Compiled by Julie Leupold
Anaheim’s Planning Commission passed a plan allowing more construction around Angel Stadium of Anaheim in the Platinum Triangle. And the City Council approved the plan with a 4-1 vote last week, which will allow 18,000 homes and nearly 17 million square feet of office towers to be built in the area. Some 9,000 homes already are planned.
Newport Beach officials approved an eight-figure deal that will let The Irvine Company build hundreds of homes on the outskirts of Fashion Island. The city approved construction of 430 homes,mostly apartments, though a high-rise condominium tower is possible,off San Joaquin Hills Road. The city will get $41 million that likely will go toward a new City Hall, a senior center, road upgrades and park improvements. Also, the Irvine Co. plans to give the city a 4-acre plot of bayfront land known as Lower Castaways, which borders Dover Drive and East Coast Highway.
Igor Olenicoff, founder and president of Newport Beach-based Olen Properties Corp., pleaded guilty last week to a charge relating to the billionaire developer’s long-running tax dispute with the government. The government last month charged Olenicoff with one felony count of willful filing of a false 2002 tax return. The maximum penalty could be six months in prison, but Olenicoff is unlikely to serve time in light of the plea deal. Sentencing is set for April. Olenicoff, who is estimated to be worth about $1.7 billion, is paying $52 million in back taxes and fees.
Shares of Aliso Viejo software maker Smith Micro Inc. soared last week as Wall Street gave a thumbs up to its $60 million cash buy of a unit of Chicago’s PCTel Inc. Smith Micro said early last week it’s set to get PCTel’s cell phone and wireless Internet software unit in the deal. JPMorgan analyst Lauren Ye said the deal, expected to close Jan. 4, could grow Smith Micro’s sales by 40% next year.
Irvine startup U-Nav Microelectronics Inc., a maker of GPS chips and software, is set to be bought by Santa Clara-based Atheros Communications Inc. for $54 million. The cash and stock deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Wireless chipmaker Atheros is set to pay $15.4 million in cash plus 1.28 million of its shares for U-Nav, which makes a chip that runs GPS in cars, handheld media players and phones. U-Nav, which has 54 workers here, will be folded into Atheros’ GPS unit.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved rules allowing many hospitals to bypass the extremely costly building reinforcements the state ordered after the 1994 Northridge temblor. Schwarzenegger is permitting some financially struggling hospitals to keep operating until 2020 even though the state says they are most likely to crumple during a major earthquake. The move is a break from the governor’s stated policy that the least-sound buildings should be upgraded first.
The University of California, Irvine received $2.1 million for stem cell research from Proposition 71 funds. UC Irvine also raised $12 million in private money to go toward building a $60 million research center.
Kansas City-based tax preparer H & R; Block Inc. said it may need to raise money to offset losses and charges from Irvine’s Option One Mortgage Corp. H & R; Block may tap out existing credit lines and have to issue debt or more shares, it said. H & R; Block is taking a $75 million charge to close Option One. The company took $35 million of the charge in the October quarter and plans to take the rest in the current quarter through January. For the quarter through Oct. 31, H & R; Block lost $502.3 million, versus a loss of $156.5 million a year earlier.
The Lending Tree laid off 220 employees, 17% of its workforce, because of the deterioration of the mortgage market. Most of the cuts were from its Irvine headquarters. These job cuts came on top of the 250 the company made in September. An Irvine home loan center will remain open with some 500 employees, but smaller offices in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Laguna Niguel and Corona del Mar will close.
The Orange County Transportation Authority agreed to spend $41 million on a variety of freeway and road fixes, the final chunk of cash tied to the original Measure M,the half-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax approved by voters 17 years ago. The tax money has been used primarily to unclog the county’s transportation system by improving roads, widening freeways and helping introduce Metrolink rail service. In 2006, voters approved extending Measure M for 30 years starting in 2011.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Down: sales for all types of Orange County homes fell 30% from a year earlier in the third quarter. The median sales price fell 2.4% from a year earlier, according to DataQuick Information Systems. November saw a 46.8% drop in sales from a year earlier.
