Build residences and they will come. That concept is driving a reassessment of the politically successful but rapidly drawn Great Park plan, the Insider hears. Watch for mid-rise and high-rise housing to replace offices and industrial buildings. Looks like a no-brainer: Residential land commands top dollar, potentially better for master planner Lennar Corp. (already designing residential towers at Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle) and for the revenue-sharing-minded Irvine and Great Park. There’s an abundance of commercial space at the adjacent Irvine Spectrum,condos and apartments at the Great Park could cater to Spectrum workers. And most significant for a project that likes to reference New York’s Central Park, residents would create a sense of community at the remote former Marine base. They might also provide some demand for Irvine’s transit center at the park. But traffic impacts of housing versus commercial will have to be kept in balance, as nobody dares to open Pandora’s box by tampering with the EIR. Bottom line, the Insider thinks the existing target of 3,500 residential units could double or triple (related item, page 6) …
The partisan battles raging in Washington, D.C., aren’t likely to stop GOP Congressman Chris Cox from becoming chairman of the SEC. The Insider hears that President Bush intends to bundle the Cox nomination with those for the two Democrat seats on the commission, which is expected to expedite the Senate confirmation process …
The Surfrider Foundation and Sierra Club stopped Laguna Beach environmentalist Tony Iseman’s reappointment to the California Coastal Commission,retaliation for her pivotal votes for scaled-down development of Bolsa Chica and Dana Point Headlands. Iseman has coined a term for her former allies: “The Religious Left.” She dubs Sierra Club lawyer Mark Massara “Mark Messiah” …
Deloitte & Touche audit partner and oft-quoted retail expert Tony Cherbak has become EVP of operations for Resources Connection. It won’t change his commute much,Cherbak will just be getting off the elevator at 695 Town Center, Costa Mesa, six floors sooner …
Correction: The Insider misreported last week that “Gateway’s top management now is all eMachines people.” In fact, Wayne Inouye has made a couple of outside hires and Gateway cofounder Mike Hammond is a senior veep in South Dakota. The Insider could have said that core management included no pre-merger Gateway people, but even that no longer holds: Gateway vet Mike Tyler has been named CAO. Let’s just say it’s Wayne’s team …
Dr. David Wright’s golf schools in Mission Viejo (Arroyo Trabuco), Indio and Fallbrook made Golf Magazine’s list of “25 Best Golf Schools” …
Given the lackluster showing of the Dodgers, Lakers and Clippers and the no-showing of the Kings, Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., says some Angelinos are rethinking their objection to the Angels’ use of the L.A. name: “Maybe we’re lucky to have a winning team.”
