Hope for Hangars? South Coast Redux; Act II for Churm?

Are the powers that be rethinking the fate of the two hangars on the former Marine base in Tustin now that Google has signed a 60-year lease worth $1.2 billion for a similar structure and several others on surrounding grounds in the Silicon Valley? Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures LLC plans to use the 350,000-square-foot Hangar One up north as an R&D center for space-related business. The WWII-era Tustin hangars are 17 stories high, more than 300,000 square feet apiece, and slightly newer than Hangar One, which dates to 1932 … This week brings some updates on our recent overview of various chunks of real estate in the South Coast Metro district, starting with Mark Mueller’s front-page piece on the 180,000-square-foot office complex at 1588 South Coast Drive, which seems to do nothing but sell lately … Mueller also passed along word that the L.A. Times plant on Sunflower is the subject of a NAIOP-sponsored challenge match this week on redevelopment plans by real estate programs at USC and UCLA … The next big sale in the area could be the Sears at South Coast Plaza. The ailing retailer looks to be getting more serious about disposing of hard assets, with recent talk of establishing a REIT. How serious? Sears shares have been reacting more to reports on real estate than the retail market lately … For the record: Diane Pritchett, executive director and all-around impresario for the South Coast Metro Alliance, called to note that last week’s item on the Diocese of Orange’s vacant parcel in the area was off by a bit—it’s at MacArthur & Raitt … Steve Churm has a new hip after a visit to Hoag Irvine and a new future in store after signing off on OC Metro, which apparently will cease publication under the auspices of the Register, which bought the title and several others from Churm in the early days of Aaron Kushner’s interregnum. A solid source says Churm hinted after OC Metro’s Hot 25 event last week that he might have a second act in mind … Blizzard CEO Michael Morhaime took the opportunity of annual fanfest Blizzcon to announce that all revenue from a new charity pet in its World of Warcraft franchise will be donated to the Red Cross to fight Ebola. Players can purchase the virtual pets—which tag along during game play—for $10 starting Dec. 3. See Chris Casacchia’s report from Blizzcon on page 1 for more on Blizzard … Sunwest Bank sent nine of its employees to Africa to help fight child slavery. The bank paid for the volunteers to spend a week at Hovde House, a rehabilitation center for former child slaves in Winneba, Ghana … Former Merage Foundation Executive Director Marshall Kaplan—who spends a lot of time these days as a cheerleader for the El Sol Academy public charter school in Santa Ana—misplaced his credit card at about the worst time possible: He was on a date. The timing got worse when he had to explain his predicament to a new maître at Il Fornaio—a fellow who didn’t know that Kaplan has been a regular for years and could be counted on to make good on the mishap. Then he spotted waiter Arturo Rubalcava, who vouched for Kaplan. There’s a better-than-average chance that Rubalcava might do the same for you some day—he also works at Prego and the Atrium Hotel.