One of the city of Santa Clarita’s largest employers, Princess Cruises, confirmed Monday its three-year plan to leave the Santa Clarita Valley, striking a blow to local efforts to attract major employers.
Princess, which is owned by Carnival Corp., moved headquarters for the international cruise line to Valencia Town Center in 2001, but over the past decade, its footprint has shrunk considerably.
In 2015, the company leased approximately 300,000 square feet of office space and had 1,885 local employees, as the city’s second-largest employer.
In January 2024, the company announced a plan to sublease that space as the result of “surplus office space” due to many taking advantage of remote work options during the pandemic. By 2024, Princess reported it had 901 employees left in Santa Clarita.
In fall 2024, Princess told its employees the company was “exploring options for new office facilities in South Florida for our Global Headquarters (HQ),” according to an email Monday afternoon from Janna Rowell, manager of external communications for Carnival Corp.
The move is a part of a yearslong plan, she added.
“We will sunset our physical offices in Santa Clarita and Fort Lauderdale in approximately three years and will wind down the lease for our Pembroke Pines (Florida) office by the end of this year. We will ultimately co-locate most North America shoreside team members at our new HQ — both corporate and cruise line brands — bringing teams closer together for even greater collaboration and impact across teams and operating units while organizing ourselves efficiently to best support our cruise lines and leverage our global scale.”
Rowell did not have any additional specifics on the sunset date or whether any of those positions would be able to remain as remote locally in Santa Clarita.
Tom Cole, director of economic development for the city of Santa Clarita, was not immediately available for comment Monday.
Ondre Seltzer, who was named permanent president and CEO of the SCV Economic Development Corp. in October, was not available for an interview Monday. He issued a statement via email from Scott Heffernan, EDC director of marketing and research.
“The SCVEDC has always collaborated closely with Princess Cruises and its leadership on local initiatives and upcoming projects as part of our business assistance, retention and expansion programs,” Seltzer’s statement said. “We continue to support them and all local businesses, focusing on working collaboratively with our public and private sector partners to provide resources that help businesses and employees thrive in the Santa Clarita Valley.”
Andy Lustgarten, executive managing director for Savills USA, which has the listing for Princess’ office space, did not respond to a request for comment on whether any of the space had been subleased. The Signal previously reported the lease was expected to expire March 2026.
In January 2024, the space was being offered at $1.99 per square foot, according to Savills’ posting.
Texas-based Centennial, which owns the Valencia Town Center, has declined to comment on how the Princess office space — 24200 Magic Mountain Parkway (107,173 square feet), 24300 (31,800 square feet), 24303 (60,031 square feet) and 24305 (90,617) — factors into the pending plans for the area’s redevelopment.
