Both Bren brothers have been busy lately, and we’ll start with Peter, whose KBS Realty Advisors’ potential buy of the 43-story Citigroup Center skyscraper in Chicago is covered in a piece on our front page. The company’s 2010 buy of another Chicago skyscraper is believed to be the biggest stand-alone office building ever bought by an OC-based company or individual …
Mark Mueller’s story shows that there’s plenty of room in the City of the Big Shoulders for representatives of the County of Big Real Estate Portfolios. Donald Bren’s Irvine Company and Olen Properties’ Igor Olenicoff both have Chicago skyscrapers in their portfolios …
The Irvine Company is among 11 businesses that sent representatives along with City of Irvine staffers on a nine-day trade mission to Asia that got started last week. Visits to “sister cities” Taoyuan, Taiwan and Seocho-gu, South Korea, are on tap—although the latter really is one of 25 districts of Seoul. Kudos to Irvine city officials for forging ties with a district of the South Korean capital city that’s known as a tech center rather than following a common practice of linking with an independent municipality of similar size … Also aboard for the trade mission is FivePoint Communities, developer of the Great Park Neighorhoods residential project, which is in the heart of a hot territory for overseas buyers …
Among the crowd but missing from the private reception for Speaker John Boehner hosted last week by Californians for a House Majority at the Lyon Air Museum: Huntington Beach-based Congressman Dana Rohrabacher …
Boehner might have had Rohrabacher in mind when he told folks he had no choice but to give the hard-ball approach to the recent government shutdown a whirl at the behest of Tea Party types and other hard-liners in the Republican caucus, who apparently would have been willing to desert the speaker otherwise. And “a leader without followers is simply a man taking a walk,” Boehner said …
Speaking of the visual arts, which we do with Kim Haman’s page 1 story on South Coast Repertory: That’s the niche targeted by the latest addition to OC’s crowded field of glossy lifestyle magazines. This one is called Premiere OC, which plans fall/winter and spring/summer editions as part of Emmis Communications’ Orange Coast. Publisher Chris Schulz introduced the 10-by-6 ½ Premiere OC as a poly-bagged companion to the October edition of Orange Coast, with a focus on venues and organizations that run the gamut from “large to small, professional and amateur, from Fullerton to San Clemente,” he says. Good start overall, with worthy write-ups, attractive layout and an Arts Datebook that consolidates Editor’s Picks in six categories in chronological order on a single page …
The Editor’s Picks included a nice photo and a bit of ink for one-time OCBJ staffer Peggy Hesketh, author of the well-received novel “Telling the Bees.” Hesketh will take the stage for the Witte Lecture Series at the Newport Beach Public Library on Nov. 7.
