Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORIES
Lennar Corp. has proposed to boost the number of homes it plans to build at the former El Toro Marine base in Irvine. The changes would add more than 5,800 homes to the Heritage Fields site, while cutting back retail and industrial space by 30%. The Miami-based company’s plans for the site are for 9,500 homes and 3.7 million square feet of commercial space. The changes would bring in a total of $1.5 billion in revenue earmarked for the base’s Great Park. That’s up from $779 million under the prior plan. The city of Irvine also would get another 402 acres of land, bringing the city-owned portion of the 3,700-acre site to 1,749 acres.
Aliso Viejo-based Buy.com Inc., which canceled a public offering bid late last year, said its second-quarter revenue shot up 32% to $101.8 million compared to a year earlier. The online retailer posted a loss of $3.1 million in the quarter, versus a loss of $2.1 million a year ago.
Memorial Health Services Inc. said it’s considering a sale of its 224-bed, 1,000-employee Anaheim Memorial Medical Center, which has been losing $2.5 million to $3.3 million annually for the past five years. Options include an outright sale or finding a financial partner.
After several attempts, William Lyon, chairman and chief executive of Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes Inc., said that he and two family-controlled trusts completed a buyout of the remaining shares of the homebuilding company they didn’t already own, at $109 apiece. The offer values William Lyon Homes at about $940 million. William Lyon Homes will continue as a privately held company.
Irvine-based Commercial Capital Bancorp Inc. said shareholders approved its sale to Washington Mutual Inc. The deal is expected to close by early fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Commercial Capital said its net interest income rose 28% to $82.7 million in the second quarter, versus a year earlier. Net income fell 31% to $13.3 million.
OC Supervisors OK’d a plan to put an extension of Measure M on the November ballot. If approved, the half-cent county sales tax could earmark $12 billion to transportation project during the next several decades. Voters initially approved Measure M in 1990.
Matt Ouimet, the executive who oversaw Disneyland’s 50th anniversary marketing push and its biggest surge in attendance since 2000, is leaving as president of Walt Disney Co.’s Anaheim theme parks, hotels and shops. Ouimet is leaving to become president of the hotels group at White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. Ed Grier, head of Disney’s Tokyo theme park and a 25-year veteran of the company, was named as Ouimet’s replacement.
Palm Beach, Fla.-based Innkeepers USA Trust said it plans to buy the 230-room Hilton Suites Anaheim and 200-room Residence Inn Anaheim as part of a $215 million, four-hotel acquisition from Bethesda, Md.-based RLJ Urban Lodging Fund LP.
Shares of Costa Mesa-based Volcom Inc. slumped more than 30% after the company said it was seeing fewer orders from its top customer, Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., and a general slowdown on the retail front. Volcom’s second-quarter income beat expectations, but the apparel maker warned it would slow in the third quarter.
Irvine-based Meade Instruments Corp. said it is cutting about 10% of its workers. The telescope maker said it shed 24 employees in Irvine, Tijuana and Georgia. It also plans to close a distribution plant in Tucson, which will result in 16 layoffs. Meade will have 350 workers after the job cuts. Meanwhile, Meade said it needs more time to file quarterly results to finish a look into alleged backdating of its stock options grants.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Mixed: The detached housing picture in June, with the median price of a home sold up 3.2% to $725,190, versus a year earlier, but the number of detached homes sold off 31% in the past year, according to the California Association of Realtors.
