DOWN, DOWN, DOWN: More bad news for...
DOWN, DOWN, DOWN: More bad news for the Valley’s real estate market--prices dropped for the fifth straight year in 1995, above. . . . Not only that, the number of residential units sold was nearly 6% lower than in 1994 (D1). “I haven’t met anyone in a while who was really happy with the price they got for their house,” says Northridge real estate agent Bernie Leibovitch.
LESS FABRIC: Meanwhile, on the Valley business front, Sherman Oaks-based House of Fabrics announced plans to close nearly 25% of its 361 stores nationwide. The 50-year-old company said the cuts are necessary to help it emerge from bankruptcy (D1). . . . Stores in Palmdale, Camarillo, Garden Grove, Rancho Cucamonga and Corona are among those closing.
DE-SKUNKED: For years, the Burbank site was the home of the “Skunk Works,” Lockheed’s advanced development company that spawned the Stealth fighter and U-2 spy plane. . . . Now, nearly three years after the operation was moved to Palmdale, part of the site is about to become a shopping center. A Bay Area company has purchased a 115,000-square-foot building at 2311 N. Hollywood Way and will lease it to Fry’s Electronics.
WESTSIDE STORY: Coming soon on NBC Saturday nights: “Malibu Shores,” the latest prime-time soap from super-producer Aaron Spelling, who gave us “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills 90210”. . . . According to TV Guide, Spelling’s latest sudser pits teenagers from “affluent Malibu” against their counterparts in the “middle-class Valley.”
ANDREA’S SECRET: It’s not the first time Aaron Spelling has dissed the Valley. Recall “90210,” the Fox series that premiered in 1990 as a chronicle of a group of rich kids at fictional West Beverly Hills High School. Andrea, the student newspaper editor, secretly rode a bus from Van Nuys each day. . . . Her explanation? To attend a better school.
