AMUSEMENT
Disneyland Resort in Anaheim will open Star Wars Land in 2019, Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Iger said on the company’s quarterly conference call. He didn’t specify an opening date. Iger said a second Star Wars Land will open in Disney World in Florida the same year and that an attraction based on the Avatar film franchise will open this May 27 at the latter. The local Star Wars Land attraction is under construction on 14 acres at the Anaheim resort’s Disneyland Park.
EDUCATION
The University of California Irvine’s innovation institute received $2.2 million from the state to help speed research and innovations to market. The investment, from Assembly Bill 2664, will underwrite a UCI Applied Innovation initiative called Bridging Innovation Gaps, and provide additional support for three other efforts.
UCI Assistant Professor of Developmental & Cell Biology Ali Mortazavi will share $10 million in grant funding over four years with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to establish a mapping center to pinpoint the location of genes, and the regulatory elements that control them, in the entire genome. It will be one of eight U.S. centers.
FINANCE
Irvine-based fund of hedge funds Pacific Alternative Asset Management Co. plans to join with a unit of KKR Inc. in New York to form a firm with $34 billion in assets under management, according to a statement by both companies. KKR will retain a 39.9% stake as a long-term strategic partner in the new company, which will include the operations of PAAMCO and KKR hedge-fund unit Prisma. The other 60.1% will be majority owned by PAAMCO and Prisma employees. The new business will be led by co-CEOs Jane Buchan, PAAMCO co-founder and chief executive, and KKR Prisma co-founder Girish Reddy.
Certified public accountancy Katherman Kitts & Co. in Irvine said its entire team joined Haskell & White, effective Feb. 1. James Katherman and Stacie Kitts also are now partners at Haskell & White, which will total more than 75 professionals, a press release said. Haskell & White currently has nine partners and more than 70 professionals, according to its website.
Newport Beach resident Paul A. Garcia of Irvine-based real estate fund Caliber Partnership I LLC agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he defrauded investors and misappropriated over $1.3 million, news reports said.
HOSPITALITY
Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the operating brand of Preferred Hotel Group in Newport Beach, booked $1.1 billion in reservations last year for hotels in its system. About 9% flows to the parent company’s top line, which works out to between $90 million and $110 million, the Business Journal estimates. That’s up from three years ago.
RESTAURANTS
A fire badly damaged longtime restaurant Anaheim White House Restaurant, whose owner, Bruno Serato, nevertheless continued his tradition of feeding 2,000 low-income children per day through his Caterina’s Club charity. Investigators said that an electrical malfunction caused the fire (see related OC Insider item, page 3).
RETAIL
Rakuten.com Shopping is moving next month from Aliso Viejo to San Mateo in the Silicon Valley. The e-commerce business, which sells more than 20 million products in two dozen categories, plans to share office space with Rakuten USA, which has been in San Mateo for some years. It will lay off 73 workers in Aliso Viejo—about half of its staff here—and offer relocation packages to others, according to a notice filed with the California Employment Development Department.
OTHER
The Greater Irvine Chamber is the new name of the former Irvine Chamber of Commerce. The group said the change reflects the growth of its efforts beyond the city line (see related OC Insider item, page 3).
