China Car Connections; Buena Park’s Big Day; Harrah on the Clock

Add a couple of entries from China’s wave of would-be makers of electric cars to OC’s auto industry, which started with companies from Japan—Mazda and Mitsubishi —and now includes Hyundai and Kia from South Korea. The new China connection is clear in one case—Wanxiang Group now owns the Karma brand that was started here by Henrik Fisker and never got much traction in the marketplace under his guidance. Wanxiang bought Karma out of bankruptcy and has kept its U.S. headquarters here, recently adding 262,000 square feet of office space in the Irvine Spectrum. Karma now has a 556,000-square foot assembly plant up and running in the Inland Empire (see related photo and item in Addendum, page 12)—and more recent word points to at $375 million factory in its home province of Hangzhou, near Shanghai … A less direct China-OC link on autos can be found in LeEco’s recent $2 billion buy of William Wang’s Irvine-based TV maker Vizio. Beijing-based LeEco is a genuine conglomerate, with everything from smartphones and bikes to films and live entertainment under the umbrella of owner Jia Yueting, who apparently sees room for electric vehicles, too … Yueting and Karma boss Lu Guanqiu are both noted regularly among the upper reaches of China’s billionaires. Forbes pegs Guanqui for a net worth of $6.5 billion, and puts Yueting at $4.6 billion. Even those lofty estimates don’t guarantee staying power when it comes to China-based outfits with ambitions on electric vehicles, though. There are about 200 companies with some sort of plans for production in China now, and some boast even wealthier backers, including Jack Ma of Alibaba Group and Li Ka Shing, the Hong Kong property baron who’s the original Chinese billionaire … Anyone who gets over to the Health & Wellness Fair slated for the Sept. 17 grand opening of the new Hoag Health Center on Sand Canyon should make sure to take a gander at the photography from the Mountain-to-Sea Trail that adds soothing touches of beauty to the walls of all three buildings. They’re a bonus contribution from Bill Quiram, who serves as senior project manager for Hoag Real Estate, Facilities, Construction and Operations when he’s not playing the shutterbug … A quick glance at demographics and the holiday calendar indicate that Buena Park—with a budding reputation as OC’s Koreatown even with the Spanish in the city’s name and Latino-Americans accounting for nearly 40% of its population—might be the most festive place in Southern California this weekend. Korean Thanksgiving falls on Sept. 15, the same date for the El Grito that kicks off Mexican Independence Day. … Bonus points for any brave Buena Parkers who rise early for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analysts Association exam the following morning in Anaheim … Start the clock: Big Mike Harrah tells our Rick Reiff that he expects to break ground on One Broadway in downtown Santa Ana before the end of this month … Sullivan says: the Medical Arts Center—just a few miles from One Broadway, on 17th Street west of Grand—is a creative campus makeover waiting to happen … Every public agency should be as unmistakably clear with their signs as this one, spotted in Irvine.