CLIENTS
AA Victory PAC: Legislative Leadership Golf Tournament
AA Victory PAC works to expand political awareness and power for elected officials and candidates who represent Asian American communities and interests. Advocating for positive change and political empowerment, AA Victory PAC dedicates their efforts towards supporting candidates, ballots initiatives, and legislation to provide the Asian American community access to the political realm. Through these endeavors, the PAC offers a voice for our Asian American Communities and encourage active participation in both the local and federal political process.
In order to support these initiatives, AA Victory PAC relies on its network of supporters to connect its fellow members with people, resources, and finances necessary to build toward Asian American leaders and voters.
The Santa Maria Group invited constitutional officers, legislative leadership, elected officials, and community members to participate in an annual golf tournament and speaker series fundraiser hosted at Pechanga Resort & Casino. Event organization, planning, scheduling, invitations, programming, day-of action, were all internal operations by the SMG team.
The successful two-day event connected many upcoming individuals and secured funding to support several of their campaigns. Notable guests and sponsors included California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, California Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC), Airbnb, the California Municipal Finance Authority (CMFA), the National Asian American Coalition (NAAC), Shangri-La Industries, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), and several others.
American Housing Construction INC.
The Santa Maria Group served as American Housing’s land use and entitlement specialist. Our team represented American Housing in application process to secure TEFRA bonds for various properties.
Areas: LAX Shop + Dine Urth Caffé & Bar
As Urth Caffe’s consultant, the Santa Maria Group assists with land use issues related to future growth. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) underwent numerous modernization upgrades in 2018 as part of Los Angeles World Airports' (LAWA) multibillion-dollar Capital Improvement Program. These improvements included expanded dining and retail areas in Terminal 1. To specifically include local businesses in this program, LAWA released a request for proposal (RFP) to which Urth Caffé responded. Areas, specializing in retail and outlet locations in airports, concurrently received their concessionaire’s license. The Santa Maria Group secured vendors on behalf of Areas and bridged their relationship with Urth Caffé
The Santa Maria Group assisted Urth Caffé in navigating through the process, including through the RFP and subsequent decision phases. SMG meanwhile conducted grasstops advocacy in negotiating with LAWA to secure Urth Caffé's concessionaire package in Terminal 1 through Areas.
Urth Caffé received its concessionaire package and has operated in Terminal 1 among 22 other local dining and retail vendors since 2018. This LAX location has since been named Airport Coffee the Best Airport Coffee, Tea, Non-alcoholic Beverage Outlet of the Year at The Moodie Davitt Report’s 2019 Airport Food & Beverage Conference & Awards (FAB), which honors the best in the airport food and beverage industry who are championing innovation and excellence. Terminal 1 itself has also since been named the “best airport concessions transformation” in the prestigious 2019 Excellence in Airport Concessions awards by Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA).
Artesia Cannabis Coalition
Artesia Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Sales (ACRCS) is a group of residents, business owners and stakeholders of Artesia, CA who have a strong interest in improving our city through the approval of taxed, regulated, and licensed cannabis business. Their purpose is to support responsible cannabis sales in the City of Artesia in order to generate new revenue for the City. They have requested the Artesia City Council to use the new revenues to fund and support community priorities that are unable to be addressed by the City of Artesia’s current budget limitations.
The Santa Maria Group (SMG) aided in garnering support for ACRCS' mission of increasing revenue for the City of Artesia through the approval of taxed, regulated, and licensed cannabis sales. As such, SMG spearheaded a grassroots campaign to disseminate the goals of ACRCS as well as how these goals would benefit the residents of Artesia. SMG effectively led a canvassing team to inform the residents of Artesia about the economic prospects of bringing cannabis as a viable source of revenue to the City. In addition, we conducted a phone banking operation to reach residents and provide them with valuable information about cannabis-generated revenue. During this process, we have secured ample supporter cards from a wide base of the Artesia community. In addition, we engaged in grasstops efforts to engage local Artesia decision makers, including Artesia City Council and high level community leaders, to gain their support for the proposal put forward ACRCS.
While our work with the Artesia Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Sales is still underway, we have successfully achieved high levels of support from the residents of Artesia. We are currently striving towards lobbying Artesia City Council, as well as various sectors of Artesia's local government, to support ACRCS' proposal to advance in the next steps of bringing taxed, regulated, and licensed cannabis sales to Artesia.
Artfarm USA
The Santa Maria Group led the process of obtaining on-site alcohol permits on behalf of Artfarm for use in its restaurant Manuela. Through Conditional Use Beverage (CUB) permits, Manuela has been approved for the sale and dispensing of a full line of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption of art gallery, restaurant, outdoor area, and retail with off-site sale of full line alcoholic beverages.
Avtex Genesys Partnership
GENESYS unifies all voice and digital channels, self-service, inbound and outbound interactions, and work items to provide rich contextual insights at each moment.
The Santa Maria Group assisted and represented GENESYS in meetings with key decision-makers for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) as well as any other relevant City and County staff. SMG developed appropriate teaming strategies and partners; provided competitive analyses of specific opportunities including budget analysis, incumbent analysis, competitor evaluations, and win strategies; and provided a synopsis of all current relevant legislation.
SMG was able to repair the relationship and nurture long-term collaboration between GENESYS and City departments to foster amicability in future contracting. Our team increased GENESYS' name recognition within LADWP as well as Los Angeles’ local governmental entities, and effectuated a postponement of the LADWP RFP by one month.
California Public Finance Authority (CALPFA)
The Santa Maria Group represented the California Public Finance Authority (CalPFA) in their efforts to expand their local footprint in the City of Los Angeles, helping their respective developers obtain TEFRA approval and establish a middle income workforce program. In addition, the The Santa Maria Group conducted grasstops outreach, working directly with elected officials to promote legislation benefiting CalPFA. Our team worked with the California State Treasurer to craft legislation encouraging the use of tax exempt bonds for use in affordable housing and public benefits projects.
CJ Entertainment: 4DX Theaters at LA Live
In 2018, SMG assisted CJ 4DX with the necessary licensing required for their multi-plex cinema in Hollywood, California. The largest multi-plex cinema chain in South Korea, the CJ Group has branches in China, United States, and Europe.
4DX is a motion picture technology owned and developed by South Korean company CJ 4DPLEX, a part of the CJ Group. 4DX allows a motion picture presentation to be augmented with environmental effects such as seat motion, wind, rain, lights, and scents along with the standard video and audio.
The Santa Maria Group (SMG) is CJ Group’s chief consultant on the company’s integration of its 4DX technology into the U.S. market and is responsible for developing and implementing the strategy that created the CJ/AEG/Regal Partnership. SMG was also responsible for the development of the theater by providing government representation and securing permits for the project.
CJ’s 4DX technology debuted for the first time in the U.S. in the summer of 2014 at AEG's Regal Cinemas, L.A. Live in Los Angeles. CJ entertainment has grown from no US presence to 32 4DX locations.
Jonathan Rose Companies
The Santa Maria Group assisted Jonathan Rose Companies in obtaining bond allowances for a variety of properties in the City of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Wildlife Education & Rehabilitation (LA WILD)
LA Wildlife Education & Rehabilitation (LA Wild) is a non-profit organized and explicitly operated to rescue, rehabilitate and release back into the wild, sick, injured, or orphaned local wildlife in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles. Additionally, LA WILD provides educational programs for the public on how to coexist with wildlife to minimize negative interactions for residents, businesses, and wildlife animals.
LA Wild proposed an education & wildlife rehabilitation center comprised of an animal hospital complex within the jurisdiction of the City of Los Angeles. Their facility requirements include a secure and quiet site with 1-2 acres of land appropriately zoned for wildlife rehabilitation, with access to water, power, and sewage. The site will need to include staff and volunteer parking and public access to deliver injured wildlife to the animal hospital.
Furthermore, the site must be offered at no cost to LA Wild; however, LA Wild will be responsible for any expenses for utilities, buildings/trailers, equipment, and animal enclosures.
The Santa Maria Group introduced a motion through the Los Angeles City Council Arts, Parks, Recreation, and Culture Committee through Councilmembers Koretz, Lee, O’Farrell, and Raman to aid in this proposal. The motion directed the Department of General Services, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks along with the LA Zoo to provide a report to the Committee that provides potential locations that could meet LA Wild’s facility requirements for the LA Wild Education & Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. SMG also organized an informational community kickoff event featuring Assemblymember Laura Friedman and representatives from of Councilmembers Raman and Lee.
The motion passed both in the Committee and in the City Council, and SMG has worked closely with LA WILD and City officials to target an official site.
Postmates
Through the COVID pandemic, restaurants have found themselves unable to meet non-payroll operating expenses including rent, property taxes, licenses and permits, franchise fees, and general overhead. Postmates opposed a fee cap on third party delivery services in Los Angeles, a practice instituted by other California cities which resulted in marked operating losses for delivery drivers, restaurants, and services.
On behalf of Postmates, the Santa Maria Group advocated for a set industry-wide fee per transaction to raise funds without affecting workers or consumer demand, while capitalizing many more dollars into restaurant relief efforts. Staff engaged the Los Angeles City Council to introduce an Amending Motion to it deciare it unlawful for a third-party food delivery service to charge a restaurant a fee per online order for the use of its services that totals more than 15 percent of the purchase price of such online order during the local public health emergency related to COVID-19.
Presidio
Presidio provides data center infrastructure and digital security solutions to businesses. The Santa Maria Group served as Presidio’s liaison to leaders in the City and County of Los Angeles. In an effort to expand Presidio’s local footprint, SMG engaged Los Angeles City Councilmembers, County Supervisor staff, and Supervisorial Committee deputies. Our team coordinated meetings with elected officials to convey Presidio’s service offerings as an initial step to procure government contracts.
Shangri-LA
Shangri-La Industries is a commercial real estate firm with services encompassing investment, development, design, construction, and management. Featured projects include Freehand Hotel, 442 Residences, and Hotel Figueroa.
The Santa Maria Group identified and strategic opportunities for high rise affordable and market rate housing These areas included spaces for new construction via the acquisition or rehabilitation of land in the City of Los Angeles.
Shore Hotel Santa Monica
Brought on to lead community outreach for a modification of the hotel's CUP application and its Coastal Commission application. After receiving approval from the Coastal Commission in December 2019, Shore Hotel required further approval from the Santa Monica Planning Commission and City Council in 2021 to approve the requested modifications.
The Santa Maria Group initiated a grasstops community outreach effort to engage relevant elected officials in addition to local constituents through field operations and phone, email, social media, texting, and door-to-door canvassing campaigns.
After receiving Coastal Commission approval, the Santa Maria Group (SMG) transitioned to a digital-only outreach approach via text messaging, social media, and email newsletters due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over several months, SMG conducted capacity building to increase reach and engagement online to drive viewership and, subsequently, support cards and signed letters of support through a website made by SMG. As pandemic restrictions lifted, SMG began door-to-door canvassing in Santa Monica to further increase support cards and recruit speakers to the Planning Commission and City Council hearing dates.
SMG also led media relations efforts through press releases and leveraging press industry contacts to ensure that the project received fair media attention.
SMG successfully delivered over 3,000 491 signed support cards and 42 community speakers to the City Council hearing, resulting in the project's approval.
Sierra Systems
Sierra Systems is a top tier IT services and management consulting firm offering a full range of advisory services, systems integration, and managed application services. Sierra Systems is a top tier IT services and management consulting firm offering a full range of advisory services, systems integration, and managed application services. As a division of NTT DATA Corporation, a top 10 global IT services and consulting provider, they offer a full range of management consulting, systems integration, and managed services for business on an international scale. Sierra Systems sought to secure Los Angeles City and County contracts via the Request for Proposal (RFP) bidding process.
The Santa Maria Group was responsible for identifying and securing business and bid opportunities for City and County contracts in Los Angeles on Sierra Systems’ behalf. As an example, SMG helped them pursue Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) CIO and PMO services contracts through the City of Los Angeles RFP bidding process. The Santa Maria Group was responsible for identifying and securing business and bid opportunities for City and County contracts in Los Angeles on Sierra Systems’ behalf. As an example, SMG helped them pursue Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Chief Information Office and IT Project Management Office services contracts through the City of Los Angeles RFP bidding process.
SMG also assisted Sierra Systems in securing funding for their contract with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). LAPD required the services of Sierra Systems but lacked proper funding. Through the help of SMG, the client was able to obtain funding from the City of Los Angeles to preserve their contract with LAPD.
The Santa Maria Group successfully procured various government contracts for Sierra Systems, including those with LAUSD and LAPD.
SK Construction
The Santa Maria Group provided a key consulting role in sK Construction’s efforts to identify and secure opportunities to develop impactful housing opportunities in the City of Los Angeles. Through our efforts, sK Construction was able to commence construction for new high-rise affordable and market rate housing, and rehabilitate existing properties.
Skanska
The Santa Maria Group assisted Skanska, the 5th largest engineering firm worldwide, in strengthening its presence in the City of Los Angeles. Our team advised on strategy and worked with City leaders to obtain land for development and existing properties for rehabilitation to create high-capacity market rate and affordable housing. SMG also served as Skanska’s government relations representative for their Sixth Street Viaduct project.
Splunk>
Splunk> Is A Tech Enterprise That Helps Deliver Operational Analytics For End-To-End Insights Across Your System’s Entire Infrastructure. Technology is growing at a fast pace and new threats such as cyber-attacks and security breaches have become a problem across the world. To protect its digital infrastructure, the City of Los Angeles required situational awareness of its security posture and threat intelligence for all departments and stakeholders.
Splunk Enterprise monitors and analyzes machine data from any source to deliver Operational Intelligence to optimize information technology, security and business performance. The company sought to procure a government contract for their technological services.
The ‘Critical Assets Protection’ project spearheaded by ITA uses the Splunk Enterprise platform which allows the City to best determine the root cause or gain visibility across the entire infrastructure to identify and prevent security breaches. Splunk’s platform provides the machine data fabric that would give the City a real-time understanding of all activity across its IT departmental systems and technology infrastructure in order for the City to have a consolidated view of data needed to make informed decisions and prevent cyber-attacks in the future.
The Santa Maria Group worked directly with the Mayor of Los Angeles' office, Los Angeles City Council, and the City's Information Technology Agency (ITA) to address cyber security needs for the City. Through our knowledge and understanding of the budgetary process, we were able to find the path and justification to increase a one time grant approval $175,000 to an annual line item budgetary increase in the amount of $800,000. Currently, we completed a multi-year, multi-million dollar licensing contract with the City and Splunk, Inc. for use of their enterprise platform.
SMG successfully secured funding for Splunk via the City of Los Angeles through the annual budget process though a direct budget allocation. We addressed the Citywide consolidated departmental cyber security needs for the City’s Critical Asset Protection Program. SMG helped Splunk to grow a small one time contract to a multi-year engagement with the City.
Suffolk Construction
The Santa Maria Group helped further Suffolk Construction’s goals through identifying acquisition and providing strategic opportunities to acquire or rehabilitate space for high-rise affordable/market rate housing in Los Angeles. Our team also fostered partnerships with CreedLA and local union labor forces to deliver a collaborative effort in securing and staffing government contracts.
WaBa Grill
WaBa Grill is a Southern California fast casual eatery franchise. Encountering a saturated competition among the local Asian-themed restaurants in addition to an inability to scale higher than 18 locations, WaBa Grill faced early stagnation at the start of their business operations.
The Santa Maria Group led the brand redesign of the franchise including graphic design of menu items and site configuration. Assembling a team of architects and design artists, SMG delivered a total overhaul of WaBa Grill's facility aesthetics and brand identification.
SMG successfully raised WaBa Grill's prominence among fast casual eatery chains in Southern California, increasing the number of locations from 18 to 185 in 2022.
X Lanes Bowling
In 2012, the Santa Maria Group represented the current property owners of X Lanes Bowling, Park Plaza LLC, in attaining the required permits for their newly opening business, which is located on 333 Alameda Street #300 in Los Angeles. The project site consisted on 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant establishments in Downtown Los Angeles. SMG represented Park Plaza LLC with the permitting of the project, which involved tenant improvements for a new family entertainment center, including a bowling alley, video arcade, billiards room, restaurant, children's party room, and sports bar lounge with alcohol sales, with hours of operation between 10:00 am and 2:00 am daily. The applicant stated that the concept is to provide a comprehensive family entertainment center by incorporating ideas of Chuck E. Cheese, Dave & Busters, and Lucky Strike Lanes.
We effectively secured the necessary government permitting for alcohol licensing and entertainment use. Furthermore, we coordinated with the architect and contractor on behalf of the ownership to jumpstart the construction of their project, keeping their vision in mind with each step of the process. The project was fully approved and sanctified by the findings of the Department of City Planning. The proposed location was determined to be desirable to public convenience and welfare, in proper relation to adjacent uses or the development of the community, in harmony with the elements and objectives of the general plan, and not injurious to the welfare of the surrounding community.
X Lanes Family Entertainment Center had a successful grand opening in May of 2013, with all necessary permits for alcohol licensing and entertainment use in place. Furthermore, X Lanes Bowling's prime location and permission to serve alcohol has proven to be lucrative for the Park Plaza LLC owners and brought in a significant client basis.