Ecomerit gets $2.4M federal grant
Carpinteria-based Ecomerit Technologies, the latest company from the founders of Clipper Windpower, will get a $2.4 million federal grant to pursue its technology for generating renewable energy from ocean currents. U.S. Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, announced the grant Sept. 20. It will come from the U.S. Department of Energy, as part of $37 million Read More →
L.A. developer buys rare unimproved lot in downtown SB
A Los Angeles-based developer purchased the 1.8-acre parcel of land at 535 E. Montecito St. — the largest unimproved site in downtown Santa Barbara — on Sept. 19. The property, listed for sale at $5.5 million, was purchased by Los Portales 48 Lots LLC from the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara. The Read More →
Solar firms go panel-to-panel in Oxnard
A school district in West Ventura County is the last place on Earth where you’d expect to find ground zero in the battle for global supremacy in the solar energy business. But that’s precisely the scenario that’s unfolding in the wake of an Oxnard Union School District board vote earlier this month that gave Read More →
High-wireless acts: Row 44, Sonos capitalize on move toward WiFi
The world is going wireless, and two tri-county firms have raised $62 million as proof. Westlake Village-based Row 44 and Santa Barbara-based Sonos are building businesses around consumers’ burgeoning demand to stay connected to their digital lives wherever they are. Row 44 operates an in-flight wireless Internet service and is installing it on Southwest Airlines’ Read More →
Carpinteria
Carpinteria is home to some of the largest private and public companies on the South Coast, including Clipper Windpower, CKE Restaurants and Lynda.com. But the small seaside city has seen its commercial real estate market stagnate over the past year, jumping up to a 14.6 percent industrial vacancy rate. Online software training firm Lynda.com started Read More →
Goleta hospital gets $5M
Philanthropist Leslie Ridley-Tree has pledged $5 million to support the Center for Wound Management at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, the hospital announced Sept. 8. In acknowledgement of the gift, the center will be named in Ridley-Tree’s honor. The new Ridley-Tree Center for Wound Management will be significantly larger than the current space, and it will Read More →
Editorial: An able stand-in
Lieutenant governor is supposed to be a largely ceremonial position, with a lot of glad-handing and good will at the top of the agenda. But with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on a trip to Asia, Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado got a chance to do something folks in his position rarely get to do — act like Read More →
