‘BIG’ Plans Afoot in Research Park; Scalpers Love Krall

The Insider hears that BIG will be making a big move. Broadband Interactive Group, the growing, Broadcom-backed effort to marry extreme sports with the Internet, plans to move from rented quarters in a former Westec Security facility in Aliso Viejo into larger space at University Research Park. BIG expects to double its workforce of 60 in the next year The hottest tickets ever to the Performing Arts Center may have been the ones for jazz pianist Diana Krall’s Feb. 14 sellout show, with scalpers asking up to $900 a pair. “Of course, we don’t condone scalping,” said center chief Jerry Mandel, who couldn’t wipe the grin off his face Judie Argyros was celebrating a milestone, her 15th birthday (leap-year babies count by four), this past weekend with a gala at the Marconi Automotive Museum. Invites went out in miniature briefcases equipped with a pocket calculator, to assist those trying to figure the lovely Judie’s real age … The March Ladies’ Home Journal ranks Irvine as America’s third-smartest city, based on the percentage of residents (34.1%) with college degrees. Only Plano, Texas and Overland Park, Kan. rank higher How are Irv Rosenberg and Jack Nicklaus alike? They both have new hips. How are they different? Irv’s a better tennis player Reports from the precincts: Anaheim residents say they’re seeing more pro-Measure F messages than anti. New Majority signs are in evidence throughout Santa Ana Newport Beach developer Tim Strader Sr. is now operating as Starpointe Ventures. He changed the name of his Legacy Co. after selling the rights to another developer, Legacy Partners, the Bay Area (Forest City) firm with a regional office in Irvine. With mixups over the name Legacy now resolved, the only confusion involves the name Tim Strader. Sr.’s son, Tim Strader Jr., is a honcho with another developer who’s busy here, Opus West Corp. No. 94 on trade pub TJFR’s list of the nation’s 100 Most Influential Business Journalists: Rieva Lesonsky, VP/editorial director of Irvine-based Entrepreneur Media Inc. Somehow, they overlooked Editor RR Jay Leno recently used the OC toll roads-McDonald’s transponder deal as grist for his nightly routine. It was the second time the roads have made late-night TV: When the Foothill Corridor opened in 1992, David Letterman joked that the new toll road in California was opened, but it turned out to be Heidi Fleiss’ driveway … OCers were instrumental in two of the three biggest real estate deals of 1999, as chosen by Institutional Investor magazine: The $569 million buyback of Irvine Apartment Communities by Donald Bren’s Irvine Co. and the $820 million purchase of the Pebble Beach golf resort by a Peter Ueberroth-led group.