Five tri-county economic trends we’ll be watching in the New Year
Columns, OpinionConventional wisdom holds that with a federal budget in hand, a financial system on the mend, rising housing prices and steady job growth, 2014 ought to be a pretty darn good year.
Year of awards and new hires positions PCBT for growth in 2014
Columns, OpinionPacific Coast Business Times has undergone a substantial expansion during 2013, so I thought I would exercise my editor’s prerogative and talk a little about what we’ve accomplished this year and where we are headed in the New Year.
A speed bump on the way to creating a chamber-led vitality group
Columns, OpinionThe most concentrated effort to date to create a Santa Barbara County economic vitality organization has hit a roadblock. And that roadblock appears to be the Board of Supervisors’ bitterly divided vote on the Santa Maria Energy project, where South County supervisors banded together to impose severe carbon emissions limits on an innovative onshore oil and gas development that had broad support in North County.
Central Coast stands to be ground zero for cable market shakeup
OpinionYou might call it the Central Coast Cable Conundrum.
And it goes something like this: During the national rollup of cable television properties that took place in the 1990s, a number of major players grabbed a sliver of the region.
Hedge funds circle Foley’s flagship as Fed enables leveraged deals
Columns, OpinionWhat’s happening here is part of a bigger drama about ultra-low interest rates, the stock market and the prospect for a new credit bubble.
Elings named top philanthropist
Latest newsA colon cancer diagnosis at age 67 prompted retired UC Santa Barbara Physics Professor Virgil Elings to underwrite the cost of free colonoscopies for residents of the South Coast who cannot afford them or don’t have insurance coverage. And that spontaneous gift to the community was honored Nov. 14 as Elings was named Philanthropist of Read More →
Nusil and Lynda.com are the king and queen of Carpinteria
Columns, OpinionDuring one very short year, the small, coastal city of Carpinteria has gone from an also-ran to the hottest market around when it comes to new job growth and filling commercial space. Research by the Business Times and Mark Schniepp’s California Economic Forecast shows that just two companies — Nusil and Lynda.com are mainly responsible for gobbling up thousands of square feet in Carp, which now is just about as fully leased up as at anytime since the dot-com era.
