Brokers scramble amid shambles of their own offices; quakes slams Beitler, Sands San Fernando...

Quake slams Beitler, Sands San Fernando Valley outlets

Operations of two of the San Fernando Valley's leading real estate brokerage offices -- one residential and one commercial -- were severely disrupted by the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake.

The 30-some brokers manning Beitler Commercial

Realty Services' valley office still can't return to their penthouse suite in their quake-damaged Sherman Oaks high-rise at 14724 Ventura Blvd. near Cedros Avenue. They're currently cramped in a too-small Encino office and remain uncertain about their return timetable. Just across Ventura Boulevard from the damaged Beitler office, the three-story building housing the "Sherman Oaks East" office of L.A. residential powerhouse Fred Sands Realtors -- along with several other tenants -- was condemned and had to be demolished. That operation's 50-some agents are temporarily housed in other nearby Sands offices as the search for a new home continues.

Damage at the only "yellow-tagged" major valley highrise office tower has made Beitler the only major valley commercial brokerage still dislocated by the earthquake.

The 1967-vintage Tower At Sherman Oaks housing Beitler's 10,000-square-foot valley office will be repaired, but the commercial brokerage's only "sister" office is its Brentwood headquarters. So for the time being, valley operations are squeezed into 3,500-square-foot quarters at The Encino Atrium -- and 90 percent of the office's files remain unretrievable because tenants still can't enter the premises, noted Executive Vice President Craig Stevens.

Along with the damage to the luxuriously appointed Beitler suite -- elevator pulleys came crashing through the bathroom walls, for instance -- the operation lost about $100,000 worth of office equipment, Stevens said. While the damage was being assessed and the Beitler team sought alternative quarters, brokers tried to transact business from their homes -- some of which, like Stevens', also felt the quake's wrath.

And it appears Beitler's 12th-floor offices at The Tower, which is owned by TCW Realty Advisors, may not be ready for occupancy for another month or more. Meanwhile, many of the brokers are banging elbows in six-to-an-office digs, and the operation is paying $1,000 monthly to rent a copier while a $50,000 machine sits in the penthouse, Stevens noted.

The firm doesn't have earthquake-related business disruption insurance, he added, noting that it may have lost $100,000 or more in commission revenues during its down time.

The Sands agents once stationed at the Sherman Oaks East office -- 14651 Ventura Blvd. at Cedros Avenue -- were allowed to retrieve files before joining associates in the brokerage's Sherman Oaks West and Studio City offices, which came through the quake without any major problems.

"But we lost lots of equipment -- telephone systems, computers, etc.," said company founder Fred Sands.

The three-story, 38,735-square-foot Ventura/Cedros Building that housed Sands' Sherman Oaks East office, was completed in 1978. Real estate sources said the project was developed subject to a long-term ground lease on the site owned by a local family trust, and that the office building was recently acquired by a New Jersey investor. Title records identify ITL Ven Inc. as the building's owner and the Mona Easterly family trust as the "fee" owner.

Sands said his agents showed a lot of resilience as most got back to work at the neighboring offices right away, although "some of them had terrible things happen to their own homes." The firm is looking to lease other offices and currently "has offers out," he added.