WOODLAND HILLS, CA-Farmers Insurance, which has been based in Southern California since its founding in 1928, will relocate 1,200 workers to 6303 Owensmouth Ave. from its offices in Simi Valley in a lease of approximately 180,000 square feet at the Owensmouth address. The insurance company says that the move from 3041 Cochran St. in Simi Valley will relocate the employees "to a newer, more modern facility" at the Woodland Hills location.
The insurance company, which expects to begin moving the workers in early 2011, says that the 1,200 employees represent approximately 20% of its Greater Los Angeles work force. Some Farmers employees are already based at 6303 Owensmouth Ave., which is branded with the name of 21st Century Insurance Co., but the name on the building will be changed to Farmers Insurance. Farmers acquired 21st Century in July 2009.
Terms of the lease, in which Farmers was represented by Nathan Piehl of Equis, were undisclosed. The building ownership was represented by Jim Lindvall and Ryan House of Jones Lang LaSalle.
According to David Travers, executive vice president of operations for Farmers, the company
has more than 6,000 employees and agents in the Greater Los Angeles area, making it one of the largest employers in Southern California. Its facilities in the region include the original Farmers Insurance Home Office campus at 4680 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles; and three large facilities located along the 101 Freeway Corridor in Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village. In addition to its corporate office presence in the Greater Los Angeles area, local Farmers Insurance agents maintain their own offices throughout California and across the US.
Farmers Insurance has occupied the Simi Valley facility since 1982 and the relocation of employees to the newer, more modern Woodland Hills facility will improve working conditions for employees, Travers said, and it also will provide the space for additional future growth for Farmers Insurance in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Travers said that Farmers is "extremely sensitive to how our decision will impact Simi Valley." The insurance company "will be working with the building owner, the local business community and city officials to find suitable tenants to fill the office space we are vacating," he said.
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