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By Editorial Board / Monday, October 18th, 2010 / Editorials, Opinion / Comments Off on Editorial: Ventura on right road to revive auto mall
Apart from a half-abandoned exurban subdivision, there’s no clearer physical symbol of the Great Recession than the American auto mall. Carmakers both foreign and domestic have shut dealerships from coast to coast, leaving acres of empty concrete. The effects in the Tri-Counties have been relatively mild, but there are still plenty of vacant auto mall Read More →
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By Marlize van Romburgh / Monday, October 18th, 2010 / Features, Real Estate, Tri-County Economy / Comments Off on Downtown’s starring role: Atascadero will get new movie theater, retail center
Atascadero’s small-town days may be numbered. The city of 28,000 people has several large developments in the pipeline, including its $13 million Colony Square project, which would bring 14,000 square feet of retail space and 10 movie screens to the currently theater-less city. Plans for a 130,000-square-foot Wal-Mart are about halfway through the environmental review Read More →
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By Stephen Nellis / Monday, October 18th, 2010 / Nonprofits, Technology, Top Stories / Comments Off on Profitable merger for Noza
Noza, a Santa Barbara firm offering data to help nonprofit fundraisers, has been acquired by a South Carolina company that’s profiting handsomely from the nonprofit sector. Noza created technology that searches the Web for public information about the money that people and companies have given to charities. Fundraisers at charities and nonprofits can use that Read More →
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By Marlize van Romburgh / Monday, October 18th, 2010 / Features / Comments Off on Betting on a windfall: A new kind of project for Paso Robles
Windfall Farms may one day be to Paso Robles what Montecito is to Santa Barbara — an enclave for millionaire retirees and the weekend wealthy. But the San Luis Obispo County version has a few extra country charms thrown in, like alfalfa fields, grazing cattle, wine grapes and Kentucky-style horse facilities. The 724-acre Windfall Farms Read More →
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By Marlize van Romburgh / Monday, October 18th, 2010 / Top Stories / Comments Off on SLO family fights state on ‘land grab’
Can the state demand access to a mile of pristine beach land in exchange for permission to fix up an old farmhouse? A San Luis Obispo County family, backed by one of the state’s top property-rights law firms, is suing the California Coastal Commission to find out. A family trust led by sisters Denise McLaughlan, Read More →
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By Marlize van Romburgh / Monday, October 18th, 2010 / Columns, Real Estate / Comments Off on A new addition to Santa Barbara’s courthouse corridor
As one of the only ground-up buildings to be constructed in Santa Barbara’s downtown core in years, the new law office complex at 1100 Santa Barbara St. is something of an anomaly. Also rare is the $1.3 million price tag and eight-month construction time line — the 6,000-square-foot project was under budget and ahead of Read More →
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By Henry Dubroff / Monday, October 18th, 2010 / Columns, Opinion / Comments Off on ‘J.R.’ takes on Wall St., and charities win
A generation after “Dallas” disappeared from the small screen, Ojai actor Larry Hagman has staged a comeback as a media star. The man who played J.R. Ewing was the subject of global news coverage — including a flattering column in the Sunday New York Times — after he won a big settlement against Citigroup and Read More →
