ‘That’s the way to live. That’s how I

want to live someday.’”

Cole is also a fan of modernist furniture, art and graphic design, and his house reflects this. Almost all of the items in his home have stories to go along with them. For instance, his Eero Saarinen Womb Chair, designed for Florence Knoll in 1948, originally came from a Killingsworth-designed duplex on the Peninsula.

While Cole is an expert on modernist architecture and loves to talk shop about the great California architects who have built in Long Beach, he represents buyers and sellers interested in a variety of architectural styles. “One reason I love Long Beach is because it has a diversity of wonderful architecture,” he said. “I have always been moved by architecture. It has the The Seeley Residence by Edward Killingsworth. Photo by Danny Zapalac. ability to positively affect your life every day.” significant homes and, thinking they’re doing the One hurdle he often encounters in the sales of right thing from an investment standpoint, reno- these properties is in their financing. “The value arvate them. However, honoring the original architec- chitecture adds to a home is unfortunately not gentural intent actually increases the value. There is erally understood by lenders and appraisers. When also inherent value in doing the right thing. The marketed to the correct audience, however, I find more people are aware of this, the more we all ben- there is almost always a buyer understanding of this efit from it.” inherent value, even when an appraiser cannot jusOriginally from Madison, Wisconsin, where he was tify it to a bank. I personally feel it is something still exposed to Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, Cole moved greatly undervalued. The fact that you even have to San Diego and Lake Tahoe as a pro snowboarder. the participation of a bank in the financing of what He learned about Long Beach by way of his good are essentially works of art that you can live in is friend Andreas ‘Greyboy’ Stevens, who had invited pretty unbelievable.” ■

Gallery Corner Long Beach’s newest gallery is none other than an alleyway. The aptly named ‘Allery’ is a pedestrian pass-through in Bixby Knolls at E. Burlinghall Dr. from Atlantic Ave. to the parking lot in back of the adjacent businesses. The Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA), which conceived the space’s transformation, installed carnival lights overhead and fabricated and mounted custom frames to hang art. Christian Hernandez’s “Bixby Cats” 4 x 8-foot installations are currently showing on one wall, and David Van Patten mural “Surreal Train Ride Through Bixby Knolls” starts at the Allery’s north wall. At the BKBIA’s monthly First Fridays event on May 1st, DJ Bix played music while artists created live paintings and drawings and showed their work. “The alley was a big hit and was transformed immediately into a new event space,” BKBIA Executive Director Blair Cohn said. “One of our goals is to activate spaces. We are always looking to put the ‘there’ there in Bixby Knolls.”

Arts Council for Long Beach Contributor

T

he LGBTQ Center of Long Beach, known as ‘The Center’ for short, is one of the oldest organizations of its kind in the country, started in 1977 as living-room gatherings where people would discuss issues important to the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender and Queer) community.

Today, The Center is a pillar in Long Beach life, offering everything from mental health programs to legal assistance to HIV testing for the LGBTQ community. And even though it may not seem like a typical arts organization, it has a major focus on art, which is provided through on-site workshops, promotion of traveling festivals and the organization’s own major art events held throughout the year.

“Our mission statement specifically lists cultural programming as being under our umbrella,” said Porter Gilberg, The Center's executive director. “It's built into the very core of what we do here.”

The most prominent example of The Center's arts advocacy is QFilms, the oldest film festival in Long Beach. Now in its 22nd year, the expanded film festival presents films that embody the LGBTQ community, either in topic or in its inclusion of LGBTQ actors or crew.

QFilms serves as a fundraising event, but it's also an important outreach effort that gives airtime to segments of the community that may otherwise never be exposed.

“Seeing a movie at QFilms with an LGBTQ character helps the public learn about different types of LGBTQ identities,” Gilberg said. “Art plays a really big role in changing people's perceptions of LGBTQ and creating a sense of being among LGBTQ community members.”

The Center also supports local LGBTQ musicians and sponsors the queer spoken-word showcase Sister Spit when it lands in Long Beach.

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Multi The Center is located next to The Art Theatre on Retro Row, where it runs its annual QFilms Festival.

Many of The Center's other art initiatives, however, stay within the building, such as the quarterly rotating art gallery (which lines the walls of the lobby and conference rooms), the weekly watercolor class for seniors and the growing youth programs that use the arts to provide leadership and empowerment skills.

Porter, independently of his role at The Center, is also working with Queer Rock Camp Southern California, a program modeled after the music-focused School of Rock-type summer camps that's hoping to launch this summer.

“Art is so vital in sharing the LGBTQ community and experiences we have,” said Gilberg. “We'd love to expand our arts programming and we're more than happy to work with allies across the spectrum to do that.”

To learn more about The Center, visit centerlb.com. ■

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THE NONPROFIT PAGE

Long Beach Business Journal 31 May 12-25, 2015

Curated By The Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership

Partners, Allies, and Community All communities need allies, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, t r a n s g e n d e r, and queer (LGBTQ) community is no different. Here at LGBTQ The Porter Gilberg, Center of Long Executive Director, Beach, we rely The LGBTQ Center, on our allies Long Beach the name we give to folks who do not identify as LGBTQ but who support our community. We actually like to think of our allies as partners who work with us to shape our City into a place that is more livable and loveable for everyone.

Each May, as the annual Lesbian & Gay Pride celebration draws near, a flurry of coverage descends on our LGBTQ community, recounting our history, struggles, and recent successes. We are incredibly appreciative, but our community does not operate in a social vacuum and the work and commitment of LGBTQ organizations, business and community is year round. The Center’s continued success is the result of a number of partnerships and collaborations with our allies who believe in us just as fiercely as we believe in them.

One of our allies is the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership.

They are a tremendous resource to us as well as the entire non-

profit community. Their support has been instrumental to our growth. From posting our job openings, to providing technical assistance and resources to grow our funding so we can help more people, to the dozens of workshops they offer to build better leaders in the nonprofit community, we are grateful to them for being in our corner.

Partnerships are essential to building strong communities. At The Center we pride ourselves on

our collaborative relationships with other nonprofits, business owners, schools, and govern-

Partnerships are essential to building strong communities ment to provide the best possible support to both LGBTQ people and the community at large.

Serving folks who rely on us for

Working Together Linda Alexander, Executive Director, Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership

Partnership. Collaboration. These are words that we use daily in the nonprofit sector. Partnerships are essential to the work that we do to accomplish our goals and meet our missions. We collaborate with other organizations, community members, local businesses and others to strengthen our community and make positive change.

The composition of the nonprofit community consists of business associations, health and human services, arts and culture, community groups, faith-based, foundations, education, animal care, friends and support groups. Like Long Beach, they are broadly diverse, which allows for a greater potential. They are the underpinning of our community and the

Capacity Corner: Upcoming Calendar of Events From the Nonprofit Partnership Meet the Funders – Capcity Building: Advocating Your Position May 19, 2015; 8-9:30 am; Join select funders and grantees as they discuss best techniques in advocating for capacity building support.

Introduction to Program Evaluation May 21, 2015; 9 am–4 pm; Demystify evaluation and receive tips and tools to help your organization get started on evaluation.

Grantwriting Certificate Program Wednesdays, May 27-June 10, 9 am-4 pm; This 3-session certificate program will expand your knowledge and develop the skills needed to prepare a winning grant proposal.

Multicultural Awareness in the Workplace

LGBTQ community organizations are interwoven into the fabric of our work, community and lives.

Long Beach is fortunate to have such a vibrant LGBTQ community.

There are many important organizations including the LGBTQ Center, Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride, the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, which provide support and guidance, assistance and services. They provide safe places for our youth, healthcare, resources, business opportunities, education and an overall increase to the wellbeing of our city. Together we are able to expand our reach to the broader community and make a collective impact that would not otherwise exist.

The LGBTQ community have been allies of nonprofit organizations for as long as there have been charitable organizations.

They sit on our boards, are our donors, provide legal advice and support, are our thought partners and help to make our organizations stronger – they are our community.

The definition of collaboration is the act of working together to achieve something – a common goal, plan, or purpose. Allies and partners collaborate. As we prepare to celebrate Pride in Long Beach, let us find ways to be better partners and allies of each other and our community.

support is a tremendous job and we can’t do it alone. Without the collaboration of our business partners who believe in us, who spread the word about our resources, sponsor our events, attend a fundraiser, or get together for a day of service benefitting our community, we would not be able to keep our doors open and we wouldn’t have nearly as many friends.

We know that when folks walking through our doors, both LGBTQ and straight, have a place to sleep, a place they can afford to live, a good-paying and safe job, documented status, and access to healthcare, we have met the basic needs necessary to support our clients and the real work of community building can begin.

It takes a community of organizations, businesses, and individuals, LGBTQ and allied alike, to begin to build that community. I hope you will join us.

Top Tips for Collaboration There have been a lot of articles written about collaboration and strategic partnerships in the past few years. While the motivations vary, the common core speaks to strength and sustainability.

Have common vision and mutual benefit – take the time to ensure that all parties have the same goal and can benefit from the collaboration.

Establish agreements and guidelines – creating clarity and understand at the onset is vital to building strong collaboratives.

Develop relationships and build trust – the outcome of collaborations often depends on the strength of the relationships within the group.

Utilize difference to create and problem solve – studies show that diversity causes people to consider views and possibilities that might not otherwise occur.

Have fun! – Need we say more?

June 3rd, 9 am-Noon Apply skills for improved communications and conflict resolution to instill multicultural awareness among staff members, board members and volunteers.

From our Partners

Unlocking the Mysteries of Volunteer Retention May 15, 2015, 9:30 am-Noon; Learn techniques and investigate methods to coach others to manage volunteers & broaden the impact of your programs. For more info, visit: doviala.org.

Taproot Foundation Request for Proposal Select nonprofit organizations in the Los Angeles metro and Orange County areas may apply to receive capacity-building Service Grants. Applications are now being accepted. The deadline of June 2nd. Visit: taprootfoundation.org.

Training Staff to Supervise Volunteers May 17, 2015; 9:30 am-Noon; Learn techniques and investigate methods to coach others to manage volunteers & broaden the impact of your programs. For more information, visit: doviala.org.

Meet Gilbert Tran of the federal Office of Management and Budget Wednesday, June 3, 2015; 7:30-10:00 am.

RSVP for this unusual chance to ask all the questions you have ever had about the OMB Uniform Guidance. For more information, visit: calnonprofits.org.

The area’s regional capacity builder, serving local organizations to strengthen and grow through leadership, education and collaboration. Offering: Professional Development & Training Networking & Collaboration Custom Training & Consulting Services Information Resources To learn more, visit us at www.lbnp.org.

4900 East Conant St., Building O-2, Suite 225, Long Beach, CA 90808 562.888-6530

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