Real estate market may be slow, but press releases keep rolling in
If my inbox is any indication, the real estate market could be bouncing back much sooner than any of us have predicted. I’ve been inundated with deals in recent weeks, so for this column I figured I should just open the floodgates. Deals of the Week • Best Interest Financial & Insurance Services just leased Read More →
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 →
CKE counts on viral media buzz for sales
CKE Restaurants, parent of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s brands, is tasting success with an online marketing strategy that has racked up more 8 million views for YouTube videos about its burgers. The Carpinteria-based company put some of the video-sharing site’s biggest stars to work promoting its burgers. One YouTube star generated half a million 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 →
