Rebirth in Santa Maria: Manufacturers Association is back
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, May 3rd, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Rebirth in Santa Maria: Manufacturers Association is back
After being kept alive for four years by the work of volunteers, the Santa Maria Manufacturers Association has official backing again and is drawing big crowds of business leaders. The association is a once-a-month, free-membership gathering that brings together some of the city’s biggest private-sector employers. Its April 27 meeting showcased officials from Pacific Read More →
Entrepreneurs in limbo: Cities keep massage start-ups on hold
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, May 3rd, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Entrepreneurs in limbo: Cities keep massage start-ups on hold
All Debra Ann Updike wants is to be her own boss. All the city of Camarillo wants is for her to wait a little longer. A massage therapist for the past 15 years, Updike rents space from another therapist in Somis, a rural neighborhood just northeast of Camarillo. Her dream is to open a studio Read More →
Region
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, April 26th, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Region
The markets have rallied in the past two months, and tri-county stocks have ridden — and, in some cases, blown past — the wave. Some of the strongest resurgences have come in the region’s technology sector. Other big winners are companies with stories about deals or turnarounds, but the region’s banking stocks have also played Read More →
Coming out of its shell
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, April 26th, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Coming out of its shell
Within five years, Port Hueneme will be home to about a quarter million giant keyhole limpets, a species of 5-inch-wide sea snail with a cone-shaped shell. It’s part of the business plan for Stellar Biotechnologies, a small firm that today uses about 40,000 limpets to make a protein used in cancer vaccine research. After more Read More →
Creditor aims to seize 2 Marriott hotels in Thousand Oaks
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, April 26th, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Creditor aims to seize 2 Marriott hotels in Thousand Oaks
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 Read More →
Farm water fight comes to Central Coast
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, April 19th, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Farm water fight comes to Central Coast
Central Coast farmers are banding together to oppose what they call a “drastic and extreme” reworking of agricultural water rules. The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board regulates water in a seven-county swath of the coast that includes San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, as well as coastal areas farther north. The region Read More →
Shakeups spotlight CKE, ValueClick
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, April 19th, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Shakeups spotlight CKE, ValueClick
While one tri-county firm welcomes an old face to its executive suite, another might get some new faces. A rival suitor to take Carpinteria-based CKE Restaurants private could lead to a bidding war and change the firm’s management. Meanwhile, the chief executive of ValueClick, the Westlake Village-based online advertising firm, has stepped down and handed Read More →
