Markets

With office rents and occupancy rates stuck in neutral, only nine new office buildings were completed in Los Angeles County in the first quarter. The nine buildings contain a total of 140,000 square feet, a pittance by local standards. The U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles, for instance, holds more than 1.4 million square feet. More properties came on line in the fourth quarter of 2012, when 15 buildings with nearly 710,000 square feet were completed, real estate data provider CoStar Group said.

Sticky Rice, a new Thai food stall, is now open at the Grand Central Market downtown. The addition of the new vendor is part of the historical food court's ongoing makeover . Sticky Rice started as a stand at the Altadena Farmer's Market featuring food from chef Johnny Lee (Flying Pig, Rivera, Spirits House) with the help of partner David Teasart (Soi 7, Spirits House). Like all of the Grand Central Market vendors, Sticky Rice is small, with an open kitchen and prep area.

MEXICO CITY -- Skull motifs. Dollar bills pasted on a wall. Phrases written in neon lights. Figures cut out of photographs. Or, if you like, a bunch of lines on paper. It's hardly surprising that the offerings at Zona Maco , the Mexico City contemporary art bazaar that opened its 10th edition Wednesday, tend to look and feel like the art for sale at any other big fair. Many of the galleries with showcases at the glitzy five-day event are visiting from established art centers like New York or Milan.

Home prices are rising faster than incomes in Los Angeles, making it more prone to a new housing bubble than many other major cities, a real estate report indicates.  Rising home prices and strong demand are making the market feel particularly bubbly in Washington, L.A., San Diego and San Francisco, according to the report by online real estate broker Redfin.com. All of these markets have seen home prices climb significantly compared with income in an atmosphere of low inventory, bidding wars and rapid-fire sales.

Tenants kept the upper hand in office rent negotiations in Southern California in the first quarter, even though conditions improved slightly for landlords as the economy picked up and some businesses expanded. The most leases were signed in markets such as the Westside and Orange County, where some companies are growing enough to add workers, industry observers said. "I think we're on the slow road to recovery," said Hans Mumper, head of the greater Los Angeles region for real estate brokerage Colliers International.

The Hollywood entertainment marketing company the Cimarron Group has closed its office in Beijing after less than a year in operation. The development underscores the challenges American companies face when trying to do business in China, where movies must meet the approval of government censors and studios are subject to rules that restrict how much revenue they can collect on box-office ticket sales. Cimarron, which creates movie trailers and TV spots as well as print and digital ad campaigns for major studio movies, opened the office last year as part of an effort to grow its business in China, now the second-largest market for Hollywood films.

Los Angeles County supervisors agreed Tuesday to explore ways to restrict illegal vending and lawn sales, a move that could give sheriff's deputies more power to seize goods and issue fines. Selling used clothes or fruit from front yards or carts on busy streets has been common in Los Angeles for years. But Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and law enforcement officials say the tradition has evolved into a problem, especially in communities around Watts, where informal flea markets have developed on some blocks . Ridley-Thomas and some residents say the illegal vendors hurt legitimate businesses, dodge sales tax laws and increase traffic in residential neighborhoods.

“It was like a scene out of 'The Wizard of Oz,' ” said Gretchen Sterling, longtime manager of the Pasadena Victory Park farmers market , of the freak whirlwind that cut a swath through her venue last Saturday. The whirlwind descended suddenly at 12:45 p.m., just as vendors were closing up their stands, so few customers were around. No one was seriously injured, but several vendors were scraped and bruised when their canopies, which were swept an estimated 40 feet in the air, plummeted to earth, totally trashed.

LONDON -- Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's daughter who punched through an old-boy political network to become Britain's first female prime minister, stamping her personality indelibly on the nation and pursuing policies that reverberate decades later, has died. She was 87. The BBC read out a statement early Monday afternoon from Thatcher's friend and former advisor, Tim Bell, saying: "It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announce that their mother, Baroness Thatcher, died peacefully following a stroke this morning.