Dakota Smith to Build New U.S. Headquarters

Dakota Smith, a leading designer and manufacturer of upscale sunglasses and accessories, plans to move its U.S. headquarters from Agoura Hills to Westlake Village in early 1996.

Construction is set to begin by the end of September on the company’s new home--a 26,225-square- foot office building, located in the Westlake Spectrum business complex off Lindero Canyon Road. The scenic complex currently has four developed buildings and includes Westlake Village City Hall and Amgen Inc. among its tenants.

Founded in 1991, Dakota Smith is a privately held division of California Design Studios Ltd. of Agoura Hills. It has 18,000 retail accounts in the United States and sells to major department stores, including Macy’s, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. Dakota Smith eye wear is also distributed in about 45 countries, and the company has an international headquarters in Belgium.

The new location will serve as the main administrative and marketing office, a distribution center, a warehouse and an assembly facility, where partial manufacturing of the sunglasses will take place. The Westlake Village office will have about 50 employees.

Carlos Khantzis, chief executive, said Dakota Smith had grown too large for the approximately 14,000-square-foot Agoura Hills facility.

The relocation is good news for Lauterbach & Associates Architects and Planners of Oxnard, which is handling the planning and design of the new building. John Grounds, project designer for Lauterbach, said the structure will have a combination Mission-style/professional look.

“We started off with the client wanting a very modern, corporate appearance and the city wanting to retain the early-California, Spanish design the city has as a whole,” he said. “We’ve successfully blended the two different perspectives.”

Grounds estimated construction costs at about $1.5 million.