Compiled by Julie Leupold
TOP STORIES
Texas-based developer Renaissance Development Co. plans to buy and put up a hotel and stores on a controversial plot of Anaheim land near the Disneyland Resort. Irvine-based SunCal Cos. has sought to build about 1,500 homes on the site, a plan opposed by Walt Disney Co. Renaissance said it has struck a deal to buy the land, now home to a mobile home park, from Frank Family Partnership. SunCal is suing, charging that the family reneged on its deal to buy the land. Separately, Los Angeles-based West Millennium Group, which had proposed a hotel-condominium complex near Disneyland, is pulling out of the project because of the weak housing and hotel market and the pressure of a planned Disney-backed ballot initiative on homes near its theme parks.
First American Corp. of Santa Ana plans to split up into two companies later this year (see story, page 1). Its title and specialty insurance business is set to become First American Financial Corp. The company’s real estate data business will remain with the existing holding company, which will be renamed before the spinoff. The split is expected by the third quarter. Both companies will remain in Santa Ana.
HEALTHCARE
A New York investment firm upped its stake in Santa Ana’s Advanced Medical Optics Inc. D.E. Shaw & Co. said in a federal filing that it now owns 9.5% of the contact lens care and eye surgery device company, up from 5.9%.
The University of California, Irvine said it has developed a faster, cheaper and easier way to identify and sort a type of stem cell that someday might be used to widely treat injuries and disease of the central nervous system. The core of the device is roughly the width of two dimes, a fraction of the size of the $500,000 laser-based stem cell sorters now in use.
REAL ESTATE
Atherton-Newport Investments LLC, an Irvine-based apartment owner that counts a number of professional athletes as investors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after prompting from a creditor. The bankruptcy filing says the company counts $10 million to $50 million in both assets and liabilities.
The vacancy rate at major Orange County apartment complexes is as high as it’s been in 12-plus years, according to Novato-based market tracker RealFacts. Rents at large complexes here averaged $1,595 in the fourth quarter, up 5.1% in the past 12 months.
Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. said it would eliminate 1,300 mortgage jobs in its fourth round of cuts resulting from the collapse of the mortgage market. The company said its Aurora Loan Services unit would close three offices, including one in Lake Forest.
APPAREL
Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. said it expects a wider-than-expected loss for the three months through Jan. 31. The company, which makes clothes inspired by surfing and skateboarding as well as skis and other snow gear, expects a loss of $11 million to $15 million for the quarter, up from an earlier forecast of a “small loss.” Quiksilver blamed the retail slowdown over the holidays and ongoing issues at its Rossignol ski business. The company hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. to review options for Rossignol, which gave some analysts hope for a sale of the business.
Costa Mesa clothing designer Volcom Inc. said it’s buying San Clemente’s Electric Visual Evolution LLC, a maker of sunglasses, for $25.3 million. Volcom also lowered its fourth-quarter and 2008 outlook, citing a slowdown in sales at stores that took hold over the holidays.
FINANCE
Newport Beach-based Downey Financial Corp. said it has more bad loans than it stated earlier after reclassifying its balance sheet. Nearly $100 million of the company’s loans that were part of a refinancing program for troubled borrowers were reclassified as nonperforming assets, according to Downey. The company’s nonperforming assets made up 7.8% of its total as of Dec. 31, up 40% after the change.
GOVERNMENT
Sheriff Mike Carona, who’s set to go to trial on federal corruption charges in June, resigned to focus on his defense. Undersheriff JoAnn Galisky is set to run the department until the Board of Supervisors appoints a replacement. Carona endorsed Jack Anderson, an assistant sheriff, to succeed him permanently. The county has taken issues with Anderson.
A Caltrans audit charges that Placentia improperly spent as much as $36 million in state money to pay for railroad underpasses. If Placentia fails to refute Caltrans’ findings, the city could owe the state tens of millions of dollars.
OTHER NEWS
Fisker Automotive Inc. of Irvine unveiled an upscale plug-in hybrid car,the Karma,that it plans to sell for $80,000 starting in late 2009. The company and partner Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. received a $10 million investment from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Carl Karcher, who founded Carl’s Jr. and was an OC icon, died from pneumonia. He was buried last weekend at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery
in Orange.
The Orange County Register’s OC Post is being combined with the Register’s Irvine World News and no longer will circulate across the county. The new OC Post/Irvine World News
is set to publish three days a week starting on
Feb. 12.
