Education
California State University-Fullerton President Mildred Garcia was named to a national commission that will seek “practical solutions” to the increasing cost of a college education, the university said. She’s a charter member of the National Commission on Financing 21st Century Higher Education, established by University of Virginia’s Miller Center, which works in the area of public policy (see related story on CSUF Business Expectations Index, page 1).
Insurance
Huntington Beach-based Confie Seguros Insurance Services acquired Williamsville, N.Y.-based Bronkie Agency Inc.; Kissimmee, Fla.-based Your Insurance Spot Inc.; and Columbia, S.C.-based Wise Insurance Agency Inc. on undisclosed terms.
Newport Beach-based Alliant Insurance Services Inc. acquired North Idaho Insurance LLC on undisclosed terms.
Obituaries
The Rev. Robert Schuller, a televangelist who founded the 35-acre Crystal Cathedral campus in Garden Grove, died in Artesia at age 88. Through six decades in Orange County, he built a large international organization—and saw it fail, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2010 with debts of about $48 million. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange bid $53.6 million for the property in a bankruptcy auction and is redeveloping the site. Schuller began preaching locally in 1955 from a drive-in theater’s concession stand roof, moved to a building a few years later, and founded the “Hour of Power” broadcast ministry in 1970. His wife, Arvella, died in February 2014.
Real Estate
A report by the Orange County Business Council said OC needs 50,000 to 62,000 more homes in order to prevent an exodus of skilled workers. It said the gap could grow to 100,000 by 2040 and holds the potential to cause a shortage of workers. The deficit is compounded by increasing rents and home prices, said the report, which recommended building more homes, decreasing development fees, and rewriting state environmental laws that can hold up home development.
Gavin Herbert Sr. put a $75 million price tag on the 5.5-acre estate in San Clemente that once served as President Richard Nixon’s “Western White House,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Herbert was a transformative chief executive of Allergan Inc., which his father founded in 1948; it recently sold for about $72 billion. He became involved with the Nixon property when he was a finance chairman for the president’s political operations, volunteering to look after the grounds and leading a partnership that bought the property in 1980 for an undisclosed sum. The partnership later developed part of the acreage into a 14-home neighborhood. The remaining part has 15,000 square feet of buildings, including a showcase home and 450 feet of ocean frontage.
Restaurants
A food blogger in Lake Forest said he and investors plan to open at least one Naugles restaurant after a federal panel sided with him in a dispute with Del Taco over the rights to its defunct Naugles trademark, according to the Orange County Register. The company closed its last Naugles location in 1995. Blogger Christian Ziebarth of Huntington Beach had been trying to obtain the trademark for the Mexican-style restaurant brand since 2010 (see related story, page 6).
Irvine-based Habit Restaurants Inc. said in a regulatory filing that Boston-based Numeric Investors LLC, an affiliate of London-based Man Group Plc, bought about 477,000 shares of the burger chain’s Class A common stock. The shares were worth about $14.8 million based on Habit’s closing share price of $30.98 on March 19, the date of the purchase, according to the filing. The beneficial ownership amounts to 5.3% of those shares.
Transportation
John Wayne Airport issued permits for two “transportation network companies”—an industry term for taxi-like, ride-sharing operators such as Uber—to operate there. The Orange County Board of Supervisors approved ride-sharing for the airport on March 3. Permits mean the two—Uber and Wingz, both in San Francisco—could start offering services immediately.
