Coastline Community College plans to build a 60,000-square-foot learning center in Newport Beach. The preliminary estimates for the project are about $24 million. The new learning center will replace the college’s learning center in Costa Mesa. With its administrative offices in Fountain Valley, Coastline has learning centers in Costa Mesa, Garden Grove and Westminster. 

“It will be an aesthetic improvement in the community and bring a higher-education learning center to the city that will be a real asset,” said Kevin McElroy, vice president for administrative services at Coastline Community College. (more…)

The U.S. Bank regulators closed Irvine, California-based MetroPacific Bank last Friday. This marked the 44th U.S. bank to fail this year, owing to the struggling economy and falling home prices.

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., MetroPacific had $80 million in assets and $73 million in deposits, as of June 8. The failure is expected to cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund an estimated $29 million. (more…)

A Thousand Oaks-based radio station, named “Jill FM” will move to Irvine, reports the Ventura County Star newspaper. KJHL-FM that broadcasts at 92.7 in the Conejo Valley as adult contemporary rock station Jill FM is slated to relocate to Orange County by late August or early September.

The station is relocating its main offices and studios to Irvine, however they are keeping a small office and auxiliary studio in the Conejo Valley with five people for producing commercials and broadcasting in emergencies, said Bob Visotcky, station’s marketing manager. The station is likely to employ about 25 people in Irvine. (more…)

Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday that Irvine-based Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s proposed anti-itching drug did not show any serious side effects when tested on patients. Ista is asking the federal body to approve its proposed eye allergy drops called Bepreve to relieve itchiness caused by seasonal allergies.

FDA reviewers tested with Bepreve experienced no dangerous side effects, apart from taste-related common side effects like distortion of the sense of taste or bitter taste, reported nearly 25 percent of patients. FDA classified the side effect as mild or moderate. (more…)

Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp. sold a line of medical devices used for kidney filtration to Baxter International Inc. for $65 million, said the former on Tuesday. According to the deal, Baxter will initially pay $56 million in cash upfront for the product line. Edwards could receive another $9 million in the next two years depending upon the product sales. The deal is likely to close in the third quarter and about 60 Edwards employees will join Baxter as part of the deal as well.

The product line that Edwards is selling is called hemofiltration or continuous renal replacement therapy that helps patients with malfunctioning kidneys. Hemofiltration works 24 hours a day for patients who have life-threatening kidney injuries or fluid overload and intends to aid patients by gradually filtering out waste and fluid from the kidneys. (more…)

Seal Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. intends to sell six million shares of its common stock in a public offering. The public offering price has not yet been determined, however the company expects to grant underwriters to buy an additional discounted 900,000 shares of its common stock within thirty days from the day of the final prospectus for the offer.

Clean Energy is the leading provider of natural gas (CNG and LNG) for transportation in North America, with a vast customer base in the refuse, transit, ports, shuttle, taxi, trucking, airport and municipal fleet markets. (more…)

Orange County continued to lose jobs in May this year, in the same way as the worst of the 1990s recession, thanks to the ongoing retail slump, said the state Employment Development Department. It lost 71,100 non-farm jobs last month from a year earlier, a 4.7 percent decline. In May, the county’s unemployment rate was 8.6 percent, which is up from a revised 8.4 percent in April and 4.7 percent a year earlier.

The retailers cut 10,400 jobs in the past twelve months, followed by wholesalers, warehouse operators and distribution companies with nearly 9,000 job losses. May’s total number of jobs lost matches the worst seen during the last major recession in the U.S. in the early 1990s. (more…)

Allergan Inc., the Irvine-based global specialty pharmaceutical company announced on Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved its Ozurdex, an eye implant treatment for retinal disease called macular edema.

Macular edema is an eye disease where macula, a part of the retina located at the back of the eye swells and thickens owing to leaking or accumulating fluid from retinal veins into the macula. When the macula thickens, it may cause impaired vision and if swelling is caused by retinal vein leakage over long period of time, it may even result in permanent visual loss. Patients with diabetes are more likely to develop macular edema.

Ozurdex is an injectable, biodegradable polymer implant that releases the cortical steroid dexamethasone into the retina when placed in the back of a patient’s eye. Dexamethasone is an anti-inflammatory drug that treats the edema and improves vision. Ozurdex becomes available to doctors and patients in the third quarter of this year, said Allergan.

Median home price in Orange County rose $30,000 in the month of May, largely because of increase in sales of more expensive homes and fewer foreclosure sales. The month’s median sale price is the highest in last seven months in the county.

According to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick, a unit of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, in May, the median price of an Orange County home was $410,000, a 7.8 percent increase from April.
Interestingly, despite the jump, the median prices are still down about 16 percent from a year earlier and are off about 35 percent from their all-time high in June 2007. May sales totals in Orange County were up about 5 percent from April and were up nearly 18 percent from a year ago. (more…)

Shares of Santa Ana-based flash drive maker STEC Inc. rose on Tuesday as the company upped its outlook for the current and second quarter of the 2009. Investors in the company drove shares up almost 27 percent at the close of trading on a recent market value of about $1 billion. 

From the Q2 the company is expecting profits of $16 million to $14 million, up from a previous forecast of $10 million to $11 million. It is also hoping to sale $82 million to $84 million, which is up from an earlier outlook of $68 million to $70 million in sales. Wall Street analysts are expecting profits of $10 million on sales of $69 million for the company. (more…)