Pacific Capital Bancorp, parent company of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and the largest banking company in the Tri-Counties, said April 30 that it saw a net loss of $7.9 million, or 17 cents per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2009. In the same period last year, the company raked in a profit [...]
The University of California, Santa Barbara, has landed $19 million in federal stimulus money for new energy research. The money will come in payments of $2 million to $5 million a year over the next five years. The university said the funding will help it improve technologies for efficient lighting, capturing solar energy and converting [...]
For John Foster, thinking big means thinking small. Really small. Foster heads Innovative Micro Technologies, a Goleta-based firm that makes machines the size of a few human hairs built with some of the same techniques and materials as computer chips. Called micro electromechanical systems, or MEMS, the devices combine the “thinking” tasks of computer chips [...]
The developer of Lavender Court, Carpinteria’s largest mixed-use project in years, has filed two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, leaving behind bank debts and contractors wondering how they will get paid for their work. Nick Narang was the force behind Lavender Court, a project with 40 condominium units and a 5,000-square-foot retail space on Carpinteria Avenue. Two [...]
Paso Robles-based propane marketer Delta Liquid Energy is on track for expansion — about 300 feet of track, to be exact. The company has just unveiled a new storage and distribution facility in Santa Maria that includes 300 feet of private railroad track, 90,000 gallons of propane storage capacity and a new office building that [...]
There’s more than one way to put your money where your mouth is. For one tri-county wealth management group, that means taking a hit so regional nonprofits have a fighting chance. As revenue streams dry up and grants get more competitive, some charities still have to pay wealth managers to ‘supervise’ their declining donations and [...]
JetAir Technologies likes to let its engineering speak for itself. Founded five years ago, the Ventura-based company engineers and produces industrial blowers and air knives that do everything from dry beer bottles to spread chemical coatings on catalytic converters. And though JetAir has just 11 employees, it’s landed household names such as General Motors, Budweiser [...]
It’s hard to imagine that anyone could be successful while remaining agnostic toward the stock market — especially now. But 9-year-old Sabrient Systems has built a reputation for itself by doing just that. The Santa Barbara-based equity research firm specializes in quantitative modeling and analysis of stocks, with a successful 2008 that saw its best [...]
Judging from the looks on the faces of the commercial real estate brokers and leasing agents I know, those little green shoots that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke mentioned a few weeks ago might just as well have been “little green men.” A dearth of deals in the property sector is an indication that although [...]
Moorpark’s 306,000-square-foot Patriot Commerce Center, the sixth-largest business park in the Tri-Counties, finally celebrated its grand opening April 23. In addition to the 100 local business executives and commercial real estate brokers who were expected to attend, Moorpark Mayor Janice Parvin, City Manager Steve Kueny and officials from the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce were scheduled [...]
It’s all smiles and sauvignon in Happy Canyon’s vineyards
Towbes Group grabs Goleta with Groupon-like deals at retailers
Social-media IPOs could launch Golden State sustainability fund
Ventura County brokers hold out ’til 2013 for real recovery
Name changes and new faces at SLO and Oxnard law firms
From apartments to industrial spaces, deals close in the region