Best and worst of times, indeed. Behind Pacific Capital Bancorp’s decision to sell a 90 percent stake to a Texas investment firm is a recognition that the California real estate market has not yet begun to turn around. That is the nightmare the bank faced — a slow bleeding of capital, including a loss of [...]
[Editor's note: This story was updated at 3:20 p.m. April 29 with comments from Gerald Ford.] Hours after signing a $500 million deal that could transfer control of Pacific Capital Bancorp to a Texas billionaire’s firm, the banking company’s executives went before investors at its 50th annual shareholder meeting to explain the bold transaction that [...]
If there is one thing we’ve learned from the painful experiences of the past couple of years it is this: As banks go, so goes the regional economy. And from that perspective, it appears the deep recession in real estate is slowly disappearing in the rearview mirror. Surprise first-quarter profits at Community West and American [...]
Closing the housing gap and getting our economy back on track is going to take skilled workers filling high paying jobs. The training for those jobs begins in our primary and secondary schools. Which is why we think it was smart for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to side with the ACLU and others who want to [...]
Carpinteria-based CKE Restaurants announced April 24 that it will be acquired by an affiliate of Apollo Management. Under the terms of the agreement, CKE stockholders will receive $12.55 per share in cash, representing a 41 percent premium to the company’s closing share price on Feb. 25 and a 14 percent premium over an earlier offer [...]
Claiming $20 million in identity theft damages, 16 Ventura County residents have sued Countrywide Financial Corp., the defunct subprime lender now owned by Bank of America. The lawsuit comes after the 2008 arrest of two men, one of them a Countrywide analyst, who were accused of stealing and then selling the identity information of 2.4 million [...]
Whether on the sales rack or in the rental market, Johanna Melamed knows how to snag a bargain when she sees it. Melamed is the owner of The Closet, a boutique consignment and resale clothing business with stores in Santa Barbara and Westlake Village. She recently moved the Santa Barbara store from its first location [...]
Look around at the economic wreckage of the past couple of years and one thing is obvious — we have witnessed the most colossal failure of management in the history of the modern corporation. For all the talk about government intervention, TARP and the need to rewrite financial regulation to prevent another meltdown, the actual [...]
The Cal Poly Technology Park officially has its first tenant. Applied Technologies Associates, an Albuquerque-based firm that designs and manufactures products for the oil industry, signed a lease for 3,000 square feet in the on-campus park at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The firm, which has major technical operations in Paso Robles, will maintain [...]
Two Thousand Oaks Marriott hotels in default on a $25 million construction loan and facing foreclosure are just the latest indication that the region’s hotels have been hit hard by a decline in tourism and a sour commercial real estate market. The neighboring hotels on Newbury Road — a Marriott TownePlace Suites and a Courtyard [...]
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