With a new year just getting under way, I thought I would exercise my editor’s privilege and introduce some of our new editorial calendar concepts for 2017. After a fine start in 2016, we’re bringing back the Central Coast Innovation Awards with its “Startup Village” of university and community entrepreneurs. We’re also streamlining our categories Read More →
Santa Barbara’s waterfront will get its newest crown jewel early next year when MOXI makes its debut. MOXI – officially the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation – benefits from the latest thinking in active learning, strong leadership and the philanthropic capacity that very few communities can deliver. During a recent walk through the nearly Read More →
While the South Coast is reveling in its waterfront makeover, tri-county tourism is getting stronger and economists are heralding a boom in craft spirits, the manufacturing core of the region is looking more and more hollowed-out. Large sections of Simi Valley and west Ventura County and North Santa Barbara County are losing head-of-household jobs. San Read More →
The $405 million sale of Heritage Oaks Bancorp to Pacific Premier Bancorp caught many experts by surprise. It is a transformative deal for the Irvine-based buyer, which will grow from $3.8 billion to $6 billion in assets when it closes next year. Pacific Premier will extend its franchise, leapfrogging past Los Angeles and heading deep Read More →
PennyMac Financial’s Stanford Kurland has a habit of working in mysterious ways. A veteran of Countrywide Financial, he joined that company in the late 1970s and rose through the ranks to become its president, leaving without fanfare in 2006 — just as the excesses in the mortgage market were beginning to become apparent. In 2009, Read More →
Story updated at 11:30 a.m.: In a deal that will once again shake up the ranks of top banks in the region, Pacific Premier Bancorp of Irvine will acquire Heritage Oaks Bancorp for $405.6 million or $11.68 per share based on current values. The all-stock merger, announced before the markets opened on Dec. 13, will Read More →
There they go again. The no-growth crowd is crowing about a newly-released environmental impact report that shows a handful of intersections on Highway 101 will experience slowdowns after the highway is widened between Carpinteria and Montecito. But to anybody who’s been following the buzzing of political gadflies around the estimated $428 million project, the complaints Read More →