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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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OCBJ INSIDER

There’s been a steady drip of corporate relocations of late from OC to other markets, Texas in particular, but not all moves are what they initially appear to be.

Such is the case at Irvine’s First Foundation Inc. (Nasdaq FFWM), the third-largest bank based in Orange County, which last week generated its share of headlines when it said it would move its holding company to the Dallas area.

It turns out that’s a solo move for CEO Scott Kavanaugh, who counts ties to that area. He tells our Peter J. Brennan that he’s looking to expand the bank’s presence in the region and isn’t requiring other employees to move to the Lone Star State.

“I’ll go out and get the office set up,” Kavanaugh said. “Anyone who wants to consider the move can do so. The bulk of our employees are still housed here.”

The Dallas Metroplex area “is one of the largest markets for multifamily lending and the diversity of businesses there makes it a strong fit for us,” he said last week.

Kavanaugh said he’s building a home in the Dallas area and he expects it to be completed around April.

That’s about the same time Brennan’s own move east—in Irvine, that is, to a new home in Portola Springs—will be wrapped up.

For more on the state of OC’s banks, see next week’s print edition of the Business Journal.

When the shelves at the Northpark Plaza Albertsons began emptying out a few weeks ago, I assumed my neighbors were planning for another serious COVID lockdown.

Staff there soon set me straight, saying the center’s longtime anchor would soon be closing to make way for an H Mart.

Those plans were confirmed last week. The center’s landlord, Irvine Co., said Albertsons “elected not to renew their leases,” while Albertsons told the OC Register that Northpark and another store it’s closing in Irvine were “underperforming.” That seems an unlikely proposition considering the heavy business they’ve gotten during the pandemic.

Social media comments suggest the change is a welcome one for the area, as the city’s only other existing H Mart is at Diamond Jamboree. A food hall, the centerpiece of some H Mart stores, would be a big draw for Northpark Plaza.

Eiler Larsen, a vagabond who was the official greeter of Laguna Beach from 1963 until his death in 1975, has arguably held claim as the most famous Dane to live in OC.

He’s not the most decorated Dane, however. That title now likely falls to Sir Torben Aaskov, a local businessman, Chapman University grad and the Honorary Consul of Denmark in California, who was recently knighted by Queen Margrethe II.

The Coto de Caza resident said the award was a result of “meritorious service as Consul of Denmark in Los Angeles and my contributions and work for Danish interests in the U.S.”

Aaskov runs Orange’s Tradeworks Inc., which sells imported gourmet food and beverages from Denmark and other European countries to some of the country’s largest supermarket chains.

Irvine’s new H Marts could use a good selection of akvavit, Tuborg and polsers.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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