Balboa Island’s loss is MSP Sports Capital’s gain. See Peter J. Brennan’s front-page story on Jeff Moorad and MSP’s highly profitable exit of its investment in McLaren Racing.
MSP invested $250 million in the then-struggling F1 racing team in 2020, when McLaren was reportedly valued around $500 million. McLaren is now the dominant team in F1 and valued in the billions, and MSP is reported to have seen a nearly 10x return on its investment with the sale.
Moorad, who left the board of McLaren after the sale, had decorated his home on Balboa Island with a Santa-driven McLaren the past two years during the holidays.
Unique car fueling stations are popping up across OC.
Mission Viejo is moving ahead with the first-ever stand-alone Costco gas station. It’s expected to open next spring, just off the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, along Cabot Road.
The spot, previously home to a Bed Bath & Beyond, is expected to have 40 gas pumps, the most of any Costco facility in the country. Costco paid $14.4 million for the site a little more than a year ago.
For the EV crowd, local developer Rove is moving ahead with two more full-service charging centers in the area, a 40-charger spot along Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa, and a 56-charger location across from John Wayne Airport in Irvine.
The company’s first location, along 17th Steet in Santa Ana, features 40 EV chargers, a car wash and a convenience store. It opened last year.
While Mission Viejo’s getting a new gas station, it’s losing a $2 billion-valued startup.
Last week’s print edition covered the rapid emergence of FieldAI, a well-backed robotics firm founded a few years ago in Mission Viejo. The story noted that in announcing $405 million in funding, FieldAI cited Irvine as its new base, without citing a specific address.
Company CEO Ali Agha last week told the Business Journal that the company is indeed moving to Irvine, to a roughly 41,000-square-foot, Irvine Co.-owned building just off Alton Parkway.
Eyebrows were raised a few months ago when news emerged that the City of Irvine was considering installing an aerial gondola system to ferry visitors to the Great Park. It’s been estimated that the futuristic project, to be built by startup Swyft Cities, would cost the city close to $75 million to build out, factoring in infrastructure work and the vehicles themselves.
Irvine isn’t the only city that’s looked at Swyft’s offerings.
A report from the Anaheim Investigator last week showed that Swyft has been in discussions with Anaheim and the developers of OCVibe to scope out the viability of a similar gondola system that could link the Platinum Triangle area of the city to the Anaheim Resort District, with an eye on opening in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Current estimates place a nearly $125 million price tag on that proposal.
