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SIGN OF PROGRESS - The unique Tejon Ranch sign is near Tejon Lake and close to the site of the horse breeding and training center. When completed sometime around 2030, the nearby city of Centennial will house more than 60,000 people in 23,000 homes, developers of the city say.
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Sunday, April 10, 2005.
By ALLISON GATLIN
Valley Press Staff Writer
If you build it, they will come.
So seems the vision of an organization of land owners and developers who propose an entirely new, master-planned city in the up-till-now sleepy northwestern corner of the Antelope Valley.
An entire city.
When it is completed sometime around 2030, the proposed city of Centennial will house more than 60,000 people in 23,000 homes, with employment and businesses to support its residents, developers say.
The idea for Centennial is to create from scratch a master-planned community, a self-contained entity with the jobs necessary to support its residents, not simply a bedroom community suburb.
According to the developers' plans, Centennial would harken back to earlier civic designs, with businesses, services and homes within walking distance of each other. Several town centers will be linked by greenbelts and pathways, while mixed-use buildings will combine residential apartments with businesses.
"The flavor of Centennial is not just to be a development of homes, but to be a community … where people can live, work and recreate right there," said Barry Zoeller, vice president of corporate communications for Tejon Ranch Co., one of the project developers.
Centennial will sit in a niche in the foothills at the far west end of the Antelope Valley, on the approach to Interstate 5 and Gorman.
The town site is bounded roughly by 300th Street West on the east, Highway 138 on the south, about a mile east of Interstate 5 on the western side and the ridge of foothills through that area to the north.
All in all, the development area encompasses 12,000 acres.
The new city is the project of landowner Tejon Ranch Co., with Standard Pacific Housing, Lewis Operating Co. and Pardee Homes as principal partners. Together they formed Centennial Founders LLC.
The Centennial plan is going through its environmental review process, with the resulting draft environmental impact report expected to be completed and ready for public review at the end of the year.
The developers expect about a year to 18 months of reviews and decisions by the Los Angeles County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors before actual work on the site may begin.
Construction on the initial phase and infrastructure is expected to take about a year, with the first residents moving in sometime in 2008.
Centennial's birth is market-driven by the continuing need within the state for more housing.
"It's as simple as supply and demand," said Greg Medeiros, vice-president of community development for Centennial Founders LLC. "There's a critical need for housing not only in Southern California, but in all of California."
Although it is difficult to determine at this early date, single-family homes in Centennial will likely start in the mid-$200,000 range, Zoeller said.
"I know there's a lot of anxious people," Medeiros said. "I get calls even now" from people interested in locating to the new town.
Many are commuters who drive from Bakersfield to jobs in the Los Angeles area and are looking for a way of cutting the commute.
Centennial's planners expect to provide jobs within the community and close by for a majority of its residents. The plan envisions light manufacturing and technology firms, with a potential for 30,000 jobs, Zoeller said.
Although potential employers have not been approached at this stage of the planning process, the employment plan is based on how Santa Clarita and Valencia have developed, he said.
Residents will be drawn to Centennial for housing, while businesses will be attracted to Centennial for its workforce base, with incentives of reduced employee turnover and costs due to their proximity, Zoeller said.
While a typical community grows beginning with population, followed by retail business and then followed by industrial and/or commercial development, the Centennial group doesn't believe it has to be constrained by the usual model.
"We think it can be done in combination," he said.
The city will be built in phases, called "villages" in the plans, each with a town center. Higher-density housing will cluster around these centers, along with businesses, schools and parks. Clustering land uses will encourage alternate modes of transportation, including walking and bike riding, Medeiros said.
Centennial will also employ an internal transit system - likely buses at first, perhaps something like light rail in the future. Transit centers at either end of the town will accommodate individual drivers.
About half of the Centennial acreage will be set aside as open space. Some of this will be natural parkland in the foothills along the outer edges of the townsite, Zoeller said, but greenbelts with multipurpose trails will also meander through the town.
In addition to providing recreational use and breaking up the density of development, these greenbelts are expected to serve as channels and containment basins for storm water runoff. Rainwater collected in the greenbelts theoretically would percolate back into the ground, recharging the groundwater reservoir as part of the town's self-sustaining design, Medeiros said.
The first phase of construction, west of the California Aqueduct, is planned to include approximately 5,700 houses in about five to six years of construction. Ultimately, Centennial is expected to include 4,000 apartments, 6,000 attached homes - such as duplexes - and 13,000 single-family homes of varying sizes.
"The idea is to find all of these various niches" to meet different housing needs, Medeiros said.
Part of the town's master planning includes employing "green" building techniques emphasizing environmentally friendly and energy-saving practices.
For example, streets are laid out to take advantage of passive solar energy, Medeiros said.
Schools are part of the master plan, beginning with elementary schools in the first phase and a high school down the line. These would most likely fall under existing school districts in the area, such as Gorman, El Tejon Unified and Antelope Valley Union High School districts, Medeiros said.
Discussions are under way with Los Angeles County fire and sheriff departments to provide public safety services for Centennial. A helicopter pad is part of the early phase to allow for medical evacuation, he said.
Water supply to the community is expected to come from several sources. Extensive studies show enough groundwater to be a viable source, Medeiros said, and the site is situated to allow for "banking" groundwater during years with heavy rainfall. Water conservation measures incorporated into the design will save on use, and the community may also purchase water from the state water project. Reclamation plants are planned to recycle some water for use in irrigation, as well. Some infrastructure already exists in the area, such as the California Aqueduct, a high-pressure natural gas line and a Southern California Edison substation.
For the last four years, planners have conducted annual biological surveys of the proposed townsite to search for endangered species, and found none. The area has been used as grazing land for the last 150 years, and cattle can still be found throughout the site, Zoeller said.
The land is mostly level, but unlike much of the Valley's population centers, it features some rolling terrain.
"All the prerequisites for good development are on this site," Medeiros said.
Some improvements may be made to the major corridors serving Centennial, Interstate 5 and the two-lane Highway 138. The developers do not expect a major traffic impact on these corridors, however, due to the self-contained nature of the town, Madeiros said.
Measures to ease the effects of even greater Southern California traffic that will be generated by the project will be part of the EIR process, he said, and reviewed by Los Angeles County and Caltrans.
Environmentalists Offer Deal to Tejon Developers
All Centennial Recommends the AV Press
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Monday, April 11, 2005.
By ANN WISHART
Valley Press Business Editor
LEBEC - Tejon Industrial Complex, crouching just south of the intersection of Interstate 5 and State Highway 99, may have the potential to arise and remake the local economy as a hub on an international trade route.
Made up of 1,450 acres of high desert, the complex consists of Ikea's 1.7-million-square-foot Western North American Distribution Center, a deserted warehouse, a truck stop and a Starbucks that is reputed to be the busiest of its kind in the state. Ikea is a global home furnishing and accessories retailer.
Strategically, the center is ideally located to serve much of the western half of the United States and Canada, providing direct access to the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach and Oakland, making it useful for many companies and transportation firms operating on the West Coast.
"It's a perfect place to capture truck traffic," said Barry Zoeller, vice president of corporate communications for Tejon Ranch Co.
The Petro Stopping Center, disguised so it hardly resembles a truck stop, has proven his observation. The neighboring Starbucks has the highest volume of sales in the state. Only the DaisyTek International warehouse has not been successful, and Ikea has taken over part of the abandoned building for overflow storage, Zoeller said. The warehouse is for sale, and several companies have shown an interest, he added.
The complex is on the western corner of the 270,000-acre Tejon Ranch, about 30 miles from Bakersfield and 60 miles up I-5 from Los Angeles.
Just as important, from the firm's long-term point of view, is the center's juxtaposition to the proposed Centennial master-planned community, just a 15- to 20-minute drive south and east along I-5 and State Highway 138. The futures of Centennial and Tejon Industrial Complex are intertwined, according to plans outlined by Greg Medeiros, vice president of community development for Centennial Founders LLC.
As the complex grows to utilize its full 12 million square feet of industrial/commercial property and 2 million square feet of retail area, it will provide employment for approximately 30,000 residents of the villages planned to make up Centennial, he said. The complex would, by that reckoning, provide 1.5 jobs per household.
"It's extremely important to provide good-paying jobs, with benefits," Medeiros said.
The acreage surrounding the Ikea Distribution Center is designed as a business park with several pads already designated for potential businesses, Zoeller said. Top-quality white board vinyl fencing, landscaping and other infrastructure are in evidence.
"When we do something, we want it to look nice," he said.
Company officials would like to see a variety of businesses set up shop at the business park. Technology producers, light manufacturing, and research and development firms would require a large employee base and provide good jobs, Zoeller said.
In an effort to make the complex more attractive to companies, the firm formed a joint venture with Rockefeller Group Development Corp. early this year to establish a 500-acre Foreign Trade Zone in the business park. The master-planned site is able to accommodate more than 9 million square feet of new industrial development. The Foreign Trade Zone designation for the site is expected to be announced by the end of the year, according to the company Web site.
Some speculation is inevitable. For instance, Catellus Development Corp. has an option to buy 80 acres of the Tejon Industrial Complex. Although Catellus develops real estate mostly in the Inland Empire, a spokesman for the company said it is keeping its eye on the high desert parcel, figuring some firms are choosing to locate away from the more crowded, expensive urban regions, he said.
The agreement with Tejon Ranch will allow Catellus to market its position at the complex.
"Location-wise, Tejon Industrial Complex offers firms a central distribution location just north of Los Angeles County with convenient access along major interstate and highways to markets throughout northern California, Nevada, Arizona and behind," said Charlie McPhee, senior vice president of Catellus' southern California region. "Furthermore, unlike in most of the fully developed industrial markets in and around the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Tejon can accommodate super-sized distribution warehouse facilities along with reasonable assurance of future expansion, and it's still only 110 miles from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach."
All Centennial Recommends the AV Press
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Monday, April 11, 2005.
By ANN WISHART
Valley Press Business Editor
LEBEC - Tejon Ranch Co. is built primarily around its greatest asset - Tejon Ranch, which covers more than 400 square miles of varied terrains in an area about 40% the size of Rhode Island.
Physically speaking, the ranch straddles three counties around the intersection of State Route 138 and Interstate 5. Its headquarters are within sight of the four-lane artery, commonly called the Grapevine, that carries massive amounts of traffic and goods to Central and Northern California.
But there is more to Tejon Ranch than land. For the sake of survival, which requires growth, the operation has evolved into a modern-day company.
On the corporate Web site, the company is described as "a growth-oriented, diversified real estate development and agribusiness" and is divided into two branches.
The real estate division handles land entitlement and development, commercial leases and sales and marketing of real estate projects such as Centennial, the company's master-planned community that is in the planning stages. The division manages oil and mineral resources, utility easements, recreation and filming locations.
The farming division takes care of approximately 6,750 acres of land, including almond, pistachio and walnut crops as well as wine grapes.
With a market cap of $801 million, Tejon Ranch Co. is not a giant on the stock exchange, but in 52 weeks its stock has traded on the New York Stock Exchange as TRC, has ranged from $32.12 to $55.90 a share. As of Wednesday it was worth about $49, with 16.44 million shares outstanding.
On the most recent earnings report, Tejon Ranch Co. had net sales of just under $21 million, with a gross profit of $3.8 million.
In its corporate report, Robert A. Stine, president and CEO, noted the numbers are adding up well for the company.
"2004 was a year of improvement for us as we saw revenue from our core business segments grow and net income improve over the prior year," he said. "During 2004, we also continued to implement strategies to best utilize the great asset we have, which is our land, and move forward our long-term vision of providing Californians' housing, employment and lifestyle needs while conserving our best natural resources and creating value for our shareholders."
The company plans to invest more funds this year toward the achievement of entitlements for its land and for infrastructure development within its active industrial development, Stine said, adding that securing entitlements is a long process and could take several years.
Set to advance the company's long-term growth plans is Eileen Reynolds, hired early this year as the vice president of government affairs, based in Sacramento. A former land use and environmental lobbyist for the California Association of Realtors, Reynolds has a bachelor's degree in conservation and resource studies with an emphasis on environmental law and land-use policy from the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley.
As Tejon Ranch Co.'s woman in Sacramento, Reynolds said she will coordinate lobbyists to put forward the company's interests in development issues, resources and agriculture, and in transportation.
"My primary mission is to share the vision of the property," Reynolds said. "I am meeting with just about anybody who is anybody" and handing out company brochures.
"Tejon Ranch is a big chunk of land in the middle of the state," she said, and it attracts the attention of everyone from folks who would rather see the property remain as it is to the military concerned about flight patterns. "A lot of my job is playing defense against the coalitions" who want to adversely impact the company's vision, she added.
In order for the company to survive, the land must be used for a profit, one way or another.
"There are groups out there who would rather see nothing done to it," Reynolds said. "The alternative would be to sell it off. Limited development will protect it."
About 12,000 acres just off State Route 138 between Interstate 5 and 300th Street West are planned for the 23,000 homes making up Centennial. Tejon Ranch also is planning to place 100,000 acres in a land conservancy. The conservancy boundaries will be set sometime in mid-May.
"It's kind of a long-term stewardship thing," she said, and negotiations are under way to provide public access for hiking and camping, but not for off-road vehicles.
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