Blue Cross to Open 2nd Office in County : Employment: The move will bring 1,000 jobs to Newbury Park. Officials predict a positive effect on the economy.

Blue Cross of California will create 700 jobs this summer by opening a second service facility in Thousand Oaks, providing a much-needed shot in the arm for Ventura County’s battered economy, the company announced Thursday.

The new administrative and service jobs should make a dent in the unemployment rate, which hovered between 8% and 10% for much of 1992. But Thousand Oaks--especially the Newbury Park area where Blue Cross’ new offices will be--will benefit most, officials said.

In addition to the new jobs, Blue Cross will transfer 300 employees from other Southern California offices to Newbury Park, said company Vice President D. Mark Weinberg.

“It’s one of the most pleasant surprises for our city,” Councilman Frank Schillo said. “We’re getting the kind of industry we want here--non-polluting, high-tech, with lots of office jobs.”

Slated to provide services for Ventura County and Northern California, the new center will make Blue Cross one of Thousand Oaks’ top employers. The company’s payroll already includes 1,000 workers at an office in the Westlake area of Thousand Oaks.

Whether or not they buy homes in Thousand Oaks, the new Blue Cross employees will probably spend money in the city--boosting sales tax revenue at a critical time, just as the state is threatening to raid city coffers.

“The influx of additional jobs really has a ripple effect throughout the community,” Mayor Judy Lazar said. “The workers will inevitably plow money into the city. It’s great--a real plus.”

Blue Cross will rent 107,000 square feet of office space on Corporate Center Drive, just off Rancho Conejo Boulevard. The insurance company, which signed a five-year lease, will move in July 1.

“This new operation site should be a great redress in an economy where job losses have been headline news,” Weinberg said in a statement released Thursday.

Thousand Oaks officials, who watched in dismay when the Northrop defense plant closed in 1991, celebrated the arrival of Blue Cross both for the jobs that the company will create and the image that it will evoke.

With biotechnology company Amgen expanding and Baxter Labs constructing a new facility in Thousand Oaks, “we are becoming sort of a medical area,” Schillo said.

“It’s the kind of business we have been trying to get on a consistent basis,” Lazar added.

Longstanding efforts to preserve open space and maintain a semirural atmosphere make Thousand Oaks especially attractive to light industry, City Manager Grant Brimhall said. A “good-quality, highly educated” work force doesn’t hurt either, he added.

Describing Blue Cross’ decision as a victory for Ventura County, city officials said Thousand Oaks’ reputation as a pleasant, peaceful community--close to the culture but far from the crime of Los Angeles--was a major factor in the company’s decision to locate in Newbury Park.

Blue Cross officials could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

But the company’s new neighbors enthusiastically--albeit with admitted bias--touted Newbury Park as the perfect place to settle.

“We offer a good lifestyle; it’s an upscale area, but it doesn’t cost anything near what it would take to live in Encino,” said Diane Doria, president of the Newbury Park Civic Organization. “We’re close to schools and we have a very appealing atmosphere.”

Doria especially welcomed Blue Cross’ decision to take over a vacant building, saying the glutted market for commercial space “has been a big concern of the community.”

Newbury Park residents should also be grateful to Blue Cross for boosting the value of their homes, Brimhall said.

“There is a pretty close to one-to-one correlation between the number of jobs available and the value of homes,” Brimhall said. “For most people, their home is their major investment, and this is an important indication that people can begin to breathe more freely.”