Business Southern California

They come from all over Mexico--by bus, train, car, truck, even airplane--to shop for bargains at Las Palmas Swap Meet in this American border town. It has become such a phenomenon that late last year, a Mexico City television station sent a news crew to do a feature on why so many Mexicans were traveling such great distances to spend their money at the Calexico swap meet. The reasons, say vendors and patrons, are basic--good prices and good selection.

When a toy designer's young daughter becomes fascinated by the gel-like beads in a flower vase, there is only one conclusion to draw: "There has got to be a toy in here somewhere," says Ron Brawer, a partner in the Maya Group and a toy industry veteran. The fast-growing Torrance company has gone on to develop dozens of playthings based on those transparent polymer pellets. One of those toys, a modified water gun called the Xploderz XBlaster 200, was a finalist for the 2012 Outdoor Toy of the Year Award from the Toy Industry Assn.

Buoyed by a $100-million financial commitment, L.A. Fitness International, one of the nation's largest privately owned health club chains, will begin a major Southern California expansion, the company said. Newport Beach-based L.A. Fitness, with 1,600 employees and 36 clubs in California, Arizona and Florida, plans to build 20 new clubs in Southern California within the next two years, said Paul Norris, a partner with L.A. Fitness. Peter Seidler, managing partner of Seidler Haas Co.

Stater Bros. Markets has ended a potential food fight, saying Monday that it would sell its Santee Dairies milk processing division to Dean Foods, owner of the Alta Dena and Horizon Organic brands. Rival grocery chains were starting to refuse to buy the milk processor's Knudsen brand and other products because they believed they were helping a competitor, leaving Santee with little opportunity for growth, said Jack Brown, chief executive and owner of Stater Bros. Holdings Inc.

Andrew Cherng started out modestly 20 years ago with the original Panda Inn, a tiny family restaurant in a converted trailer in Pasadena. Now he's the king of Chinese fast food, with a chain of more than 100 Panda Express outlets nationwide and sales expected to top $100 million this year. The secret to his success? Not ambitious planning, nor a grand vision, he maintains--not even a special Szechuan sauce. Rather, he says, he's expanded and prospered through efficiency.

David Lamb came to Los Angeles holding a very special invitation. The British commodities trader had traveled to several cities in the United States selling millions of dollars worth of bogus tax write-offs created on the London Metal Exchange when he got a promising lead: A group of wealthy taxpayers in Southern California wanted in on the scam. Several days later, Lamb and colleague Barry Hughes were in Marina del Rey outlining their scheme.

Summer in New York, and the kid was homesick--not for a burger from Tommy's or a chili dog from Pink's, but for Vin Scully and the Dodgers. Wall Street puts its rookies through a boot camp of its own, the hours dragging through the muggy days and late into the evenings. Slackers go home at midnight. But midnight in New York is 9 p.m. in Los Angeles, so Jeff Shell called one of his friends back home and asked him to tune in to Scully and put the telephone down, next to the radio.

Lanz of California Inc., the sales arm of a longtime Southland apparel manufacturer, said Monday that it is closing its 14 stores in the state and withdrawing from retailing after about 55 years in the business. The company announced its store-closing plans in a news release but did not provide a schedule for the closings and declined to discuss the fate of those employed at the stores. Company officials acknowledged that California's poor economy influenced their decision to close the stores.

Stewart Roth loves antique furniture. Roth and his wife live in an antique-filled home, built in 1901 in the historic French Park section of Santa Ana. And, until about five years ago, the Roths made their living--a very good one--selling antiques from a large warehouse store in Orange County. But nowadays, Roth mainly sells high-quality antique reproductions. So does the Antique Guild.

Allen Herbert had high hopes for his company, San Pedro-based Global Power Products, when he and his cousin founded it two years ago. The 30-year-old engineer, an African-American, managed to win contracts to supply electrical equipment to several major utilities and power companies, and revenues were pushing $180,000 a year. His goal for 1992? To break $500,000. Then the recession hit Herbert's three-person firm. And now his goal is to survive.

A building boom is underway along the Western seaboard of North America as ports strive to handle the growing flood of trade from China -- and possibly lure away some of the shipping that clogged the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach last year. Billions of dollars have been committed for dredging and construction projects in Alaska, Canada and up and down the West Coast. Expansion programs are on the drawing boards on the Baja peninsula and at the Panama Canal.

Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. agreed Thursday to buy First State Bancorp, which owns First State Bank of California, for about $26.6 million in cash and stock to expand in the Los Angeles area. Boston Private will pay 15% of the transaction in cash and 85% in stock, initially valued at about $18.38 a share, the Boston-based firm said in a statement after markets closed. That's a 12% premium to First Bank's closing share price Thursday of $16.35 in over-the-counter trading.

Once, they considered themselves friends who could share a home-cooked meal and seal a contract with a handshake. Now, they are two small-business owners separated by the Pacific Ocean and a $4,575.50 debt. One, Jeff Gutin, runs a Venice Beach tourist shop. The other, Vio Manica, is a Bali clothing exporter. Both are trying to survive a wrenching global slowdown, the sharpest drop in decades.

Businesses looking for office space in Southern California can find cheaper deals now than in the last four or five years, and those deals could get even better in coming months. This year's economic slump has slowed demand for office space, commercial real estate brokers say, while the supply of available space has grown because of business failures and consolidations. What was clearly a landlords' market before the economy started to slow, brokers say, has turned into a tenants' market.

UCLA and UC Santa Barbara are building a $350-million research institute with marching orders to keep California ahead in the next frontier of technology.

The slowing California economy isn't necessarily putting the brakes on executive salaries at Southland companies. In fact, executive pay continued to rise at some companies last year in the face of layoffs, declining profits and falling stock prices, according to a survey of chief executive pay at 200 Southern California companies.

With "new economy" job centers popping up in pricey suburbs--and young families pushing into the desert and mountains in the search for affordable housing--commuting patterns that once defined Los Angeles are being turned upside down. Downtown Los Angeles, which historically has been the hub of car, bus and rail traffic in the five-county metropolitan region, still gets its share of heavy traffic, as any commuter to the Civic Center well knows.

You can tell a lot about a place by knowing a little about the people who started the best-known businesses there. The knowledge tells you, for instance, what it has taken to succeed and survive in the local economy. Although Southern California is sometimes accused of having a short memory about its past, not all its businesses have been flashes in the pan. In fact, it has no shortage of long-established, successful companies.

The top-ranking woman in a USC study of the most influential sports business figures in Southern California never participated in competitive sports. Ellen Oppenheim, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, is among an emerging class of female executives bringing a business sense, rather than a competitive athletic background, to the male-dominated world of sports administration.

Summer in New York, and the kid was homesick--not for a burger from Tommy's or a chili dog from Pink's, but for Vin Scully and the Dodgers. Wall Street puts its rookies through a boot camp of its own, the hours dragging through the muggy days and late into the evenings. Slackers go home at midnight. But midnight in New York is 9 p.m. in Los Angeles, so Jeff Shell called one of his friends back home and asked him to tune in to Scully and put the telephone down, next to the radio.