First Business Building in Lost Hills to Open : Construction to Start on 2 More in September in Calabasas Community

Opening ceremonies will be held Tuesday for Lost Hills Business Center, the $175-million commercial component of the 520-acre master-planned community of Lost Hills in Calabasas.

Only one three-story office building with about 108,000 square feet of office space has been erected on the 62 acres earmarked for the business park. Construction will begin in September on two other buildings.

But when the entire complex is finished in the mid-1990s, it will have more than 1.2 million square feet of space, including several hundred thousand feet of office and industrial space, a 200-room hotel, shops and restaurants. A 13-acre parcel has been set aside for county facilities, including a sheriff’s station.

PIP Headquarters

The project is being developed through a joint venture of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes and Currey-Riach Co. The partners will develop some of the buildings, and will sell some of the land to other builders.

Postal Instant Press, better-known as PIP, has already moved its international headquarters and training facility from Los Angeles to the first building in Lost Hills Business Center. The firm leased more than 41,000 square feet of space for 11 years in a deal valued at $10 million.

One of the buildings to get under way in September will serve as the corporate and manufacturing headquarters of Condor Pacific Inc., a firm that makes electronic components and navigation systems for military applications. The company is currently based in Canoga Park.

The business center, adjacent to the Ventura Freeway off Lost Hills Road, is in the so-called Technology Corridor that stretches about 26 miles from Woodland Hills to Newbury Park.

Less Traffic Congestion

The developer is marketing the business park as an alternative to the massive Warner Center complex, about 6 miles east in Woodland Hills.

Robert G. Lumley, project manager for the San Fernando Valley/Ventura County regional office of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, said Lost Hills Business Park offers less traffic congestion, lower density and other benefits that Warner Center doesn’t provide.

The Westlake office of Oltmans Construction Co. is general contractor for the business park’s first office building, designed by Carli Architecture Los Angeles. Exclusive marketing agent is Grubb & Ellis.

A second building, which the joint-venture partners will start in September, is being designed by Hill Pinckert Architects Inc. of Westlake Village. It will rise two stories and have 34,155 square feet of office space.

The residential component of Lost Hills calls for construction of 1,350 homes, about half of which already have been completed.