Logix credit union announces plans to leave Burbank headquarters

Logix Federal Credit Union, which began as a small credit union for employees of the Lockheed Aircraft Corp. and has been based in Burbank for more than three-quarters of a century, announced plans this week to relocate its headquarters to Valencia.

“After 27 years in our current headquarters building, we have reached the point that we need a larger facility to accommodate our expanding employee population,” said Dave Styler, the company’s president and chief executive, in an open letter posted to the credit union’s website Tuesday.

“After careful analysis of costs to expand on our current headquarters property, as well as evaluation of alternate locations, we determined our best long-term option is in Santa Clarita,” he added.

Styler said Logix recently purchased 12 acres of land near the junction of the Golden State (5) Interstate and State Highway 126. Construction is expected to begin soon and will take up to three years.

The new headquarters is necessary, Styler said, because Logix has more employees than it can fit in the Burbank office building. The credit union already leases an additional 12,000-square-foot facility in Burbank for its contact center, he said.

Of the credit union’s 544 employees, 379 work at the 75,000-square-foot Burbank headquarters, Alethia Calagias, a spokeswoman for the company said via email.

The move to Santa Clarita will be significantly less expensive than expanding the Burbank facility or relocating elsewhere, according to the Logix announcement. Expansion would have taken longer and been more disruptive and complicated.

Logix employees who work at the Burbank headquarters will be allowed to keep their jobs after the credit union relocates, according to the company’s announcement. Those whose commutes are “significantly impacted” will be offered relocation allowances.

The 150,000-member financial institution, which boasts $4 billion in assets, will remain in its Burbank headquarters until moving to the new building “most likely” in 2018. Proceeds from the sale of the building will offset construction costs and the expected relocation of its flagship Burbank branch in the next year into two new locations to accommodate continued growth.

“We are currently looking for available lease space in the downtown Burbank and Toluca Lake areas,” Styler said.

In a series of question-and-answer items posted along with the letter, the company said the Toluca Lake branch would be “deployed” in mid-2016, with the downtown Burbank branch following later in the year. The new locations are expected to increase convenience for credit union members who use the existing Burbank branch, which will remain open in the meantime.

When it closes, so will its 1,831 safe-deposit boxes — about 966 were in use as of Friday, Calagias said. Customers will be notified several months in advance of the closure to remove their valuables. However, neither the new Burbank branches or any other Logix branch is expected to offer safe-deposit boxes, the company said.

Holly Schroeder, president and chief executive of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp., called the Logix move “a major testament to the area as a leading business address,” according to a company statement.

For Burbank “it’s a great loss,” said Mayor Bob Frutos, who said the company was “very engaged” with the community. He pointed to a lack of affordable housing in the city and throughout the region as being a contributing factor for the move as well.

“I want them to stay in Burbank, but I understand their financial position,” Frutos said, adding that “it sucks, plain and simple.”

According to the city’s latest update to the Congestion Management Plan for Los Angeles County, approved this week, in the past year, the city has only added a net seven single-family housing units and 12 multifamily units. City Manager Mark Scott said in an email that the city has gained only 54 multifamily units in the past six years.

“My understanding is that Santa Clarita is home to many of [Logix’s] employees and clearly housing opportunities are limited in Burbank,” Scott said.