Focus on the Family Group Plans to Move : Ministry: The Christian organization in Pomona that has grown into a $63-million-a-year media empire intends to relocate to Colorado Springs.

Focus on the Family, which was founded by psychologist James Dobson 13 years ago to promote Christian family values and has grown into a $63-million-a-year media empire, announced Thursday that it has outgrown its headquarters in Pomona and plans to move to Colorado Springs, Colo.

Dobson, the organization’s president, said the move is contingent on the sale of its property in Pomona, but the move could occur 18 months to two years after the sale.

Paul Nelson, executive vice president, said the 750 employees at the Pomona headquarters were told of the plan Thursday and will be offered the chance to transfer to Colorado.

Pomona Mayor Donna Smith said she is disappointed by the decision because of the loss of jobs and the loss of a valuable “ministry that is desperately needed.”

But Nelson said that although the nonprofit organization has strong support in California, most of its work--answering a volume of mail that reaches 10,000 letters a day and preparing radio programs--can be done just as easily in Colorado.

Nelson said Focus on the Family was faced with the alternative of constructing a high-rise office building on its 13-acre site in Pomona or finding a larger site elsewhere to meet its expansion needs.

Because of the expense of high-rise construction and the higher labor and operating costs in California, he said, it will be cheaper to move to Colorado. “It will also be cheaper for our employees to live there,” he said.

Dobson, who was an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at USC for 14 years, started Focus on the Family in 1977 after writing a series of popular books on parenting and marriage from a conservative Christian perspective. He started with one secretary in a two-room office in Arcadia, expanded to a dozen employees in 1980 and now runs an organization that includes a lobbying arm in Washington and a Canadian branch in Vancouver. Its radio broadcasts reach an estimated 1 million listeners on 1,450 stations in the United States and overseas.

Dobson gained national attention in 1989 when he interviewed serial killer Ted Bundy in Florida shortly before his execution and recorded on videotape Bundy’s claim that his crimes were influenced by pornography.

Nelson said Colorado Springs was selected because of a gift of $4 million from the El Pomar Foundation, contingent upon the move. The foundation was established in 1937 by Spencer Penrose, who made a fortune in gold in Colorado. The foundation makes grants exclusively to groups in Colorado.