Amusement
Newport City Council voted to sell the 1920s-era Balboa Theater to Costa Mesa-based Lab Holding LLC, developer of The Camp and The Lab “antimalls,” the Daily Pilot reported. Lab Holding, which is paying $1 million for the property, said it plans to restore it and open a cafe there, plus a live music stage and a second stage for private events, the paper said.
Education
A New York firm was tapped to sell about 30 campuses of ITT Technical Institute, whose parent is in bankruptcy, according to news reports. ITT leases a property in Orange. The for-profit schools operator closed operations last month. The properties it owns are being marketed to call center operators, community colleges, offices and other entities.
Laguna College of Art and Design planned to start two degree programs in creative writing—a bachelor of fine arts next fall and a low-residency master of fine arts next summer. Both include emphases in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The chairman of the programs is Norm Leonard, a screenwriter, children’s book author and publisher.
Finance
Santa Ana-based title insurance firm First American Financial Corp. bought TD Service Financial Corp. in Orange on undisclosed terms. TD Service provides technology and other services to the mortgage banking industry and specializes in post-closing services and document management. The privately held company was founded in the 1960s by Chairman Dale Dykema, a prominent fixture in local Republican political circles.
Healthcare
The Orange County District Attorney’s office sued two Yorba Linda-based medical firms, accusing them of illegally profiting from the sale of fetal tissue they got from abortion providers. The lawsuit names DaVinci Biosciences and DV Biologics. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said the companies broke the law by using the tissue as a commodity.
Media
Irvine-based Entrepreneur Media Inc. announced that Entrepreneur magazine’s executive editor, Jason Feifer, was promoted to editor-in chief, taking the helm as Entrepreneur is poised to enter its 40th year of publication next year. Feifer is based out of New York City, where Entrepreneur Media Inc. has had editorial operations for more than 20 years.
Technology
San Juan Capistrano-based Pinscriptive, a software analytics company focused on specialty drugs, announced it closed $1.78 million in seed funding since it started in March 2015, with $500,000 of that received in August. Pinscriptive was created by Frost Data Capital, which creates companies and funds them. Specialty drugs are known as biologics and are typically brand names that cost $10,000 to $100,000 for a single prescription.
Transportation
County supervisors said consideration of United Airlines’ 2017 seat allocation for flights in and out of John Wayne Airport could be placed on hold if the airline doesn’t comply with their contract change request aimed at preventing gender discrimination, the Orange County Register reported. The request followed news reports of the airline recently asking a female passenger to change seats because two Buddhist monks said they couldn’t sit near a female. United has asked for 300,000 additional seats next year. Supervisors also asked county counsel to pursue similar contract changes by other airlines that serve the airport.
