Frank Fertitta, CEO of Las Vegas-based Station Casinos and former owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, made the Business Journal’s July edition of OC’s Wealthiest (with an estimated fortune of $2.2 billion) due to his family’s secondary homes in Emerald Bay.
Public records and chatter from the Laguna Beach enclave suggest the Fertitta family has added to their local holdings in Emerald Bay, with the $43.5 million buy of a recently rebuilt home along the water.
It’s the top home sale in Orange County this year and adds to a string of notable deals in the city of late; see Katie Murar’s Luxury Homes column on page 31 for more.
A buyer wasn’t disclosed at the time of the property’s trade. Records indicate that the Nevada entity that bought the nearly 5,000-square-foot home is tied to the lawyer that represents the Fertitta family on its real estate transactions.
Locals tell the Business Journal that the home isn’t expected to be used by the Fertitta family themselves when they are in town, but rather by their guests. At least three homes in the 509-home Emerald Bay community are now owned by Fertitta family, records indicate.
The just-bought home, designed by C.J. Light Associates, isn’t one of the larger beachfront homes in the community, and it lacks a pool like many other oceanfront homes there. The five-bedroom home does count an impressive 10 bathrooms, and sold for over $8,700 per square foot.
Ike Kavas, who comes from Turkey, drew inspiration from the ancient trading city of Ephesus in the western part of his native country when coming up with the name for his software company Ephesoft.
“The city ties Ike to his roots,” officials of the automated document processing software firm tell the Business Journal.
Ephesus was a major city in antiquity, and many Roman Catholics believe it may have been the site of the last home of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Kavas, one of the nominees for the upcoming Business Journal Innovator of the Year awards on Sept. 8, earned his BS degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and studied Computer Architecture at Anatolia University in Turkey.
For more on Ephesoft’s just-announced deal with Irvine’s Kofax Inc., see Kevin Costelloe’s front-page story.
The Jonas Brothers trio got recent headlines for announcing an upcoming residency in Las Vegas, but two-thirds of the onetime teen sensation pop band has already made a comeback of sorts in Orange County.
Lake Forest’s ophthalmological device maker Staar Surgical (Nasdaq: STAA) announced this month a partnership with Joe Jonas, now 33, who recently had the nearly $5 billion-valued company’s lenses implanted to treat his nearsightedness.
Also, City of Hope OC recently announced that Nick Jonas will perform at its inaugural Hope Gala on Sept. 10. The event, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, will celebrate the opening of the City of Hope’s new cancer center in Irvine, and honor Julia Argyros, a longtime supporter of the hospital.
