A few major San Fernando Valley commercial tenants have announced plans to relocate but they’re not really going anywhere.

The tenants are merely moving to other Valley locations.

“The San Fernando Valley is a good place to be,” said Forrest Blake, a senior broker with Travers Realty Corp. “People already located in the Valley are staying local, and we are continuing to see people locate here from out of the area.”

Grubb & Ellis Co. data show tenants occupying 162,378 more square feet of Valley office space at the end of the second quarter than at the beginning of the quarter. That additional occupancy caused the Valley’s overall office vacancy rate to ratchet-down to 11.5 percent, a slight improvement from 12 percent three months earlier.

One of the bigger Valley commercial real estate events of the quarter was CareAmerica Health Plans’ announcement that it is relocating from the Trillium complex in Woodland Hills.

It is among the first to sign a lease for the West Hills Corporate Village a campus-style development being built on the site formerly occupied by Hughes Missile Systems. The health care company signed a 10-year, $35 million lease for 162,000 square feet.

Regent Properties Inc. and Shamrock Holdings Inc. jointly own the 30-acre office park, and plan to renovate existing space and build new space before CareAmerica and other tenants move in next year. The total facelift and construction are expected to cost about $100 million.

Other tenants to the complex will include the Los Angeles Police Department, which is basing its 911 emergency communications center there, and the DeVry Institute.

The vacancy rates of all Valley office submarkets improved slightly during the second quarter, with the exception of the Central Valley submarket, which saw its vacancy rate rise by six-tenths of a percentage point to 14.4 percent.

The East Valley continues to enjoy the lowest vacancy rate in all of L.A. County, at 4.8 percent, according to Grubb & Ellis.

The West Valley saw the most dramatic improvement among the Valley submarkets during the second quarter, with vacancy there dropping to 14.3 percent, almost a full percentage point drop from its 15.2 percent level three months earlier.

DreamWorks SKG has been expanding throughout the San Fernando Valley, including into a Chatsworth facility formerly occupied by Sanyo Fisher Co., which relocated about four months ago to another Chatsworth location.

DreamWorks leased a 124,418-square-foot office building to house general administration, production and storage operations. The building is located at 21350 Lassen St.

On the east side of the Valley, development plans for the former General Motors plant in Van Nuys firmed up during the second quarter, with co-developers Selleck Development Group Inc. and the Voit Cos. announcing that their project would break ground within the next few months.

The 100-acre site has been zoned for a 30-acre industrial park and 356,000 square feet of new retail space on the 36-acre western portion of the property.

But the news wasn’t all good for Van Nuys during the second quarter.

Familian Corp. announced it will relocate from its longtime headquarters there to Pomona by early next year. Familian, which operates 23 Familian Pipe and Supply showrooms around Southern California, plans to move its administrative office into a new regional shipping center in Pomona.

The company which currently leases 28,000 square feet in Van Nuys will move into a 300,000-square-foot facility in Pomona. However, Familian will still maintain a 40,000-square showroom in Van Nuys.

Major Events

– CareAmerica Health Plans signed a $35 million lease to move into the West Hills Corporate Village a campus-style business park being developed by Regent Properties Inc. and Shamrock Holdings Inc. on the former site of Hughes Missile Systems.

– DreamWorks SKG leased a 124,418-square-foot office building in Chatsworth to house its general administration, production and storage operations.

– Familian Corp. announced it will relocate its Van Nuys administrative offices to a new regional shipping center in Pomona sometime next year