All posts by LosAdmin

Los Angeles: Business Awards

Awards, , ,

awardsZambezi – an independent creative agency was ranked at number 50 in the 2016 list of 100 Largest Women-Owned Businesses in Los Angeles County by Los Angeles Business Journal.  The companies were ranked according to revenues and this is the second consecutive year Zambezi has made it to the list, which is, according to COO of the firm, Jean Freeman “an honor.”  She added that: “Advertising needs more women in ownership roles, truly guiding companies. Zambezi’s primary mission is to serve clients at a high level – but my hope is that we’re also seen as an example of the future of this industry.”

Perhaps this result should not be all that surprising since for this year, the firm’s  projected increase in revenue stands at 60%. Given that they are expanding, Zambezi has moved to a 15,000 square foot headquarters at Culver City.

Meanwhile, other firms in the creative industry are likewise thriving in LA.  At the recent 68th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, NBC4 Southern California and Telemundo 52 Los Angeles took home 13 awards for their “outstanding newscasts in a variety of news categories.”

Talking of awards, let’s not forget those being given out to organizations helping those disadvantaged in the city.  A staggering 112 grants (totaling $9,393,600) has been awarded by the California Community Foundation (CCF) to “address the needs” of the region as part of a set of “initiatives [being implemented] to create change that impacts the root causes of some our region’s most urgent issues.”

 

 

 

LA: The Business of Transport

News, ,

rail-tracksTransport has been an issue for Los Angeles for more years than probably anyone can remember.  Improvements are made here and there but the city is filled with so many people who want their own mode of transportation that making it eco-friendly is often filled with challenges.

However, the Expo rail line (that opened a few months ago) might be changing all of that.  The ability to travel from the Santa Monica beach to downtown without having to drive and sit in traffic for two hours has become incredibly appealing.  Tons of people chose this option, enjoying the 45-minute commute with their beach bags and iPads.

And then there is the Gold Line extension that will operate from Pasadena to Asuza, which opened earlier this year.  People from San Gabriel Valley really benefited from this as it meant they no longer had to sit in the uncomfortable Interstate 210 traffic.

Still, if the convenience does not encourage LA-peoples to leave their cars at home and go public, the possibility of the vote going through by the Board of Supervisors to make a countrywide 1-cent transit sales tax (which would result in raising an annual $860 million for the city) probably will.  Incidentally, the money will be used for 40 major transit projects over the next four decades.

This is a big deal for LA “the car capital of America.” As LA Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Phillip A. Washington said: “We want to once and for all solve the transportation infrastructure challenges in Southern California.”  He added that the situation is only going to get worse unless it is dealt with since “2.3 million more people [are] expected in the county in the next 40 years. The roads are not built to accommodate the influx of people.”

LA Getting More Jobs

new businesses, , , , ,

stadiumTwenty-five people in Los Angeles were recently hired by Anomaly – the US-based marketing company launched over 12 years ago.  There are an additional 15 vacancies remaining.    According to Carl Johnson, CEO the reason the LA office was opened was the result of the firm’s “long-term strategy,” which seeks to “access the depth and breadth of amazing talent that LA offers.”

Anomaly is also impressive since it beat other agencies from Beats by Dre’s search for an agency to use for its global expansion under Jason White – Marketing VP’s – guidance.   It was also reported at the beginning of this year that Anomaly’s Budweiser’s final puppy spot became the Super Bowl’s “most shared ad across social media,” and was ranked as Number 4 on Ad-Age’s 2016 Agency A-List.  So for LA-ers, it is a great place to work.

Meanwhile over in the construction  industry, two firms (Tuner Construction Co. and AECOM) were recently named to supervise building of the planned LA Rams’ 70,000 seat stadium in Inglewood, located at the former Hollywood Park Racetrack site.  The two companies will set up a joint venture to manage construction of the stadium at an estimated $1.9 billion.  According to Hollywood Park Land Co. President, Terry Fancher, these two were selected as together they were seen as “the best team…offer[ing] a well-developed plan for meeting Hollywood Park’s commitment to provide substantial employment opportunities for local Inglewood residents and meaningful economic participation in the stadium construction process for minority-owned business enterprises.”

These are just two examples of job openings in two industries – outside of entertainment – currently available in Los Angeles.

The Business of LA Shopping

Fashion, ,

shoppingBroadway is about to be flooded by mainstream clothing brands as well as nice fashion lines in The Broadway Trade Center that plans to fill around 200,000 sq ft. with such retailers. What is happening therefore is a hub is developing for retailers. Rumors abound that various big name brands are looking for space such as: H&M, Nike Inc., Adidas America Inc., Guess Inc. as well as Danish, German and South Korean retailers with French and Japanese companies looking into storefronts. What makes the Center interesting is that it will be next to boutiques like Banker and Acne Studios and clothier outposts like Gap Inc., and Ross Stores.
The question is though, will enough foot traffic be attracted to it? According to VC of RKF, a New York real estate brokerage, those that can afford to take the risk and wait it out will be doing themselves a favor since right now rents are really low on Broadway compared to fashion haunts like Beverly Hills and Venice.
Meanwhile, over at Downtown Macy’s Plaza a major renovation is in the works. It is becoming an open-air mall and is undergoing some rebranding, becoming known as The Bloc. This is to do with the fact that it comprises one city block at 7th and Flower. It has an outdoor courtyard with colorful furniture and planters around restaurants and stores. While some of the stores have yet to open, the Art Deco-y Sheraton Grand Los Angeles is with its District on the Bloc – an eatery on the plaza level. Future plans for the Bloc’s renovation (that cost $160 million) is a corridor to link it to the Seventh Street Metro station. There are also renovations going on at the Beverly Center at a cost of $500 million, which will include natural lighting and an enhanced pedestrian experience.
With all this mall renovation in Downtown LA there is bound to be an increase in employment opportunities as well.

Experience Costa Rica in LA

new businesses, , ,

costa-ricaFor people in Los Angeles who have always dreamed of experiencing more than the coffee of Costa Rica, Rubin Stahl may just be able to help out.  He is building a sanctuary that will be home to a huge greenhouse for bees, hummingbirds and more than 8,000 butterflies.  He is also building the country’s largest jellyfish aquarium.

Stahl was inspired by the landscape and wildlife in Costa Rica to make what this Butterfly Palladium into “one of the natural wonders of the world.”  At a cost of $25 million, this Buena Park entertain attraction will measure 53,000 square feet and will open in 2017, on 7711 Beach Boulevard. Stahl was recruited by the city of Buena Park for this project and the land it was using (that in the past was home to the Movieland Wax Museum) was sold at a price of $2.5 m to him.

It is possible the LA-Costa Rica love affair goes both ways. On August 2 every year, Costa Ricans enjoy their largest religious holiday by marching on foot (or knees) toward Cartago’s Los Angeles Basilica as a homage to Le Negrita and ask for a wish to be granted to them.

WIGI Event

Entertainment, , ,

nintendoThe Women in Games International – a not-for-profit organization that “works to promote the inclusion and advancement of women in the global games industry” recently hosted an event in Los Angeles. Its 2016 E3 Party featured music, lights, dancing fun and of course a good dosage of networking with “the most diverse crowd of any E3 party.” The event was held at Exchange LA on June 15th at 8:00 PM – Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 1:00 AM at 618 South Spring Street, Los Angeles.

Also at the event was Nintendo, displaying its “first gameplay footage from its next Legend of Zelda video game.” The focus is on technology as opposed to magic and according to MCV’s news site editor Chris Dring is “a vital game for Nintendo [since] the firm has millions of die-hard fans, but many of them didn’t buy a Wii U, and that’s entirely down to a lack of games at its start and then the massive gap between titles. Zelda isn’t the firm’s most successful game, but it is a massive seller to the core fan base. So, the fact that it is going to be there right at the start of the NX gives the console a step up already over what happened at the launch of the previous two machines Nintendo released.”

Whereas Microsoft and Sony both held press conferences at the E3 event, Nintendo instead chose to release a video depicting the new Zelda title, together with other future releases like new Pokemon games.

 

Downtown LA Expansions

Economy, Infrastructure, , ,

los-angelesThe Honda of Downtown Los Angeles dealership on the Figueroa Corridor is expanding.  With this it will be moving from its long-held location at 1540 S. Figueroa St., by the 10 Freeway overpass, to the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Hoover Street near Exposition Park, where the new dealership will be built. The Department of City Planning has documents attesting to Honda’s plans to demolish an existing two-story building and raise a pair of five-story structures, one on each side of Hoover Street, to house showrooms, service facilities and vehicle storage areas. The new dealership, slated for completion in 2021, would effectively be the new headquarters of Honda of Downtown, though the property on Figueroa Street would still operate as a dealership for used cars and performance vehicles, according to a report from the real-estate website Urbanize.la.

There’s not such good news for anther transport-related expansion in Los Angeles. BNSF Railway Co.’s new terminal near the Port of Los Angeles – that has been in the works now for close to 10 years with a $50m price tag – is facing challenges from a local judge who ruled that the terminal’s environmental review was not adequately undertaken. This could actually bring the project – that would offer city residents much-needed rail capacity – to an end. Right now BNSF is considering its options: to appeal, negotiate, or abandon efforts entirely.

Meanwhile, it seems LA is a great place for a start-up to expand.  According to Daniel Wirjoprawiro, it is “the fastest growing tech market in the United States.” In an article in StartUpSmart (based in Australia) he gives 6 reasons to explain this, having himself already made the “move to the City of Angels.”  These are:

  1. Burgeoning ecosystem
  2. Establishment of Chinese companies in the region
  3. More affordable than other tech regions such as San Francisco
  4. The level of talent: “LA has more engineering graduates than any other metro city.”
  5. Diversity resulting in the capacity of the ecosystem to build “a new generation of companies that are distinctly different in culture, creativity and aspirations from companies that stem from less diverse cities.”
  6. Quality of life.

Perhaps the judge who gave the negative ruling on BNSF Railway Co. should read Wirjoprawiro’s article and reconsider his position.

Los Angeles and Work Ethics

Employment

employeeDo people in LA love or hate their jobs?  According to a recent report, it’s a bit of a mixture and not so easy to figure out.  Likewise Twitter came to the same non-conclusion.  There are a lot of posts but none of them are conclusive.  Apparently the positive comments are coming in thick and fast (.70 tweets per 100,000 residents) and the negative ones are also quite prominent, but not as loud (.34 per 100,000 residents).

Nationwide it seems that the people who hate their job the most are those in retail. And the time people most hate their jobs are mid-July.  This could be the case though because there are simply more people working – students, seasonal staff members, summer jobs, etc.

Anyway employers in the LA region – and elsewhere throughout America – is that when it comes to tweeting at least, people are more likely to post good things about their work, rather than bad, with approximately 1,000 more tweets expressing job love at any given time.

Still, at least those in LA can’t really complain about the lack of available jobs.  It seems that LA county is actually a leader when it comes to recent job growth and business creation, and the New Map of Economic Growth and Recovery report placed this region at the top of the list for counties with the largest number of jobs added between 2010 and 2014.  Indeed, during those four years, there was a 9.9 percent growth rate, which translated into an additional 352,840 positions. The region also topped the list of the 20 counties that added the most new businesses from 2010 to 2014.

LA: Virtual Reality Arcades

Technology, ,

OctulusSix Virtual Reality Arcades are to open in various malls and multiplexes in the LA region.  This global venture is being developed between LA’s Imax Corp., and Stockholm’s Starbreeze.  The combination renders the possibility of the use of the Google VR camera (created by Imax) with a collection of VR entertainment and games (from Starbreeze).  In the future it is hoped that the establishment of virtual reality production partnerships will occur.

Last month, Jacob Kastrenakes reported in The Verge, that the collaboration between Starbreeze and Acer was undertaken in order to “develop a high-end virtual reality headset designed for arcades and theme parks.”  Over the last year, Starbreeze started showcasing the StarVR (the headset) but in the near future, it will be further developed.  The main attractive feature of StarVR is its wide field of vision, which allegedly can realistically copy what one sees in real life, right down to the peripheral vision.

It seems the VR world is becoming attractive to a lot of large technological corporations, including Google which is planning to use its Daydream system which intends to pose a challenge to the lead Oculus (owned by Facebook) currently has in the fabrication of artificial worlds.