Relocation Of Business

ReelzChannel, the fledgling cable channel that dubs itself "TV about movies," is pulling up stakes from the entertainment capital of Los Angeles and moving to Albuquerque. More than 125 people who work for the 2-year-old channel in Los Angeles learned of the relocation plans Wednesday. The announcement came a month after ReelzChannel fired 40 workers and canceled its signature show, "Dailies," amid a drop in spending by advertisers.

Auto manufacturer Kia Motors America has agreed to relocate its national parts distribution center from Chino to Meridian Business Park in Riverside, the park's developer said Tuesday. The business park is being built on land that was formerly part of March Air Reserve Base, one of several Southern California military bases that are being fully or partially converted to civilian use.

All aboard! Allied Model Trains is leaving the station. This week, one of the nation's largest model train stores is closing its longtime home in Culver City: a half-block-long replica of Los Angeles' Union Station. And fading along with it, says owner Allen Drucker, is the model train industry. "It's just a dying hobby," said Drucker, 58. "We probably have another good 15 years." Drucker will hang up his cap after 32 years of running a miniature railroad hub.

Two of the region's largest ocean-shipping lines plan to relocate most of their local administrative operations out of state within the next several weeks in what industry observers say is a move to cut costs and consolidate clerical functions and an attempt to elude a powerful labor union working to organize office employees at both companies. The relocations are expected to affect scores of clerical and administrative workers at Hanjin Shipping Co.'

Lockheed Martin Corp., continuing the consolidation it began more than a year ago, said Tuesday it will move its aircraft services division from Ontario to Palmdale, bringing about 1,000 workers from San Bernardino County to the Antelope Valley. The aerospace giant already has about 3,500 employees at its famed Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, where it designs top-secret military aircraft.

Listening to John Levy describe his three decades in business, you have to be impressed by his sheer resourcefulness. By most conventional measures, Reflex Corp., the private pet supply manufacturer Levy founded, is a tiny enterprise. With $10 dog and cat collars and leashes its main stock in trade, the company rings up sales of $2.5 million to $3 million a year.

After months of battling his former landlord, Chef Raimund Hofmeister of the Los Angeles Culinary Institute says he is happy to return to what he does best: training future chefs. The cooking school reopened at a new location on Ventura Boulevard and White Oak Avenue in mid-December, after being unceremoniously booted out of its previous site, the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank. The school reopened its restaurant, the Classroom, on Jan. 12.

The growing number of unemployment insurance claims filed by South County residents has prompted state employment officials to open an office here. The new Employment Development Department facility at 23456 Madero, Mission Viejo, is scheduled to open for business Sept. 1. Currently, the EDD office closest to South County--an area that stretches from Irvine to San Clemente--is in Santa Ana.

About 80 claims workers are being offered transfers to Salt Lake City in a consolidation of Alta Health Strategies Inc., a medical insurance claims processor that will close its Orange County claims office. Alta Health Strategies plans to move all of its claims services to its Salt Lake City headquarters to provide centralized control over the computerized system, officials said.

The county may set up shop in portable trailers or rent temporary quarters to cope with an arson fire that forced its busiest welfare office to shut down indefinitely, officials said Wednesday. The Panorama City office on Lanark Street remained boarded up Wednesday while county inspectors prepared a report on the extent of the damage from Tuesday's pre-dawn fire. The fire was set by an arsonist who broke in and doused the second floor of the east wing with gasoline before fleeing.