OC Insider — IBM Incubator in Works; Irvine Ritz on Hold; Bren-Bren Deal

The Insider hears that an incubator involving IBM, Costa Mesa-based Epoch Internet and others will launch in OC soon … Rumors are flying that the plan to put a Ritz-Carlton in Irvine (!?) at Park Place, off of Jamboree and the 405, is dead. Persons close to the deal insist to Sandi Cain the project isn’t, although it certainly sounds like the hotel plan is on life support. The ritzy hotel-among-offices has already missed its once-stated groundbreaking date of last month and officials aren’t commenting. A source says one problem is the generally inhospitable market for hotel deals right now, which could push back financing for as much as a year. Why hold out hope? Because, Cain hears, the property is fully entitled and Bill Lane of site developer Trammell Crow will pull out all the stops to try to make something happen. “It’s too soon to call the mortician,” the Insider is told Oh, to be a fly on the cabin wall this week when Irvine’s Christina Shea and Dave Christensen share adjoining seats on a flight to D.C. to spin the Measure F outcome and lobby for the anti-El Toro-airport Millennium Plan. Councilman Christensen created an uproar last year when he released tape-recorded phone calls from Shea complaining about the way Irvine police were handling her daughter’s drug arrest. Shea said she will not reconcile with Christensen until her former friend apologizes to her and her daughter and admits that his release of the tapes was politically motivated. But she says she is still according Christensen the respect due a councilman and is cooperating with him on issues of mutual concern. Among the big ideas the odd couple wants to present to federal officials: Using part of El Toro for a national cemetery and a national museum,”Arlington West and Smithsonian West” You haven’t lived until you’ve tried a Killer Cookie from the kitchen of Jean-Pierre Eigenheer at the Balboa Bay Club Donald Bren’s long career as a homebuilder is coming to an end. The Insider hears that the Irvine Co. boss is selling his California Pacific Homes to son Cary, who already runs the company. It lets Donald focus more on income properties and masterplanning, and gives Cary freer rein. But Cary is still expected to do most of his work on dad’s ranch, and add apartment communities, to boot, to his home-product mix In town: Kenneth Starr, at the Hyatt Regency Irvine on April 18 for a private luncheon of the Res Publica Society, a support group for Claremont McKenna College. And to think just last week Roger Johnson hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at his Laguna Beach (Rockledge) home. Talk about a near-convergence Happy fifth birthday to Rob Lyon’s and Eric Marson’s Orange County Golf Magazine. The pro-shop freebie that started in a bedroom and expanded to a vendor’s lunchroom now not only has its own address but sister mags in San Diego and LA.