Dana Point’s Doheny State Beach was donated to the state in 1931 by oil tycoon Edward Doheny, making it the first state beach in California.
The beach is a short walk from Dana Point Harbor—which was built in the 1960s and is now getting a major makeover including an upgraded marina as well as new parking, shops and hotels, the latter being overseen by Newport Beach’s R.D. Olson Development.
Since March, the developer of the Lido House hotel has been seeking community input on a new name for the main hotel at the revamped harbor, initially dubbed Dana House. Possibilities considered included The Pacifica at Dana Point and The Breakwater Hotel.
You heard it here first: get ready to stay at The Doheny. For more on the project, read my story on page 1.
The second-largest private employer in Yountville (population: 3,400), the tony Napa Valley enclave, is chef Thomas Keller’s famed French Laundry, often cited as the country’s best restaurant. It employs about 400 workers.
With 450 workers, the Estate Yountville resort is the town’s largest employer. It’s owned by Newport Beach’s Gary Jabara, who founded locally based telecom infrastructure firm Mobilitie (now called Boldyn US) and later built a sprawling real estate portfolio in the state.
Keller and Jabara have joined forces in recent months to seek a better plan for workforce housing in Yountville, after an underwhelming initial proposal by the city was announced.
The initial project was to hold 120 units, with a reported cost of $91 million – equating to over $750,000 per unit, well over the going rate for a housing project.
Their opposition, which has gotten national attention, isn’t to affordable housing – both support it, noting that much of the city’s workers commute to the town from other areas – but the current design of the project.
Some of the first units to be built would be just 300 square feet in size, “roughly the size of a hotel room,” a Wall Street Journal report noted.
“The unit mix is obviously wrong. Nobody wants to live in a cage,” Jabara said.
“No one ever came to me and said, ‘What do you think about this project?’” Keller added at a city council hearing.
The state of the project has been in flux in the past few months, with Yountville’s city manager leaving.
For more on Jabara’s current tech-related business, the ioXt Alliance, see page 6.
Another of OC’s better-known tech execs, Vizio founder William Wang, this September will be inducted into the 2026 class for the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame.
It’s the second notable accolade of late for Wang, the head of the Irvine TV maker. In 2024, he received the Lifetime Achievement honor at the 75th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards.
Wang is receiving the Technology Leadership Award at the September event, for, among other achievements, “pioneering the world’s first internet-connected TV” at Vizio, which he founded in 2002. Since then, Vizio has sold more than 100 million TVs and soundbars.
Walmart acquired Vizio in 2024 for $2.3 billion, with an eye on expanding online shopping opportunities for its customers through Vizio’s smart TVs.
