New High-Rise in Works for Oxnard’s Financial Plaza

Martin V. (Bud) Smith, the dean of Ventura County’s commercial real estate developers, says he’s close to launching his latest project--a 15-story, 330,000-square-foot office building in Oxnard’s Financial Plaza.

The new structure would be the third high-rise in the plaza, a million-square-foot complex off the Ventura Freeway that is wholly owned by Smith’s company, Martin V. Smith & Associates. If all goes according to plan, construction will start next year and the building will open its doors by the end of 1996.

Financial Plaza’s largest towers, the 22-story Union Bank Building and the 15-story Ventura County National Bank Building, are 94% occupied, and Smith is convinced that it’s time to make room for more tenants. “We’ve completed the permit process and we’ve spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars on plans,” he says of his newest project. “All we’re waiting for now is a major tenant.”

On Smith’s behalf, commercial real estate brokers are approaching Eastern insurance companies and other firms, some in California, that might occupy at least 25% of the planned high-rise. As part of the deal, the building would be named for the tenant. “The banks like to see a large chunk of space leased before you break ground,” Smith concedes.

Smith, 78, has become a multimillionaire through shrewd judgment and an unwavering faith in the Oxnard Plain. He moved to Oxnard 50 years ago, operating a restaurant called the Colonial House. The city’s population then was 8,000. Today, it’s more than 150,000. “When my friends in L. A. asked where my restaurant was, I told them it was between Malibu and Montecito. Most of them didn’t know Oxnard existed.”

Smith got into development but was different from most builders in that he held onto his projects instead of selling them to others. Today, he has 2,000 business and residential tenants in properties throughout Ventura County.

In addition to the Financial Plaza, he owns Fishermen’s Wharf and the Peninsula Yacht Anchorage at Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor, a couple of shopping centers and a string of hotels, including the Oxnard Hilton, between Calabasas and Santa Maria.

He also has his own railroad, the Ventura County Railway, which carries imported autos and other freight from the Port of Hueneme to the Southern Pacific connection in Oxnard.

“Things have definitely been looking up the last 60 days,” Smith says of Ventura County’s economy. “One sign of that is that we’ve been turning people away who want to rent space in our warehouses. Every inch is rented.”

As for his hundreds of apartment units, the vacancy rate is under 3%, he reports. “A lot of the apartments are rented to Navy families. We’d be hurt if our bases were to be closed, but not as badly as some people fear.

“If the Navy pulled out of Point Mugu, for instance, I think that would make it more feasible to establish a major commercial airport there. The net result for the county’s economy might not be so bad.”

What, then, is Bud Smith’s forecast for the county that made him rich?

His answer: “Five years from now, people will be asking themselves, ‘Why didn’t I do more five years ago?’ ”