Ironman Magazine Moves to Oxnard Headquarters

After straining for more than a year, Ironman magazine, the nation’s No. 2 bodybuilding publication, has finally moved to Ventura County.

Since February, 1992, John Balik, managing partner of the magazine and a related mail-order business, has been trying to buy a 15,000-square-foot headquarters building in Oxnard’s Channel Islands Business Park.

Balik finally purchased the structure from the Resolution Trust Corp. for $650,000.

But he found the experience unnerving. “Auctions would be scheduled and called off. Prices would be set and suddenly raised,” he said. “At one RTC auction, I discovered that I was bidding against myself for the same building.”

Balik credits Paul Farry of TOLD Partners’ Ventura office with guiding him through the bureaucratic maze. He and 14 employees have already moved into the new location on Ives Avenue from a much smaller headquarters in Marina del Rey.

All of Ironman’s editorial, composition and administrative work is being done in the Oxnard building. The magazine, whose monthly circulation is 240,000, is printed in Kentucky.

In addition to the magazine, the Ironman group of companies is doing well with its mail-order business, Balik said. The operation, which sells bodybuilding equipment, videos, athletic clothing and other items, will hire two new order-takers soon, he added.