Burbank May Woo Company With $250,000 Incentive : Economy: Officials say the city would benefit if Allianz Insurance Co. relocates to the Media District.

The City Council is considering a plan to give a multinational insurance company $250,000 to move its U. S. headquarters to Burbank’s Media District--the second economic incentive offered to a major company in recent weeks.

“Being the home of an international insurance company like Allianz would be a major boost to our local economy,” said Robert M. Tague, Burbank Community Development director.

Allianz Insurance Co. would sublease office space from Sony Pictures Entertainment, which holds a nearly 10-year lease at Studio Plaza, 3400 Riverside Drive. Sony recently moved its operations from Burbank to Culver City.

Under the plan, the city would agree to give the company $50,000 each year for the first five years of its lease. Allianz would consolidate offices now on Wilshire Boulevard and in Glendale and Woodland Hills into one site, company officials said.

Wolfgang Schlink, head of Allianz, did not return several phone calls, but city officials said the company requested the assistance because the rent at Studio Plaza is about $150,000 more than other sites considered by Allianz. It is not clear why the city offered the additional $100,000.

City officials argue that bringing Allianz to Burbank would be a way of diversifying the city’s economic base, which has historically depended upon the entertainment industry. The presence of the company, officials said, would send a message “to the corporate world that the Media District is not just for entertainment-related companies.”

But at Tuesday’s council meeting, resident Mike Nolan questioned the wisdom of giving $250,000 to a company that he said would bring few benefits to the city.

“I don’t see why we’re offering an incentive at all,” Nolan said.

The 300 Allianz employees would have to spend large sums of money in Burbank to have any impact on the city economically, and insurance companies are exempt from some taxes that would normally increase the city’s coffers, Nolan said.

Councilman Bill Wiggins said the city would benefit from having the workers in the city--some of whom might decide to buy homes in Burbank--even though the exact number cannot be pinpointed.

“If you’re asking for absolute tangible benefits in the way of dollars, I don’t think anybody is going to be able to give you that,” Wiggins said.

The City Council had been scheduled to vote Tuesday on the incentive but delayed the vote for two weeks after Councilman Dave Golonski asked for more information on the deal from city staff members.

Carl Muhlstein of Wilrock National Inc., a national real estate brokerage firm, said the city has to offer such benefits if it intends to attract business to the city.

“It’s a matter of Burbank being competitive with the other municipalities,” said Muhlstein, executive vice president of Wilrock, which was hired by Sony to sublet the space.

“Every major corporation is being courted every day from economic development people within and outside of the state. Burbank is a very attractive environment. It’s centrally located. It has a lot of positive features. Today that might not be enough on its own.”

In recent years, several major businesses--Lockheed, Zero-Halliburton and Menasco--have left the city. IBM announced Monday that Altium, one of its subsidiaries, will leave Burbank and move its headquarters to Charlotte, N. C.

Such departures have prompted Burbank to forge a new philosophy toward development, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles. “Both Burbank and Glendale definitely have gotten the word and are very aggressive on business economic development,” Kyser said. “Everybody is sort of in a frenzy trying to grow their economy.”

Allianz, which has annual revenues of $225 million, is a subsidiary of Allianz A. G., the 46th-largest public company in the world and the largest insurance company in Europe, city officials said.

Last month, the city agreed to give KIIS Radio $50,000 to help move the station from Sunset Boulevard to Studio Plaza, an arrangement Muhlstein also helped negotiate.