The OC Biz Council is lying low in the battle between Disneyland Resort and Irvine-based SunCal over the Anaheim Resort District. Disney has gone to court and says it will use the ballot box to try to stop a divided City Council from granting SunCal a zoning change. Standing with Disneyland Prez Ed Grier at last week’s press conference were representatives of the Anaheim Chamber and the Anaheim/OC Convention and Visitors Bureau. But OCBC was a no-show. OCBC chief Lucy Dunn said her group eventually may weigh in but currently isn’t taking sides. For now, she said she is acting as a resource for interested parties and supporting Mayor Curt Pringle’s attempt to find a compromise. Disney is a financial backer of OCBC, and Dunn said she is “very troubled” that politicians may be jeopardizing the “good, long-term planning” that has been worked out with Disney. Bruce Elieff’s SunCal is not an OCBC member. But other homebuilding interests are, and SunCal’s proposal touts workforce housing,a top OCBC priority and a crusade for Dunn, Gov. Arnold’s former housing director. Dunn said she’s heard from Disney but not from SunCal. She said OC Building Industry Association CEO Kristine Thalman has asked her to consider all arguments, but nobody has advocated for SunCal to her …
Disney vs. SunCal is debated this week on “Inside OC” …
Sanford Edward maintains that The Strand at Headlands in Dana Point is immune to any housing downturn. Last year’s phase I sales of fifth-acre oceanfront lots averaged just under $6 million. Now Edward says the first two lots of phase II have sold for $8.5 million each,to a Newport Coast couple that want to be closer to the water and a family in Monarch Bay …
The Insider hears that the Hadi Makarechian-hosted fund-raiser for Mitt Romney at the St. Regis Monarch Beach raised $1.3 million …
The Forum for Corporate Directors dinner at Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, was a homecoming for banker John “Jack” Grundhofer. He ran Union Bank’s OC operation during the ’70s and his two daughters were born at Hoag. Grundhofer moved to Wells Fargo and in 1990 took over Minneapolis-based First Bank System. In an eventful first year there he slashed costs, sold assets and escaped a kidnapping, while a daughter survived a shooting in Berkeley. Acquisitions followed, culminating in the 2001 combination of his U.S. Bancorp with kid brother Jerry Grundhofer’s Firstar Corp. Retired to Montana, Jack hunts 75 days a year and sits on a couple of boards, including that of Huntington Beach-based BJ’s Restaurants. Grundhofer recalled being a director at George Argyros’ and Bill Lyon’s AirCal and at Irvine Apartment Communities when Donald Bren bought out the public company: “I was the outside director who had to negotiate a higher price. He hasn’t talked to me since.” Other FCD honorees: Fernando Niebla, James Paterson, Linda Fayne Levinson and John Cardis.
