The ultra-high end isn’t immune from OC’s softening housing market, Mark Mueller reports on page 64. Brokers say more than 40 homes at Shady Canyon (a whopping 10%) are for sale and only two have offers …
Architect Frank Gehry and billionaire civic cheerleader Eli Broad drew most of the media attention during last week’s approval of the $2 billion Grand Avenue project in downtown L.A. But OCer Bill Witte will do the heavy lifting. Witte is managing partner of Related California, the Irvine-based arm of New York’s Related Cos. that is funding and developing the mini-city. Witte calls Grand Avenue unprecedented in fractious L.A.,”the first vertically integrated mixed-used project” and “the first time anyone can remember that the city and county acted together on the same day.” The Bronx native says complaints about Related getting up to $66 million in tax breaks are “BS”,most of the funds will come from bed taxes generated by a five-star Man-darin Oriental Hotel. The Wittes are an East Coast family that moved west. Bill’s late dad Martin started VC forerunner Marwit Capital, now run by Bill’s brother Matthew, in Newport Beach. In 1989 Matthew and another OCer, Roger Torriero, got Bill, then a San Francisco deputy mayor, in touch with Related Cos. boss Stephen Ross and his government days were over. A year later Bill did the “unthinkable”,moved from the Bay area to OC. He lives in Laguna Beach with wife Keiko Sakamoto and their three kids …
Not in attendance, but recognized on-screen as sponsors at Chapman U’s Dodge Film School gala,Robyn and Mel Gibson. It’s hush-hush, but the Insider hears the Gibsons have a child attending the school. The Hollywood-style gala grossed more than $1 million …
Of all people, penny-pinching Supe Chris Norby is offering a free lunch,using campaign funds to celebrate George Washington’s birthday Thursday at Salma’s Kitchen/Cafe OC. “No lie, free pie.” The renamed, refurbished and outsourced county cafeteria has been a pet project for Norby. But you’ll need a politician, lawyer or government staffer to find it, on the third floor of Building 12 in Civic Center Plaza …
Irvine Councilman Larry Agran rhapsodized about public transportation at a recent UCI Center for Real Estate breakfast. He wants to “spiff up” bus and shuttle service,”make it cool to hop on”,especially around the Jamboree Road corridor and planned Great Park. And he wishes Irvine high schools would charge for parking: “The kids drive one mile and they park for free on some of the most expensive real estate in the world.” But when Agran chided real estate lobbyist and Bay area resident Rex Hime for driving his car into downtown San Francisco, he got an earful. Hime said it takes 20 minutes to find a place to park near a BART station, and then you hope nobody steals your tires.
