Think Irvine politics are tough? Try living through a civil war that makes tap water a scarcity and electricity so spotty you have to study by candlelight. That’s what FivePoint Communities Management Inc.’s Emile Haddad went through on his way to an engineering diploma in his native Lebanon. The guess here is that he’ll also get through his negotiations with Irvine city officials on FivePoint’s development around the Great Park with something suitable for framing. See our report on the latest turns at the Great Park on page 1 …
There’s been some talk of Walt Disney Co. using its stable of Marvel Entertainment comic-book characters as the basis for a third theme park in Anaheim. The notion got some legs from the company’s recent earnings— $1.8 billion in the June quarter, up 24% from a year earlier and the best in company history—which owed largely to brisk business at its parks and resorts and its first movie based on Marvel characters. The Avengers broke box office records in May, and has brought in $1.5 billion globally. Comments from company executives offered more tea leaves on the chances of a new gate in Anaheim, which appears to be in the driver’s seat on a Marvel theme, as Disney’s acquisition of the franchise from Universal came with what’s effectively a non-compete agreement in Florida, where the two companies both have theme parks. “We knew there was buried treasure there,” Disney CFO Jay Rasulo recently told analysts about the Marvel buy, which came three years ago …
Sounds as though Pacific Life made some room for the humpback whale that’s the insurer’s symbol of “strength, performance and protection” as it went about redoing its executive offices on the fifth floor of its HQ in Newport Center. The 45,000 square feet got new offices for top execs along with “a state-of-the-art boardroom, multiple conference rooms, a dining room, open office, pantry preparation area and an outdoor patio,” according to Irvine-based Ware Malcomb, which handled the interior design and called the new look “Contemporary Classic with a subtle nautical theme” …
Memo to OC Fairgrounds CEO Jerome Hoban: Check with Tony Moiso before you schedule any rodeo for next year’s fair. Moiso’s Rancho Mission Viejo cowboys aren’t the boastful sort, but they set the bar a good bit higher with their 12th annual rodeo last month …
Boston Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine stopped by The Cannery in Newport Beach for one of its regular Baseball and Business lunches last week, giving a number of views that stretched back to his days as a can’t-miss prospect who ended up with an injury-jinxed career. Valentine offered a cautionary perspective on Mike Trout, the Angels rookie who’s been lighting up the American League all year with his bat, glove and hard-charging style. He told the crowd that a recent wall-crashing play by Trout brought to mind one that left Valentine with a multiple compound leg fracture at Angel Stadium and put a serious damper on his playing career. Valentine’s injury was all the worse because his cleats got caught in a chain-link fence—something Trout and other outfielders no long-er have to contend with at the local ball yard.
