“The money’s in the bank.” That was the word from Texas billionaire Gerald Ford at the Aug. 31 announcement of the closing of a $500 million recapitalization deal with Pacific Capital Bancorp. It was Ford’s first public appearance regarding the deal, which leaves him with 86 percent of the tri-county region’s largest independent banking company. [...]
Online software training firm Lynda.com purchased 57,474 square feet in Carpinteria on Aug. 31, continuing its expansion and move into the South Coast. The company, the fifth fastest-growing firm in the region according to a recent Business Times survey, bought a 31,553-square-foot office building and 25,921-square-foot warehouse building at 6410 Cindy Lane in Carpinteria. The [...]
Don Facciano, the president and CEO of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association for the past 10 years, will leave the post on Sept. 1 to concentrate on his campaign for Ventura County treasurer-tax collector. Richard Thomson, a retired Procter & Gamble executive, will replace Facciano, the Taxpayers Association announced Aug. 30. Thomson is a member [...]
U.S. Rep. Lois Capps plans to appear Aug. 30 at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport to highlight a new $1.5 million federal grant to help build the airport’s new terminal. Local elected officials and top airport managers were scheduled to join her, and Capps plans to present a ceremonial check to Santa Barbara Airport Director Karen [...]
Over the past 30 years, Thousand Oaks-based RKS Design has proved it knows how to design stuff. It’s won nearly every award in the industrial design world. It’s helped turn around troubled companies. A rethinking of the controls on Amana’s washing machines, for example, added about 30 cents in costs but helped swing the appliance [...]
Mark Melton has grown his cleaning business into a tidy little tri-county empire over the past decade, sweeping in $19.8 million in revenue last year. Carpinteria-based Melton Franchise Systems, a master franchisor for Coverall Health Based Cleaning Systems and owner of the Molly Maid business in the region, made the No. 19 spot on the [...]
Grab the nearest calendar. Find a sharpie. Put a big thick line through August 2010. For those of us who are neurotic enough to follow the banking game, we are witnessing a once-in-a-decade event: A complete realignment of financial services in the tri-county region. The collapse of Los Padres Bank and its sale to Pacific [...]
Some members of the San Luis Obispo business community are hoping to drive Measure H — a ballot proposal to stop the planned extension of Prado Road to Broad Street — right into a dead-end. The City Council approved the road extension in a 3-2 vote, but Measure H now puts the decision in voters’ [...]
Lompoc City Administrator Laurel Barcelona and Moorpark City Manager Steve Kueny run cities of about the same size, but their paychecks are in different weight classes. Barcelona took home $166,557 in pay and benefits last year, while Kueny’s compensation was 73 percent higher, at $288,583. Lompoc and Moorpark are both bedroom communities with roughly 40,000 [...]
For the past six years, we’ve gotten to know and respect Ashish Vaidya, who rose through the ranks to become dean of the faculty at CSU Channel Islands. He’s a thoughtful economist with a knack for reading the thoughts that are in the minds of those in the audience at his public talks on global [...]
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