Take Care, Ed; Ayres Flagship Inn Gets Upscale Look
OC INSIDER by Rick Reiff
When Ed Arnold hurts, other people feel it. One of OC’s most visible faces, familiar voices and generous souls is missing from KOCE-TV and the charity circuit while he takes medication for a heart infection (cardiomiopathy). “Best case scenario I’m back in two or three weeks. Worst case, I need a heart transplant,” Arnold told the Insider, sounding upbeat, as usual, about the ordeal. It’s been a rough stretch for health-conscious Arnold, who back in October had two gallstones removed. Send well-wishes to KOCE in Huntington Beach
Don Ayres III continues to upgrade his family’s boutique-hotel chain at the same time he’s growing it. A 115-room Ayres Hotel is set to open next month in Seal Beach, the group’s 17th property. Meanwhile, the flagship Country Inn & Suites at Bristol and Red Hill in Costa Mesa has gotten a makeover to reflect the “new, modern look of Ayres Hotels,” Ayres tells Sandi Cain. The suites, designed by Don’s twin, Doug, feature European fabrics, an Italian marble wet bar, a big whirlpool tub and an “Ayres Dream Sleeper” mattress (also designed by Doug). There’s more service, too: An attendant will make a dinner reservation or fetch ice. But behind the scenes Ayres remains a homey operation,the old furniture wasn’t auctioned off, it was given to employees
It’s official: Palley-Needelman Asset Management is now just Needelman Asset Management. Speaking of which, guess who Chet Needelman’s next-door neighbors are on Harbor Island? George Argyros and Donald Bren
Economic uptick? Orange Coast Venture Group says in the last four months attendance at its breakfasts has more than doubled, to about 100
Re Andrew Simons’ page 1 story, the Insider thinks strongmen Henry Nicholas of Broadcom Corp. and Gov. Jesse Ventura of the Minnesota State Board of Investment should stop their legal haggling and duke it out on Fox’s “Celebrity Boxing”
Rutan & Tucker’s John Ramirez is the only OCer on the Los Angeles Daily Journal’s “Top 20 Under 40” list of rising legal stars
Former OCBJ tech writer and current News.com reporter Ian Fried has been named of the “30 Most Influential Business Journalists Under 30” by the media-information group TJFR
New OCBJ arrival: Cameron Elizabeth Brunson, to Bob and Heather Brunson
OC Weekly’s Will Swaim has rejoined the captains of industry, adding “associate publisher” to his editor title. Swaim, who refers to KOCE sparring partner EE RR as a capitalist tool, is actually the only one of the two who previously worked on the corporate side, as publisher of World Trade Magazine.
