Mo Honarkar could soon supplant Dane Eiler “the Greeter” Larsen as Laguna Beach’s best-known local after buying a stretch of city properties along Coast Highway, including the iconic Hotel Laguna (the Insider’s favorite wedding spot), which Honarkar vows to restore “to its former glory.”
See details of the deal on page 74, and keep an eye on the Business Journal’s upcoming coverage of Honarkar, whose latest deal reaffirms the 4G Ventures executive’s position as the city’s top commercial real estate owner.
A new high-end hotel isn’t coming to Downtown Disney in Anaheim, for now at least, but the next best thing opens there this week (for beer lovers): the first OC outpost for San Diego’s highly-regarded Ballast Point brewery—the first of its type at the Disney property.
The spot—4,000-square-feet inside, a 3,000-square-foot outdoor beer garden, and more than 50 beers on tap—opens on the 16th. Ballast Point noted in an Instagram post last week that the site was both a “Brewery & Kitchen,” a combo you’ll be hearing more of in OC going forward. Check out the front-page feature by Paul Hughes on the area’s next generation of bars.
Former Mayor Tom Tait, who left office last month, championed Anaheim as OC’s home for breweries. Brew City now has 14 open with more in the works. Our Katie Murar reports this week on Pacific Industrial’s plans for sprucing up a business park near Angel Stadium with a brewery or two (see story, this page).
The Business Journal last week broke news of the Anaheim GardenWalk selling to Whittier-based STC Management. STC Chief Executive John Hsu’s solution to getting more foot traffic at the long-troubled mall involves adding a beer garden, along with some Asian-influenced eateries.
A slightly bigger opening is taking place elsewhere at Disneyland this year. Resort President Josh D’Amaro was coy with a firm date on the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge during a meeting with the Business Journal last week, but others aren’t as tight-lipped. Last week, Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told Barron’s he expects the 14-acre area to open in June.
Galaxy’s Edge will include Oga’s Cantina, the “first public restaurant in Disneyland to serve alcohol,” Barron’s noted last week.
The super-rich don’t buy homes like the rest of us, as evidenced by a $19 million home sale next to the Montage Resort & Spa.
The buyer: Dallas Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban. The seller: the family of a Texas trial lawyer who died in 2017. Cuban’s broker: Tim Smith of Coldwell Banker, who said he was referred to the “Shark Tank” fixture.
“He saw it in mid-August for the first time,” Smith told our Subrina Hudson (see more on page 69). “He comes here in the summer, and I think [his family] wants to travel here more.”
How was the deal completed? The sellers got season tickets for home games of the Mavericks, and their son got an internship with the team, according to Smith, whose “Teach Me How to Duffy” parody video—being used to market the $45 million home of City Ventures Chairman Craig Atkins along the water in Newport Beach—now tops 102,000 views on Youtube.
