This week’s Insider was written a thousand miles north of the Business Journal’s headquarters, at the other big Newport along the West Coast: Newport, Ore.
The main similarity between the two areas: excessive traffic over the Fourth of July week. A $58 million marine science center being built for the Oregon town’s harbor has more in common with the Dana Point Harbor rehab project now underway than Newport Beach.
An hour north is another notable site in Oregon worth comparing to OC. Tillamook’s massive former Navy blimp hangar has been repurposed into an air museum; could a similar project come to Tustin?
Museum officials say their structure bests Tustin hangars in size as the “largest clear-span wooden structure in the world.” Tustin’s duo of 1940s-era hangars has longevity in their favor, though. While showing their age, they’re both still here—a second structure in Tillamook burned down in ’92.
For more on development near the Tustin’s iconic structures, see our front-page story on the latest big tenant at the Flight creative office campus.
Allied Universal and Allied Esports count similarities beyond their first names. Both OC firms are the largest of their type—private security force, and online video game venue operator, respectively—and each has designs on going public, big news for an area that hasn’t seen any local IPOs this year.
Allied Universal Chief Executive Steve Jones reiterated to the Business Journal late last month IPO intention for his 210,000-person security/technology firm—a deal that will instantly vault it to one of OC’s most valuable public companies (see story, page 1).
Allied Esports, meanwhile, plans to complete a reverse merger with a newly listed blank check public company—a deal struck around the start of the year—which will result in the combined company moving its headquarters from Minneapolis to Irvine, with a valuation likely in the $200 million sor higher range.
The esports company is still making deals: it struck a $5 million agreement with Mexico’s TV Azteca two weeks ago to bring its offerings to Mexico, and last week another $5 million deal with mall giant Simon Properties Group to open esports venues at Simon’s malls.
Simon counts a trio of local venues—Brea, Mission Viejo, and Orange—that would appear ripe for Allied Esports to expand outside its flagship spot in downtown Santa Ana.
Frank Greinke’s kids had a party the way they thought their dad would have loved. After the 64-year-old Greinke died in May, his family celebrated with a blowout bash at Anaheim’s House of Blues on July 1st. About 600 to 700 of Frank’s best friends showed up to celebrate the life of one of Orange County’s best known and loved executives. They enjoyed food, talking and listening to the Gypsy Kings. Dan Lubeck, owner of Solis Capital, will be writing a tribute to Frank, who was a friend of the Business Journal for more than 25 years, in an upcoming Leader Board article. Stay tuned to the penultimate page.
