Jobs aren’t the only thing Freedom Communications has trimmed lately. Our Mark Mueller reports that the Register’s parent trimmed a couple of acres of land from its holdings with a sale to homebuilder William Lyon Homes last month. The parcel sits between the Register’s office on Grand Avenue in Santa Ana and the 5 freeway. No word on a price. Freedom recently put the Register building on the market with a $28.9 million price tag, and it has some other parcels scattered nearby …
The Insider hears that local homebuilders Standard Pacific and New Home Co. are among the final four in bidding for a bigger, better situated parcel of land—the nearly 200-acre Marblehead site near the coast in San Clemente … Back to the Register: one wag tallied 600 years of local experience leaving the building with the layoffs and buyouts that claimed more than 30 in the newsroom last week, including Editor Ken Brusic and top asssistants Rebecca Allen, Brenda Shoun and Terry Moore …
Larry Wellborn accounted for 43 of those years, and one-time Register newshound and current Cornerstone Communications PR guy Bill Rams says his old colleague would be in the Cops & Courts Hall of Fame if one existed. “Readers love him, and lawyers, judges, editors, his colleagues and even criminal defendants loved working with him,” says Rams. “They should put his name on a courthouse” …
OC’s federal courthouse is named for Ronald Reagan, and fat chance of a change there. Yet change is a constant inside the courthouse—a trend that’s helped Santa Ana gain a national reputation as a leading venue for patent cases, as our front-page story by Jane Yu explains … The LA Times scored on OC sports coverage with a story on 7-foot-6 Mamadou Ndiaye in its Jan. 14 edition—a worthy read and reminder of the serendipitous advantages that can come with assets such as top medical institutions. Ndiaye came to OC after a tumor on his pituitary gland threatened his life and required treatment at Hoag Hospital, with four-hour round-trip commutes becoming a daily routine for the immigrant from Senegal. A nurse at Hoag, along with her husband, offered to become Ndiaye’s legal guardian, the Times reported. He enrolled at Brethren Christian in Huntington Beach and went on to UCI—where he is becoming a force in college hoops …
Program note: Business Journal tech reporter Chris Casacchia will join Vizio cofounder Ken Lowe, Peter Polydor of Ergo Capital and several other execs for this week’s post-CES panel hosted by OCTANe at the Eureka Building in Irvine. It starts at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 22; free for OCTANe sponsors and members, $25 for nonmembers; visit octaneoc.org for more info …
Irvine has gained a reputation for global ties, thanks in part to the Asian-Americans who account for an estimated 40% or more of the nearly quarter-million residents of the city. Anyone who went to see Dedh Ishquiya during its opening weekend at the Edwards Westpark 8 can tell you that the numbers of South Asians are significant. The film opened here at the same time it hit theaters in India and Pakistan. The timing paid off for the Edwards Westpark 8, which had a buzz in the air to go with a full house for a Saturday night showing …
Closer to the beach: You’re just not looking if you don’t see any VIPs at Fig & Olive.
