Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Valley Exodus Gives Economy a Welcome Jolt

Ever since Jan. 17, business couldn’t be better at Bud & Ken Lumber Co. in Oxnard.

“We’ve been getting lots of people from Simi, Fillmore, even Agoura,” store manager Rick Barnes said of the many people flocking to his store to buy materials for doing repairs on their homes.

“Lots of places were damaged in Simi, and lots of places there are already out of material, so we get a lot of (customers) from that area.”

From Oxnard hardware stores supplying lumber to Simi Valley disaster victims to Conejo Valley businesses besieged by San Fernando Valley residents, Ventura County’s commercial sector has benefited dramatically from the worst disaster to strike the greater Los Angeles area.

“This is quite a boon,” said Steve Rubenstein, president of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce. “We’re very pleased to help our neighbors to the south.”

The change is particularly noticeable in the commercial rental market, where brokers say hardly a large industrial building remains vacant east of Oxnard. In the last two weeks alone, businesses looking for temporary or permanent working space have gobbled up about 500,000 square feet worth of rental space, said Rick Heath, a broker with Grubb & Ellis in Oxnard.

“The big companies needed to act within a week of the earthquake or they lost out,” he said.

Among the many companies that have moved westward from the Valley are Vivitar, the camera manufacturer, which moved its corporate headquarters Monday from Chatsworth to Newbury Park, and computer giant Packard Bell, also formerly of Chatsworth, now relocating temporarily in Westlake Village and Camarillo.

Between all the new workers trying out local businesses on their lunch breaks and Valley residents seeking a haven from Los Angeles’ persistent aftershocks, business is flourishing in the east county, merchants say.

“It’s been really hectic,” said Gary Endicott, manager of the Thousand Oaks’ Sears, Roebuck & Co. store, which has handled much of the overflow from the closed Sears stores in Northridge and Canoga Park.

Local hardware and glass stores say they too are swamped with customers since the quake jump-started the ailing construction business.

“Every morning when I drive down the 101 to Oxnard from Thousand Oaks, I’m seeing hundreds of glass-carrying trucks heading toward the Valley from as far away as Santa Barbara and Goleta,” said Dave Gulbranson, owner of Oxnard-based Oakstone Glass Corp.

“It’s a good time to be in the glass business,” he said.

At The Oaks, shoppers from the Valley, such as Winona Roark of West Hills, fill the mall’s boutiques and department stores.

“I’m not expecting a 5.0 aftershock here like I am out there,” Roark, 74, said as she searched for an athletics store where she could buy walking shoes.

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Roark said she had considered going to one of the malls near her in the West Valley, but finally hopped on the Ventura Freeway when she could not figure out which stores were open.

“We knew some were open, but we didn’t know which ones,” she said. “We knew they were all open here.”

Jane Iovine, another customer at The Oaks, said the earthquake had made a Thousand Oaks convert out of her and her husband. The couple moved to Agoura four years ago after years living in Granada Hills.

Whenever they needed a mall, they headed to Topanga Plaza or the now-devastated Northridge Fashion Center. When they wanted to go out to dinner, they drove east again, to Calabasas and Woodland Hills. Then the earthquake hit.

“The Valley is home, but right now, it doesn’t seem like home,” said Iovine, 55. “It gives me the feeling that a war’s been through there, and I wanted to get out.”

In the last two weeks, the Iovines tried at least three new restaurants in Thousand Oaks and made extensive shopping trips to The Oaks. They’ve found that they like the Conejo Valley.

“It’s less crowded out here--just delightful,” she said. “We’re saying, ‘Why didn’t we do more of this before?’ ”

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The Iovines are not the only ones with that thought. The residential rental market in eastern Ventura County and Camarillo has skyrocketed since the Jan. 17 temblor, with residents of hard-struck neighborhoods in San Fernando and Simi valleys looking for a temporary roof over their heads while their homes are rebuilt.

“We’re filling up fast,” said Barbara Beck, operations manager at Hacienda de Camarillo Apartments, where about 40 units have been rented since the earthquake. “We’ve been renting to everybody from Northridge all the way to Simi Valley, and we’re still having people come in today.”

West county real estate agents, particularly those in Oxnard and Ventura, say the market has not changed much in the last few weeks. But Thousand Oaks agents say they can barely keep up with all the business that the quake dropped in their laps.

“The homes rent faster than they list,” said Tricia Onsgard, an agent with Brown Realtors in Westlake. “I tell my clients, ‘If you see something you like, go back to the office now and write an offer because the house may be gone before you finish.’ ”

Some east county hotels too are near full occupancy since the quake left many area residents homeless.

At the 190-room Radisson Hotel in Simi Valley, 70% of the rooms are rented to earthquake evacuees, said Scott Cleaveland, the hotel’s front office manager.

“We’ve been sold out for awhile,” he said.

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Earthquake victims are not only checking into hotels to find shelter, however.

At the Ojai Valley Inn & Country Club, reservation clerks are fielding five calls a day from nervous Valley and east county residents looking for a place to rest and relax, said Alison Brainard, the inn’s marketing director.

“What we’re finding is people have a bit of fear and panic, and they feel a bit calmer out here,” she said.