OCTOBER 12, 2015 Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL 33

Can’t blame anyone for doing a doubletake on the lineup for the Oct. 19-21 run ofthe Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digi-tal conference at the Montage, where AppleCEO Tim Cook gets top billing and a star-studded undercard includes Tony Hsieh andChris Cox. That’s Tony Hsieh ofZappos.com—not the Foothill Ranch-basedserial entrepreneur of the same name who’s

planning an IPOfor his loanDe-pot Inc. (see re-lated Addendumitem, page 14).And the ChrisCox on the

schedule is the chief product officer forFacebook—not the former congressman andSEC chief who’s a partner at Morgan Lewis& Bockius in Irvine … Word of the localHsieh’s IPO broke late last week, offeringanother example of OC’s emergence as a keylocale for Chinese and Chinese-Americanbusinesspeople—a trend noted in greater de-tail by our Chris Casacchia on page 1 …Anyone else notice that the same JordanSpiegel who’s said to have a small stake inOC Register parent Freedom Communica-tions turned up as president of Mount FlagMedia Investment LLC, a hedge fund thatlists Dana Point as its HQ and last week re-vealed it had accumulated a 5% stake inTribune Publishing, the Chicago-based par-ent of the LA Times? The Insider hearsSpiegel’s holdings aren’t big in either case—but they got a boost when shares of TribunePublishing rose about 20% in the days fol-lowing the disclosure of Mount Flag’s stake.Caution: the run up was almost certainlydriven more by news that Gannett agreed topay $280 million for the Journal MediaGroup, which owns dailies in Milwaukee,Memphis and 15 other markets—a 40% pre-mium on the chain’s shares … Impressiveformal opener last week for The Cove, aproject of UCI’s Institute for Innovation atUniversity Research Park, where the pres-ence of Chancellor Howard Gillman en-sured that several hundred visitors got aclear impression of the school’s rekindledcommitment to connecting its vaunted re-search capacity to the potential of OC’s com-munity of business … Institute forInnovation Executive Director RichardSudek was probably familiar with one of theteams pitching startups to potential investorsat the grand opening—representatives of theChicklabs incubator that took shape on theChapman University campus when he washead of the Leatherby Center for Entre-preneurship & Business Ethics there (seerelated story, page 3) … Put Pimco down asan undoubtedly reluctant leader on a trendthat’s likely to crop up in corporate life incoming years: generational tensions wroughtby Baby Boomer execs who are stayinghealthy, sharp and on the job beyond the tra-ditional retirement age. The lawsuit filed lastweek by Bill Gross—who seeks at least$200 million over his departure from Pimcolast year, and lists a generational divide atthe firm as a key factor in the bitter split—could be taken as a handy frame for a largerdebate. What are the chances that lengthylegal proceedings will add fuel in comingmonths? Neither side seemed to be in amood to sit down for settlement talks lastweek … The Insider hears that Tesla isn’tthe only auto brand with an interest in theIrvine Company’s 200 Spectrum building.See Mark Mueller’s story on page 1 formore on Tesla’s role—and stay tuned formore as the new building rises.

Chicklabs is led byits founder and chiefexecutive, KirstenMangers. Its teammembers describeMangers as the“mother hen.” Shefounded the firm twoand a half years agoafter ending her ca-reer as a self-pro-claimed serialentrepreneur.

“I had just success-fully exited the mostrecent company I had created and was doingsome consulting, served on a few boards, but

wasn’t finding any normalcy or authenticityin what I was doing at the time,” saidMangers. “My husband finally had an inter-vention and told me I had become that girlwith a freeway sign that said, ‘Will Work forStock.’ He was right, and that’s when I de-cided to turn it into something.”

Mangers got an early start on entrepreneur-ship, launching her first company when shewas 25 years old so that she could be moreavailable for her newborn daughter. She soldthe company when she was 30 and went backto work on the corporate side of a tech com-pany—hiring on as one of the first five em-ployees at what is now known asYellowpages.com.

Name Game atMontage; GillmanShows for Cove

Orange-based incubator and start-up accel-erator Chicklabs Inc. has considerable goals:launch female-led and owned businesses,make a name for itself in the niche market ofconsumer products, and mentor Chapmanstudent-entrepreneurs in the process.

Chicklabs gets office space for free at thecampus of Chapman University in Orange,where it mentors students, and takes equitystakes in startups as payment for its resourcesand services.

Incubator to Back, Build Female-Led Startups

A bet on the Inland Empire retail marketin 2010 has paid off well for MX3 Ventures,a Newport Beach real estate investor withties to former Santa Ana-based storage de-vice maker STEC Inc.

MX3 recently closed on the sale ofShoppes at Chino Hills, a 377,966-square-

foot mall in thesouthwestern part ofSan BernardinoCounty.

Dunhill PartnersInc., a Dallas-basedinvestor that ownsand manages morethan 5 million squarefeet of retail proper-ties across the coun-try, paid $147 millionfor the mall in one ofthe larger stand-aloneshopping center salesin Southern Califor-nia this year.

It’s the third California retail property forDunhill Partners, which also has holdings inRiverside and Vacaville, according to thecompany’s website.

The deal works out to a price of about$389 per square foot for the center, which isnext to the Chino Valley (71) Freeway and

By MARK MUELLER

ECONOMY: Chapman-basedgroup led by serial entrepreneur

six-story condo building with multiple floorsof underground parking.

The 150 Newport Center Drive site is on

Land in Newport Center that holds a car-wash and that was once eyed for a boutiquehotel now is being considered for a condo-minium project.

Newport Anacapa Associates LLC,owner of the Newport Beach Car Wash sinceearly last year, has proposed razing the com-mercial buildings on the 1.3-acre site andbuilding 49 luxury condos in their place.

The city’s planning commission held anearly-stage study session on the proposal lastweek. A public hearing is tentatively sched-uled for Oct. 22.

Initial plans filed with the city envision a

Condos Now Proposed for Fashion Island Carwash

�Carwash 10

REAL ESTATE: 49 units would be latest for-sale project

the southern end of Newport Center Drive atAnacapa Drive next to Newport Beach-based

Mangers to VCers:“tell me why you donʼtwrite checks forchicks”

Moshayedi: formerSTEC chief execu-tiveʼs MX3 Venturesboosted occupancyfrom less than 80% tonear full

Moshayedi Scores onRetail Rebound in IE

�Chicklabs 8

�Chino Hills 7

REAL ESTATE: $147M pricefor Chino Hills center up 55%

By KATE SCHWARTZ

By MARK MUELLER

Rendering: latest proposal for 1.3-acre site

110 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com OCTOBER 12, 2015

� from page 3

CarwashIrvine Co.’s Gateway Plaza office com-plex.

Renderings of the proposed condo devel-opment show most units at about 2,500square feet, a few others topping 3,000square feet.

The complex would feature a rooftop pool,among other amenities, according to the ren-derings, which were created by MVE &Partners.

The condo project is the second proposeddevelopment for the site since NewportAnacapa Associates paid a reported $12.5million for it when it operated as the BeaconBay Car Wash.

The sale, at roughly $9.6 million an acre, isamong the highest reported per-acre prices fordevelopable land in the county in the pastdecade.

The new owners initially tried to get ap-provals for a 125-room, high-end suite hotelat the site. That plan and several other office,retail and apartment projects proposed for thearea around the Fashion Island shopping mallwere effectively shelved after Newport Beachresidents overwhelmingly rejected changes tothe land-use portion of the city’s general planin last year’s election.

The condo plan for the 150 Newport Centerland would require general plan and zoningcode amendments, among other changes, ac-cording to city documents.

Former city officials Tod Ridgeway andDennis O’Neil are representing the new own-ership group in the latest development plan,city filings show.

MayorsRidgeway, a local developer, served as

Newport Beach’s mayor in 2001 and 2002,

and O’Neil, a land use attorney, served asmayor in 1999.

Other partners previously disclosed asbeing in the site’s new ownership group in-clude Mike Lutton and Ron Soderling.

Lutton is a longtime area real estate execu-tive and developer and one-time head of theoffice and industrial portfolios for Irvine Co.,which owns most of the property in andaround Newport Center, where it’s headquar-tered.

Soderling has more than 50 years of expe-rience in the real estate industry and is a sen-ior partner at Newport Beach-based RescoProperties, a development and investmentgroup.

The only other high-end housing project toopen recently in Newport Center has provedto be a big hit.

Meridian, the 79-unit condo project beingbuilt by New Home Co. next to the NewportBeach Marriott Hotel & Spa, is close to sell-

ing out, according to the Aliso Viejo-basedbuilder.

The builder said only five of the condos atthe complex, which opened less than a yearago and is selling some units for more than$4 million, are unsold.

Meridian, on a 4.3-acre site on Santa Bar-bara Drive overlooking the Newport BeachCountry Club, is the first for-sale housingproject built in the area surrounding FashionIsland in more than 20 years. ■

Rendering: New Home Co.ʼs 79-unit Meridian condo community close to selling out