You didn’t expect Tony Thompson to sit still, did you? Last month the hard-partying, deal-making real estate wiz stepped down as chairman of Grubb & Ellis, one year after engineering its reverse merger with the holding company of his Santa Ana-based Triple Net Properties (see story, page 1). Now he’s forming a vulture fund. Thompson’s new company, Thompson National Properties (he loves those TNP initials), is putting together a $500 million fund (“$10 million is mine”) to buy “unstable assets.” There’s plenty of that. The 61-year-old Ritz Cove resident says both commercial and raw residential real estate is “a great opportunity” for those with cash “because of a lack of (debt) liquidity and the recession that I think we’re in.” Thompson says he plans to launch the fund with,what else?,a big party in Las Vegas in May. Thompson says he is still high on Grubb, in which he holds a 13% stake recently valued at $57 million; but he admits that his free-wheeling style wasn’t well-suited to Wall Street. Still, he says he didn’t decide to move on until he received a revelation at, yes, Grubb & Ellis’ 50th birthday bash at the Paris Las Vegas. Alan Greenspan spoke and record corporate results were reported; Thompson says he gazed out at a sea of happy faces when it hit him: “Always leave ’em laughing.” He resigned the next day …
Melahat Rafiei of the OC Democratic Party notes that the council election of Sharon Quirk as Fullerton mayor raises the number of Dem mayors in OC to six (out of 34). Five are women and two are Latinas (Quirk and La Habra’s Rose Espinosa). The lone guy is Santa Ana Latino Miguel Pulido …
Chancellor Michael Drake noted that UCI broke ground on four buildings in 2007,as he broke ground on the first project of 2008, the New Media Arts Building for the Claire Trevor School of the Arts …
The asking price on actor Chuck Norris’ former home in Lemon Heights has been cut by a half million, to $3.9 million …
Gov. Arnold has appointed Sossi Keuylian of Irvine to the state’s New Motor Vehicle Board. The Keuylian family’s luxury auto dealerships include Lamborghini Orange County … Marketer Terry Goldfarb-Lee originally introduced Larry and Christina Dodge to the Chapman U crowd. For that, and her boundless energy, they’ve named the faculty office at the Dodge Film School after her …
The Boy Scouts’ OC Council has given Tom Wilck the “Man of Character” award and is giving philanthropist Socorro Vasquez the Visionary Award …
Michael O’Ridley and Tim O’Cooley mark 20 years of blarney, bogies and booze at their St. Patrick’s Day Sports Outing and Meditation Session March 17 at Tustin Ranch GC. Call (949) 453-9331 …
Coming up at the OC Forum: Supe John Moorlach, March 5; state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, March 11; state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, March 25.
