Goleta-based nonprofit Direct Relief is one step closer to building a new 155,000-square-foot facility by the Santa Barbara Airport where it could produce and distribute humanitarian aid, medicine and other vital supplies to impoverished and disaster-stricken communities around the world.

The Santa Barbara Architectural Board of Review continued the project after its first concept review on Aug. 3, which will allow the project to return to the planning commission in September.

Located at 6100 Hollister Ave., just north of the airport’s administration building, the city of Santa Barbara is selling an 8-acre parcel to Direct Relief for a base price of $25 per square foot of land, totaling between $6.5 million and $8.5 million, depending on a final survey.

The development proposal outlines demolishing the nearly 13,000 square feet of the parcel’s existing buildings, constructing a road connecting the property to Frederick Lopez Road and building a 127,706-square-foot warehouse and a two-story, 27,294-square-foot office administrative building. That facility, which is planned to begin construction in 2016, will replace Direct Relief’s existing building at 27 S. La Patera Lane that it has outgrown.

Currently the land and existing buildings are used for temporary short-term rentals, generating rental income of approximately $300,000 annually to the airport, the city said in a news release.
The project’s principal designer, Michael Holliday, of DMHA Architecture and Interior Design, said the new spot makes sense logistically; the nonprofit would be able to mobilize quickly when disaster hits with a location by the airport and near Fed Ex.

“These guys have grown in their backyard,” Holliday said. “Direct Relief was doing a national search for its headquarters and we were really fortunate they came back to Santa Barbara and that the city was willing to sell its undeveloped property. Not to mention the fact that Direct Relief has been growing its donor base and volunteers for decades.”

Direct Relief started in Santa Barbara in 1948 and it has grown into the largest nonprofit based in the Tri-Counties, providing nearly a billion dollars in medical relief worldwide last year.

New name for merged firms

The Ryland Group and Standard Pacific Corp., which revealed plans to merge on June 14, jointly announced CalAtlantic Group, Inc. as the name of the company when their merger is expected to close this fall.

Though billed as a “merger of equals,” the roughly $5.2 billion deal would give Irvine-based Standard Pacific shareholders the majority of shares in the combined company. Total enterprise value including debt is more than $8 billion and the combined company will control about 74,000 home sites in 17 states, selling everything from entry-level to luxury homes, a company statement said.

Larry T. Nicholson, CEO of Westlake Village-based Ryland, will serve as CEO of the new company and Scott Stowell, the Standard Pacific CEO, will serve as executive chair of the new company’s board. CalAtlantic Group will be the nation’s fourth-largest homebuilder.

The CalAtlantic Homes name points to the breadth of the new company’s footprint expanding from coast to coast and all points in between,” Nicholson said.

Whether the combined company would be based in Irvine, Westlake Village or a third location is uncertain. A statement said the company would operate from one headquarters in California and a second corporate center on the East Coast but no location was provided.

NAI Capital Vice President Fred Ferro has a hunch CalAtlantic would either stay in Westlake or move to a third location rather than maintain a presence in Irvine.

Former Oxnard Kmart leased

LA Fitness, Smart & Final and Star World will lease space in the vacated Kmart at the corner of Ventura Road and Channel Islands Boulevard in Oxnard.

CBRE Group, Inc., in collaboration with Red Mountain, has arranged the three retail leases at the 137,175-square-foot retail site, which has been empty since 2008. CBRE retail experts Scott Siegel, Larry Tanji and Lisa Engel, along with Kristin Ambrose of Red Mountain, arranged the deal.

LA Fitness, Smart & Final and Star World, a new appliance and electronic company, each signed a 15-year lease and will occupy 37,500 square feet, 31,044 square feet and 26,487 square feet, respectively. Scheduled to be completed the second quarter of 2016, the proposed renovations include new storefront elevations, parking lot, landscaping and lighting.

• Contact Alex Kacik at akacik@pacbiztimes.com.