Dole Food May Move Headquarters to Calabasas

Dole Food Co., the Westlake Village-based food and real estate giant, is considering moving its headquarters to Calabasas or another location, according to the mayor of Westlake Village.

Ken Rufener said Tuesday that he was told by Dole Chairman and Chief Executive David Murdock that the company was looking at Calabasas property owned by the Lockheed Corp., the defense and aerospace concern. Lockheed will soon leave its headquarters there after completing its pending merger with Martin Marietta Corp.

Dole is also studying other sites, Rufener said.

He stressed, however, that a move by Dole is not imminent. “We’ll do everything we can to keep them,” he said.

Dole spokesman Tom Pernice said that the company “has been offered a lot of different opportunities in different areas,” but that no decision has been made.

“Dole is in four different buildings now” in Westlake Village, Pernice said. “We need to consolidate. We’re reassessing the needs of the company and what our options are.”

Pernice said he did not know what other sites the company had looked at.

The possibility of moving was raised when the company made a payment of $500,000 to Westlake Village Friday.

Dole owed the fee under a 1989 development agreement the city had reached with Unisys Corp., which had owned one of the buildings where Dole’s headquarters is located. The obligation was assumed by Dole when it purchased the building in 1991.

Rufener said that in paying the fee, Murdock cautioned city officials that his company was being courted by other municipalities and that Westlake Village would lose tax revenue should the company relocate.

Dole has about 420 employees at the Westlake Village headquarters. The company had planned to build a new headquarters complex in the city this year, but now says those plans are on hold while it reviews its needs.

Rufener indicated the city would not suffer serious financial harm if Dole does not stay. If Dole built a $60-million headquarters complex in Westlake Village, only about $35,000 of an estimated $600,000 a year in property taxes would go to the city. Most of the taxes would go to Los Angeles County.

Dole, with $3.4 billion in annual revenue, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of fresh and packaged fruits and vegetables. It also develops residential real estate, and owns resorts on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.