All posts by LosAdmin

New Businesses

new businesses, ,

The Hawk Pros is a bird abatement business run by Alyssa and Mike Bordonaro which uses hawks to frighten off nuisance birds in public spaces throughout Southern California.

Earlier this month, Boston Private, announced that it will be opening a branch in downtown Los Angeles location at 801 S. Figueroa Street, making it the sixth of its kind in Southern California.  According to the firm’s Director of Community Investment, Esther Schlorholtz: “Having invested over $2 billion in the communities we serve, Boston Private looks forward to growing our efforts in Los Angeles, especially financing affordable housing, businesses and nonprofit organizations.”

Mendocino Farms is set to move to LA too. The sandwich-salad healthy family-friendly eatery is opening its 17th store next month in the region which is a bit of a full circle story since owners Mario Del Pero and Ellen Cohen opened their first one in Downtown LA.   Once again, Los Angeleans will be able to partake of the Kurobuta pork belly banh m and Rescued Vegetable Burger, to name but a few menu items.  The address is the Pruneyard Shopping Center.

 

 

Local Events

Entertainment, , ,

A two-day Pow Wow took place at the OC Fair & Event Center.  Organized by the Southern California Indian Center Inc. this annual event has been happening for nearly half a century.  It’s a true festival.  It has traditional music and dance, food, arts and crafts and more which all portray Native American life and culture.

Two days ago at the South Coast Plaza hotel, Costa Mesa, there was the annual holiday tree lighting ceremony as well with musical entertainment from students at  Orange County School of the Arts a visit from Santa Claus and light refreshments.

And the Institute for Community Impact honored four people at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts 2017 OC Influencers for Good event.  These were:

  1. President and CEO of the OC Business Council Lucy Dunn,
  2. CCO of Five Point Holdings LLC Steve Churm,
  3. OC Department of Education’s Superintendent Al Mijares,
  4. UC Irvine Health Pacific Breast Care Center founder Dr. Alice Police.

Employment Opportunities

Employment, , , ,

Various employment opportunities are becoming available in the Los Angeles area.  First, BYD (a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturing company) has opened an electric bus manufacturing plant in the region. This is set to be America’s largest ever such plant.  While BYD has already been in LA County’s Antelope Valley for nearly 8 years, it will now be further expanding with the new facility spanning 450,000 square feet.

This means jobs:  right now there are 750 positions but that will increase to 1,200 and those workers will be privy to the backing of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, Local 105. Future BYD plans include the building of a second plant in Lancaster for the manufacturing of electric trucks.

But that’s not the only place where the California area is encountering job gains.  Reports from September 2017 showed an increase of 52,200 positions with unemployment maintaining at 5.1 percent.  Plus, payrolls have expanded year-over-year by 1.7 percent to 16,8360,500 positions.

So things for workers are starting to look pretty good in California right now.

LA: Building Closures

Architecture, , ,

Two major buildings are set to close in the LA region in the coming months.  first, Pacific Alliance Medical Center, (LA’s oldest hospital – that opened before the Civil War) will close next month and second, the Macy’s Inc. branch in Westside mall, West L.A (next year).

Some of the impacts of the hospital closure will be as follows:  640 workers will lose their jobs at 531 and 711 W. College Street and North Hill Street.  But there was little choice since the PAMC does not own the land and the owner will not sell. Given that the building does not meet the California seismic standards, it is thus “not economically viable” for the PAMC to invest close to $100 million to build a hospital on land they will not own.

Vis-à-vis Macy’s, this comes as part of a plan to close around 100 of its stores nationwide, the second of which has been in LA. The closure will take place at the end of the lease, which is at the end of March 2018.  This is after more than five decades of the store being there.

Is LA Smoking?

Featured

Los Angeles will be the first US city to get its own “bank;” a way for marijuana dispensary operators to access banking services.

A few months ago, a proposal was put forward by Herb Wesson (Council President) to create a public Bank of Los Angeles for this purpose in the hope of establishing a working “legal cannabis industry” for the city.  He explained:

“We cannot bury our heads in the sand on the issue of recreational and medical cannabis legalization. Instead we must strive to reasonably regulate the emerging industry while creating opportunities for Angelenos,” adding that the bank could also be used to “finance local entrepreneurs and affordable housing.”

As such, earlier this month, Malibu’s 99 High Tide Collective became the first address to work with under a cannabis business license in the county, leading the way for the region to become “the capital of cannabis.”  As Forbes contributor Debra Borchadt pointed out, even though Colorado was the place that initially resulted in publicity for legal cannabis, from a business perspective it will now likely be California’s market numbers that will put LA on the cannabis map.

Influencer Marketing

new businesses,

If you want to succeed in marketing in LA and be hip at the same time, influencer marketing is the way to forge ahead.

Originally used by much larger brands and corporations working on big deals, now there are more aspects to it, with second and third tiers, geared toward more customized niches.  Now – thanks to an LA- and southern San Franciscan-based company Unity Influence – this is becoming much more accessible for influencer pitches.

Offering a reasonably priced-machine-learning-enabled solution, now micro-influencers can access small businesses seeking to use their targeted reach for marketing purposes, exposing a new category to the benefits of influencer pitches.

The mission behind the company is to establish an influencer marketing engine more accessible to SMEs and hopefully more successful than what is already out there like AdWords and Facebook campaigns.

Solar Water Heating: Save Money

Environment,

Apart from its positive impact on the environment, solar water heating benefits users monetarily.  Now, Los Angeleans can join the masses who have already benefited from solar water heating thanks to the California Solar Initiative (CSI) and SoCalGas®, operating in Southern California.

The program being offered from the company could ultimately save both individuals and businesses thousands of dollars each year.   One recent example of its use hails from UCLA which installed a solar water heating system for its residence halls.  The result was the neutralization of 80 percent of its water heating needs, saving the academic institution thousands of dollars each year while substantially curtailing its natural gas usage.

Similarly in the Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles, Build It Green (BIG) launched a new phase of its Low-Income Weatherization Program (LIWP).  This is part of its goal of setting up “healthy, sustainable, and affordable homes for all people.”  As such the LIWP is investing $26.8 million in State of California cap-and-trade funds, rehabilitating over 5,500 single-family homes in the poorest communities within these two regions.

Los Amazon?

Economy

Various cities are hoping Amazon will pick them to be its second quarters.  Los Angeles is one of them.  This of course would be excellent for business, generating a huge economic boost.

Los Angeles would perhaps appreciate winning the bid even more than other cities, or at least, at this time understand the implications of such a move, given the recent mass exodus of corporate headquarters over the last 20 years or so.  Excessive business taxes and housing costs have made it more of a challenge for individuals and customers to thrive in the area.

The Mayor of LA is particular supportive of the move saying that he “welcome[s] the opportunity to compete for this remarkable investment, and the tens of thousands of good-paying jobs it is sure to bring with it. L.A. is the perfect place for a company like Amazon to find talented workers, and an environment that nurtures growth and innovation.”

But LA is going to have to prove itself.  Amazon is anticipating many perks from the city that wins the bid.  The proposal request mentions state and local incentives, tax credits, utility incentives, and more.

Nordstrom Kinda Comes to Town

Shopping,

Department store Nordstrom, headquartered in Seattle is coming to Los Angeles. Well, the actual store is already there, but now a Nordstrom Local concept store will be there too. Featuring personal stylists to order merchandise for customers, visitors to the store will also be able to purchase online in the store or pick up online orders on the day they order. There will be tailoring and manicure services at the 3,000 square feet store as well (substantially smaller than the average 14,000 square foot store of a standard Nordstrom store).