The top stories, revisited Scroll down to read the top Business Times stories of 2009 by topic and to view a month-by-month timeline of highlights (and lowlights) from the year. Top stories by topic: THE ECONOMY • Stimulus funds flood the region [published Nov. 6, 2009] Stimulus dollars have poured into the Tri-Counties since President [...]
Santa Barbara-based Pacific Capital Bancorp announced Dec. 24 that it is selling its controversial tax-refund loan program after federal regulators did not approve the bank to originate any refund-anticipation loans during 2010. Pacific Capital, the parent of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and several other banking brands on the Central Coast, said it has signed [...]
Business owners may be looking for a fresh start for the New Year, but chamber of commerce members might want to think twice before signing up for special advertising promotions. President and Chief Executive Officer Joanne Main said members of her chamber are being targeted by an Iowa-based company called Premier Map Co. And the [...]
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have created synthetic red blood cells that could be used to deliver drugs, research diseases and aid diagnoses. Synthetic particles can be used to carry drugs where they need to go for more precise targeting than pills or straight injections. They’re already on the market to deliver [...]
It’s bad enough that regulators have basically forced our community banks to redline small businesses and deprive them of capital at a time when it’s most needed. Now comes word that staff have been let go at Small Business Development Centers, which provide technical assistance to operating ventures in Ventura and Santa Barbara centers, which [...]
For the first time in eight years, Dick Fausset’s Ventura real estate investment company is buying. Back in the 1990s, Fausset Neely Inc. went on an acquisition spree, buying up more than 2.86 million square feet of commercial property in California, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama. But in 2001, Fausset stopped buying and started selling. “In [...]
In the region’s second major going-public transaction this year, Santa Barbara-based Select Staffing has agreed to a deal that would let it pay off $200 million in debt and become listed on a major stock exchange. With $1.4 billion in revenue in 2008, Select, a temporary staffing services firm, is the largest privately held company [...]
Carpinteria-based Clipper Windpower is not going anywhere. The wind turbine maker has expanded rapidly and created hundreds of high-paying engineering and finance jobs on the South Coast in recent years. But it’s struggled with losses despite explosive sales, and on Dec. 9, industrial giant United Technologies Corp. agreed to buy a 49.5 percent stake in [...]
New storm water rules taking shape in Ventura County have public and private builders concerned that costs for routine projects could go way up and that some developments — such as large factories or warehouses — wouldn’t be feasible at all. The big change in the rules is that builders will have to deal with [...]
The restaurant business is a notoriously tough one to succeed in, but Erich and Patricia Koberl must have had a secret recipe when they struck out on their own almost five years ago. EP Koberl at Blue, a stylish little restaurant nestled in the corner of the historic J.P. Andrews Building in downtown San Luis [...]
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