BURBANK : City Close to Luring Large Insurance Firm

A deal that would bring the U.S. headquarters for a multinational insurance company to Burbank could be signed within days, a spokesman for the Allianz Insurance Co. said Monday.

“We are very, very close,” said John Kozero, spokesman for the company, which has offices on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles as well as in Woodland Hills and Glendale. However, he said, “The deal is not yet final.”

Last month, the City Council offered Allianz--which would bring 300 jobs with it--a $250,000 tax rebate in exchange for moving to Burbank. Burbank lost 15,000 workers after Lockheed Corp. announced it was pulling its operations out of the city three years ago, and has been trying to woo Allianz and other companies ever since.

The tax rebate, which would be spread out over nearly 10 years, is meant to help offset the cost of renting space in Burbank.

Kozero said that an agreement to move all of the company’s offices to a Riverside Drive location could be finalized by the end of the week. The company would sublease space from Sony Pictures Entertainment Corp.

Germany-based Allianz is a subsidiary of Allianz A.G., one of the 50 largest public companies in the world and the largest insurance company in Europe.

Shortly after the Allianz deal is finalized, city officials expect another deal, which would move KIIS Radio from Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood to Studio Plaza, to be approved. The station, which wants to move because of increasing crime in its neighborhood, was offered $50,000 by the City Council in November to help with relocation expenses. That offer was also made to help compensate for lower rental costs outside of Burbank, but unlike the Allianz deal it will not be paid as a tax rebate.

“It was just enough to put it over the top,” said Jim O’Neil, special assistant to the Burbank community development director. KIIS would become the seventh radio station to broadcast from Burbank. It would bring about 60 employees.