Towbes thrives in tough times
Michael Towbes likes to keep busy. In the face of the worst recession he can remember, Towbes, one of the region’s most successful builders and bank owners, will not be slowing down anytime soon. The best evidence for that is a wall full of plans in the Towbes Group conference room in downtown Santa Barbara. Read More →
Partners key to bank buy
Behind the scenes of the Bank of Santa Barbara sale – one of the biggest to hit the city in recent years — is a team of tri-county heavyweights headed by veteran Santa Barbara banker Eloy Ortega. Ortega assembled about 10 investors, including Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea, Tim Marquez of Venoco and Hutton Foundation President Read More →
$60M sought in business jet accident
The most disruptive accident at the Santa Barbara airport in decades has spurred a $60 million civil lawsuit between the parent company of one of the Tri-Counties’ biggest private companies and a French maker of corporate jets. The accident took place June 10, 2007, when a 13-passenger Dassault Mystere Falcon 900 ran off the main Read More →
One tasting at a time
Oxnard is perhaps an unlikely place to become the Tri-Counties’ newest destination point, but the largest city in the area is quickly becoming a posh enclave. Beyond the emergence of new retail shopping centers and new luxury car showrooms, Oxnard has a blossoming wine district that is beginning to attract more visitors with the hopes Read More →
Mid-Year Tri-County Stock Report
The nationwide recession only deepened in the first half of 2009, and it was no exception for publicly-traded companies in the Tri-Counties — except for a few companies bucking that trend. The largest Tri-County-based public companies on the Business Times/UCSB stock index— Amgen, CalAmp, Calavo, CKE Restauarants and Deckers Outdoor — rode the bears and Read More →
Occam wins contract
Santa Barbara-based Occam Networks has signed on another rural telecommunications company for its switching hardware, which helps copper- and fiber-based providers supply high-speed Internet, voice and video. Sebastian is based in Kerman in the Central Valley and has 10,000 access lines. Occam said the company will use Occam’s switches to speed up its copper-based network Read More →
Work Investment Board gets $1.1M
The Santa Barbara County Workforce Investment Board was slated for the public handoff of a $1.1 million check for youth job creation on July 15. A countywide youth jobs program funded by the federal stimulus bill is expected to create jobs for 125 youths. Santa Barbara County Supervisor Joe Centeno was scheduled to hand over Read More →
