Business by the beach – New merchants bud in Carpinteria
Put Carpinteria down as one city that’s not tossing in the towel. The city of 16,000 boasts one of the oldest assets in the history of real estate — a prime location. Situated roughly halfway between Santa Barbara and Ventura — and in close proximity to office parks in Goleta, Oxnard and Camarillo — it Read More →
Forecast crew quits UCSB for Cal Lutheran
With economic forecasting guru Bill Watkins and his team leaving the University of California, Santa Barbara, to join California Lutheran University’s business school, the Thousand Oaks campus gets instant name recognition and a potentially powerful magnet for fundraising. And Ventura County business leaders will face a tough choice – keep their sponsorship dollars flowing toward Read More →
Region attracts oil firms
Oil prices have crashed and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has clamped down on new drilling within federal lands and waters, but one firm has hit a gusher using a new approach to a decades-old oil lease in Oxnard. Tri-Valley Corp. has drilled seven wells at its Pleasant Valley site in Oxnard, and so far Read More →
ADDYs pile up for area advertising agencies
Morris & Casale Advertising, Weiser Creative Group and BBM&D Strategic Branding were the top winners in the 2009 ADDY Awards Coastal California competition recently held by the American Advertising Federation. The ADDYs recognize advertising excellence for work that appeared last year in all kinds of media, including print, radio and television, online content, posters, brochures, Read More →
Energy stars align in Goleta – ECO:nomics conference draws world leaders
Former Vice President Al Gore and an array of leaders from around the world will spend March 4 to 6 at Goleta’s Bacara Resort & Spa discussing the crossover between business and the environment. Hosted by the Wall Street Journal, the second annual ECO:nomics conference will bring together an international list of who’s who in Read More →
The big business blend – Entrepreneurs combine multiple niches into one
Tough times call on entrepreneurs to get inventive and do something a little different to win customers’ dollars. And two tri-county businesses are doing just that. In Santa Barbara, Live Culture plans to serve up a combination of wine, frozen yogurt and live music. SLO County Sitters in San Luis Obispo has connected parents with Read More →
Transitions noted
Sometimes the owner is the company. Such was apparently the case with the Wine Cask, a popular Santa Barbara watering hole and wine shop that closed abruptly in mid-February. Owner Doug Margerum sold the operation a year or so ago and the new owners tried hard. But with the down economy and without Doug’s magic, Read More →
