Entertainment a Boffo Business for the Valley

The rapid growth in the number of film, television and multimedia firms in the San Fernando Valley have made the area a close rival to Hollywood as the entertainment capital of the country, business leaders and real estate experts said Friday during an annual business forecast conference here.

The region was roundly credited during the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.’s yearly meeting for capitalizing on the growing global appetite for movies and television shows and converting defense-industry facilities into work space for entertainment companies.

The entertainment industry is investing more than $1 billion in capital projects in Los Angeles, most of it for sound stages and other production space in the Valley, according to an industry spokeswoman.

A real estate expert added that the demand for studio and office space in the Valley is “white hot” and is expected to continue to grow.

Howard Weitzman, an attorney and vice president of MCA Inc., echoed those sentiments. “In today’s entertainment world, Hollywood is the Valley,” he said.

The generally optimistic tone of the conference was diminished only slightly by warnings from business groups and city officials that City Hall’s red tape continues to make it difficult and expensive to expand or start businesses in the Valley.

“We have a very, very old permit system that is very complicated,” said Larry Kosmont of Kosmont & Associates, a real estate consulting firm.

Mayor Richard Riordan, a keynote speaker at the conference, called the Valley “the heart and soul of Los Angeles” and added that he hopes his “crusade” to reform the city’s 71-year-old governing charter will make it easier to streamline the permit process and reduce business taxes and fees.

Riordan and Studio City attorney David Fleming have led a campaign that collected more than 300,000 signatures to put a measure on the ballot asking voters to create a citizens reform panel. If approved, the 15-member body would study the city charter and propose reform measures to the voters in 1998.

During a morning symposium, Fleming and Riordan harshly attacked the City Council for opposing the charter reform effort, saying the council is too closely allied to city department heads and special-interest groups to enact innovative changes.

While mayors in other cities have the authority to fire incompetent department heads, Riordan complained that he cannot do so without the council’s approval. And he accused the council of protecting department heads in exchange for getting them to support pet projects council members want in their districts.

“The council treats the entire city like a pork barrel,” Riordan said.

In an interview, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, an ardent critic of Riordan’s reform effort, fired back, noting that Riordan funded most of the costs of the signature drive. She accused the mayor of trying to buy more power for himself through the charter reform process.

“For a man who bought his office and is now attempting to buy a change in the charter, he has a lot of nerve,” she said. “This city is not for sale.”

The council has rejected Riordan’s effort because it cuts the council out of the reform process. In response, the council has appointed its own 21-member advisory panel to suggest reform measures that the council can put on the ballot.

The charter reform debate notwithstanding, most of the conference was spent focusing on the Valley’s economic conversion away from defense into entertainment and multimedia.

As of last year, the entertainment industry became the largest employer in the Valley, providing about 100,000 jobs, according to the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, a coalition of business and government leaders.

“If it wasn’t for the entertainment industry, the Valley would still be in a recession,” said John Rooney, president of the Valley Economic Development Center, a nonprofit group based in Van Nuys.

According to a 1995 study by the alliance, the entertainment industry, led by such companies as MCA Inc., Warner Bros., the Walt Disney Co. and NBC, employs more than 15% of the Valley’s work force.