Mac Group

Saturday will mark the completion of the $9-million expansion and remodeling of the Huntington Center, 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach, according to the developers, the MacDonald Group, Century City. The modernization program designed by Millard Archuleta AIA, Los Angeles, Bakersfield and Denver, includes 56,000 square feet of new tenant shops, an international food court and a Teflon roof system to cover the entire new two-level construction area.

Complaints over tons of debris left behind by the Zoe Christian Center in Oxnard when it closed this year have prompted the city to issue a warning to the property's landlord to clean up the site or face penalties. Oxnard's code enforcement office issued a notice of eight violations to the Santa Barbara-based MacElhenny Group on Dec. 22. Property manager Maureen Hathoot said the company has already begun the cleanup, which she estimated would cost as much as $20,000.

Northwest Airlines Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. carrier, extended an alliance with No. 10 carrier Alaska Air Group Inc. in its latest attempt to boost business by working with other airlines. Northwest and Alaska Air will keep selling seats on each other's flights, a practice known as code sharing. The two airlines will also continue to link frequent-flier programs. Last month, Alaska Air also formed an alliance with AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, the No.

Half a dozen major defense procurement reforms during the last three years, which have increased financial pressure on contractors, will result in a "serious weakening of the U.S. defense industrial base," according to an industry-funded study released Tuesday. Among its most important findings, the study claims that the six key financial rule changes, which grew out of defense scandals, will require contractors to take on additional financing amounting to 50% of their net worth.

O.C. Auto Show Presenters of the California International Auto Show, the first such major event since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said attendance was within a few percentage points of last year's record. Jeff MacPherson, executive director of the Orange County Auto Dealers Assn., said attendance at the show, held last Wednesday through Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center, was expected to come in about 480,000, just off last year's 500,000.

Wells Fargo & Co. said Tuesday that it plans to buy brokerage Ragen MacKenzie Group Inc. in a $240-million deal that would boost its array of financial services. Under the deal, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said it would issue $18.75 worth of its common stock for each common share of the Seattle-based brokerage. Based on the latest data that show 13 million outstanding shares at the end of June, the price tag is about $243 million.

Five months after it was bought by MaceRich Co. of Santa Monica, the 900,000-square-foot Carson Mall has changed hands again, and may get a face lift in the bargain. John Winthrop, former chief executive officer of the MacDonald Group Ltd., which owned the shopping center from 1980 until this May, recently acquired the mall through a new company he formed, Winthrop Investment Properties of Los Angeles. The terms were not disclosed.

Emilio Azcarraga Jean, chairman and chief executive of Mexico's Grupo Televisa, spent $400 million to boost his stake in Grupo Televicentro, which controls the broadcast company. Azcarraga Jean now owns 52% of holding company Televicentro, said Robert Lerner of Abernathy MacGregor Group Inc., an outside spokesman for the company. Before the transaction, Azcarraga Jean may have owned about 17% of Televicentro, analysts said. It could not be immediately learned from whom he bought the shares.

Here's a sampling of the myriad computer user groups in the Los Angeles area. Most of them offer support for users at various skill levels, organize hardware and software demonstrations and compile newsletters: IBM/PC * Greater South Bay PC Users Group: Second Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance; (310) 335-2799 * North Orange County Computer Club: First Sunday, 9 a.m. Chapman University 333 N. Glassell St.