The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have been filling up with container ships for the last six months, but the expansion probably slowed in February.

China is the United States' biggest overseas trading partner. Economists and others who watch the flow of goods into and out of this country fully understand the impact Chinese manufacturing has on the Inland Empire. But no one is surprised or concerned, however, because the February slowdown is not unexpected. China's factories routinely shut down for two weeks for its New Year celebration.

What is a larger mystery is the broad cultural difference between this country and other parts of the world. Many European firms close down completely in August, and everyone takes a one-month vacation. Some companies, figuring no one's in the mood for work between Christmas and New Years Day, shutter themselves for the week. In some countries the concept of closing up and going home for a meal and a nap from 2 to 4 p.m. still exists.

In this country a huge number of businesses, especially retailers and those with a broad public face, almost never close. At 5:45 p.m. on Christmas Eve you can probably find someone to sell you a lug wrench in every town in America with a population above 5,000. On Thanksgiving they close major retailers at 6 or so to allow employees to celebrate the holiday with family. Then these same retailers open the next day, three hours before the sun comes up.

No one knows which culture is on the correct side of this issue. Experts, such as those at the U.S. Department of Commerce, issue regular reports on productivity. But when you compared that to the rate of worker burnout, it is an entirely different equation.

Jack Katzanek
jkatzanek@PE.com

The Great Recession has not been a lot of fun, but one of the diversions has been finding new ways to measure it. There are economic indicators out there that seem to pop up every day.

A favorite recently was the Men's Wearhouse Index. This was based on the suggestion that, if there appears to be more suits being sold, then there were more people, or men, anyway, being called in for job interviews. There was, in fact, a surge in suit sales, and it led to the implication that that the economy was on the mend.

It's not really based on flawed logic. But this "study" was computed and sent out to the media by - you guessed it - Men's Wearhouse.

Now we have the Under Driven Car Indicator, which is being circulated by LeaseTrader.com, a Web site that acts as sort of an online supermarket for those who seek leased vehicles. They looked at the mileage being put on leased cars returned at the end of January and found that about 28 percent of them were what the industry calls "under-driven." That means lease holders, who pay to drive 10,000 or 12,000 miles per year, were returning cars with unused miles.

But in September, LeaseTrader.com said, 36 percent of cars were coming in under-driven. Translation: people are now more willing or able to drive to more places and pay for more gas.

Also, in September 2010, customers were using 60 percent of their allotted miles and that's now up to 80 percent. Also, the demand for leased vehicles from small business owners is picking up, and personal leases were being listed for transfer more often because people are getting and keeping company cars at a more stable rate.

--Jack Katzanek
jkatzanek@PE.com

Temecula Valley's Falkner Winery hobnobbed with the stars last weekend during the 2011 Grammy Awards, according to a recent newsletter from the vineyard.

Several of the Temecula Valley winery's offerings were poured backstage in the green rooms during the Feb. 13 event at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, winemaker Ray Falkner noted in the newsletter.

This year's award show included performances by Lady Gaga, Mick Jagger, Eminem, Rihanna and Barbra Streisand, among many others.

Falkner wines on offer to nominees and presenters included the Falkner 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, which won a "Best of Class" award in the 2011 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for Sauvignon Blanc or Fume in the $14-$19.99 category, and the Falkner 2007 Luscious Lips, a red wine that comes with a pair of bright red lips on the label, appropriate for Valentine's Day weekend. It's typically served warmed with mulling spices during cool weather, the winery said.

--Tiffany Ray
tray@PE.com

State Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, has introduced legislation that would transfer control of Ontario International Airport to a regional airport authority.

The city of Los Angeles has long owned and operated the Inland airport, along with LAX, through its agency Los Angeles World Airports.

"The decline in air travel has had a negative impact on the Inland Empire's Economy," Dutton said in a statement posted on his Web site. "Having the Ontario International Airport transferred to a local authority would give this region the opportunity to aggressively utilize this resource as efficiently as possible and create jobs."

Other Inland lawmakers have signed on as co-authors, according to the news release from Dutton.

Among them: Sen. Gloria Negrete-McLeod, D-Ontario and Assemblymembers Wilmer Amina Carter, D-Rialto; Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore; Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert and Norma Torres, D-Ontario.

The proposed legislation is Senate Bill 446.

"It's urgent that we break the stalemate between the two cities and speed return of the region's airport to local officials who can again make it affordable for airlines," Dutton said in the statement. "Keeping the city of Los Angeles in control is a conflict of interest, as they're seeking to restore passenger traffic at LAX at Ontario International's expense."

-- Kimberly Pierceall
kpierceall@PE.com

Henry's Farmers Market stores in the Inland region will become Sprouts Farmers Markets when the two grocery chains merge.

The two companies announced this week they would combine under the Sprouts name to become a $1 billion company in annual revenues with 98 stores and more than 7,000 employees.

Under the terms of the deal, all Henry's locations will convert to the Sprouts name. Henry's operates Inland stores in Hemet, Chino Hills, Corona, Rancho Cucamonga, La Quinta and Temecula. The changeover is expected to happen later this year or in 2012, after the merger is completed.

Sprouts stores - including an Inland location in Riverside - will continue to operate under their current name.

Henry's and Sprouts were both founded by the same family but have operated under separate ownership for more than 10 years. With the merger, Apollo Management LP, a private equity firm, will be the majority owner of the combined company.

--Tiffany Ray
tray@PE.com

KB Home, the Los Angeles-based homebuilder that caters to first-time buyers, may spend $600 million to $700 million on new land this year as it expands its community count, Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Mezger told Bloomberg.
The company is buying properties close to job centers and coastal regions, betting that these areas will recover more quickly from the housing slump, Mezger said. Most of its purchases will be in California and Texas.
"If the markets firm up and are better we'll spend more," Mezger said in an interview at Bloomberg's headquarters in New York. "If the markets get more difficult, we'll spend less."
KB Home has said it plans to open 70 new communities in the first half of this year and increase its average community count for 2011 by 25 percent. The new projects will help the company increase profitability because land prices have fallen in the past few years, Mezger said.

--Leslie Berkman
lberkman@PE.com
--

More people are going on line to shop for houses and those who do are very likely to look up what Temecula and Corona have to offer, according to a report from one of the busiest online property search sites.

Temecula and Corona made Realtor.com's January top ten list of most searched real estate markets in California. These are the rankings from one to 10: Los Angeles, San Diego, Beverly Hills, Sacramento, Malibu, Thousand Oaks, San Jose, Temecula, Corona, San Francisco.

--Leslie Berkman
lberkman@PE.com

A plan to revamp the Ontario Mills outlet mall with new and expanding tenants and an upgraded look is moving forward, city and mall officials said this week.

Ontario Mills detailed plans in October to move Burlington Coat Factory and Forever 21, both existing tenants, into larger spaces in the mall, and to bring in a new Sports Authority store. That retailer had been a mall tenant in previous years but had left in 2005.

Work began last fall to expand the Burlington store into vacant adjacent space. Early this week, site work began on the mall façade and parking areas, said Marc Smith, general manager of the mall.

John Andrews, economic development director for the city's redevelopment agency, said the improvements are slated along the mall's northeastern edge where Burlington and Forever 21 are expanding. Currently, there is a loading dock there and a rear parking area. The project will include adding new outside entrances to the expanding stores, redoing the interior and reconfiguring the parking lot.

Smith said the mall would remain open during construction, which should be finished this summer. Sports Authority's move into the mall is slated for fall.

The redevelopment agency has agreed to help finance a portion of the project. The agency has set aside $4.5 million, and Andrews said $2 million-$2.5 million of that will go toward the improvements that are now underway.

The rest of the money has been earmarked for a second phase of the redevelopment, which Andrews said would involved similar architectural modifications on another portion of the mall. No timeline has been set for that project.

Mall management declined to disclose the cost of the project.

Andrews said the agency was a partner in the original development of Ontario Mills, and it's important to keep reinvesting in shopping centers over the years to keep them attractive and accommodating to tenants and shoppers. "We're excited they're under way," he said.

--Tiffany Ray
tray@PE.com

KB Home figures that merely listing the energy conserving features it incorporates into the houses it builds doesn't get to the heart of what matters most to a home buyer. What the buyer wants to know is how much that combination of insulation, energy saving lighting, attic fans and other green construction tweaks will save them in dollars and cents.

So the home builder says it is now giving each prospective homebuyer an estimate of what their monthly gas and electric bill will be if they buy one of the company's homes. KB spokesman Craig LeMessurier said inspectors approved by the California Energy Commission will give each house an energy rating that KB will translate into estimated utility bills.

"Of course, a homeowner's monthly utility bills will also be dependent on each individual's lifestyle," said LeMessurier. ..If you are always leaving your lights on, or cranking the air or heat all the time, your electric bill is going to go up."

Leslie Berkman
lberkman@PE.com

NAI Capital reports it has arranged a lease for Overeasy Inc., which will open an Eastvale restaurant called Corky's Kitchen later this year.

The lease is for almost 4,400 square feet in a retail center located in at 12552 Limonite Avenue. WLPX Eastvale LLC is the landlord, and the length of the lease and its value were not disclosed.

The Corky's Kitchen people anticipate opening in the fall.

Jack Katzanek
jkatzanek@PE.com

The Inland Empire chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, or NAIOP, which supports the area's commercial real estate industry, has named its officers and directors for 2011.

John Magness of Hillwood Development will be the president of the organization, and Kim Snyder of AMB Property Management will serve as treasurer. Other officers are Milo Lipson of Grubb & Ellis as secretary and Gary Edwards of Western Realco as NAIOP corporate representative.

Jeffrey Trenton of Proficiency Capital is past president.

The committee chairs are: Stephen Batcheller of Panattoni Development, John Condas of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble, Mallory & Natsis and Michael Morris of Morris Venture Partners as legislative co-chairs; Natalie Bazarevitsch of CB Richard Ellis and Mike Del Santo of CB Richard Ellis Investors for the community service committee; Steve Bellitti of Colliers International and Brett Dedeaux of Dedeaux Properties for the program committtee and Phil Bowman of Sandalwood Advisors and J.R. Wetzel of PGP Partners for the midyear market revue.

Mary Jane Ohlasso of the San Bernardino County Economic Development Association and Mary Sullivan of Sullivan Consulting Services will chair the media and community relations committee.

Jack Katzanek
jkatzanek@PE.com

It is probably another signal that the commercial real estate world is looking closely at Inland Southern California again: Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the world, has opened an Inland office.

Jones Lang LaSalle handles property management, investment management and leasing, which is to say they are full-service. They are in temporary offices in Ontario right now, but will move to larger and more permanent offices in about a month, said Nicole Page, senior research analyst.

The company will focus on the Inland area's industrial market for now, but eventually could expand to the retail and office side at some point, Page said.

But Jones Lang LaSalle's people like what they see on the industrial side. Like others in the business, they see strong prospects in brokering warehouse deals in San Bernardino and Riverside counties in the not-too-distant future.

Michael McCrary is executive vice president of the Inland office and Peter McWilliams is managing director. Both know the Inland area's real estate scene from years with other companies.

Jack Katzanek
jkatzanek@PE.com

A scholarship foundation established by The Cardenas Markets Inc. is donating $150,000 to help economically disadvantaged students through partnerships with U.C. Riverside, Cal State University San Bernardino and the Inland Empire Scholarship Fund.

The money will be divided equally between the three organizations and will be available for the current academic year.

The Cardenas Markets, based in Ontario, operate about 28 grocery stores in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley as well as in Los Angeles and Imperial counties and Las Vegas. The company's other civic and philanthropic efforts have included promoting and aiding the 2010 Census and organizing the annual Festival Cardenas at Fontana's Auto Club Speedway.

Recipients of Cardenas scholarships must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0, provide two letters of recommendation from school counselors, teachers and administrators and demonstrate a "sincere desire to pursue a college education," the foundation said.

--Tiffany Ray
tray@PE.com

If you ever want to feel as if you're inside the Matrix where you're not sure what's real and what isn't, read the Riverside County court's transcript from Feb. 15 in the case pitting longtime Beaumont contractor Urban Logic versus a group of citizens there.

First, some background: The residents, Beaumont Citizens for Responsible Growth, had set up a website alleging misdeeds and cronyism in the city's relationship with the firm that supplies Beaumont its economic development director, planning director and public works director. Urban Logic sued late last year for defamation. The Beaumont group's lawyer responded with an anti-SLAPP motion, invoked when it appears that free speech rights are being stymied. If the motion is granted, it would effectively dismiss the suit and the plaintiff would be responsible for attorneys' fees. The motion's purpose is to prevent better funded individuals from intimidating others from speaking or printing information freely with the threat of prolonged litigation. In the case of an anti-SLAPP motion, the person alleging defamation in this circumstance has to prove "actual malice" on the part of the person making or printing the supposed defamatory statements.

So back to the transcript.

Riverside County Court Commissioner Paulette Durand-Barkley made a tentative ruling on Feb. 15 (note: it's not final but essentially the direction she's leaning so lawyers can come back and attempt to convince her otherwise) in favor of the citizens group. Durand-Barkley clearly says, according to the transcript, that Urban Logic's lawyer had failed to prove that the group intended "actual malice" in posting what it did about the firm. Sure, Urban Logic's plaintiffs stated that they believed the citizens group harbored "ill-will" toward them, but that's wasn't proof that malice involved.

So no actual malice, according to the court so far. At no time in the hearing on Friday did the court decide if the statements made by the Beaumont group were indeed false. That hearing was for the anti-SLAPP motion, alone, not to decide on the defamation claims outright. Nonetheless lawyers for Urban Logic and Beaumont's city manager were both quoted in publications afterward stating that the court had indeed ruled that the statements were false:

The Daily Journal legal publication paraphrased Urban Logic's lawyer Peter Sunukjian in saying that the court found that "the group's statements were false and libelous." It did not. In an e-mail to PublicCEO.com, Beaumont City Manager Alan Kapanicas apparently wrote in an e-mail "We heard there was a ruling and that the Judge found the accusations of BCRG members to be false, libelous and damaging, just not clearly malicious." Again, the court did no such thing.

At one point, Durand-Barkley said, "even if there was some untrue statement, you have to show the malice issue and actual malice is a high standard." That's if there was some untrue statement, not that there was an untrue statement. The suit hasn't gotten to the point of proving the falsity of the statements, just the malice behind them.

On the other side, a press release issued that day by the Beaumont Citizens For Responsible Growth is no less inaccurate. Besides overstating the court's ruling (the lawsuit hasn't been thrown out officially yet, the court has just ruled tentatively that it likely will throw it out unless convinced otherwise) it states that the court ruled the accusations made on the group's website "are not false, not defamatory, and are well-founded on public record." Again, the court did none of the above.

-- Kimberly Pierceall
kpierceall@PE.com

A congresswoman from California has introduced a bill intended to help keep consumers' online activities private.

The Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011 would direct the Federal Trade Commission to establish a process by which consumers could opt not to allow companies to collect or use data about their online activities and establish penalties for entities that failed to abide by those requests.

"People have a right to surf the web without Big Brother watching their every move and announcing it to the world," said U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., in a news release. "The Internet marketplace has matured, and it is time for consumers' protections to keep pace."

The bill also would require organizations that collect online data to disclose its practices, including whom they are sharing the information with.

The bill, announced earlier this month, comes on the heels of comments by the FTC in December supporting some kind of a "do not track" option for consumers. Although the kinds of targeted advertising personal information allows may be of some benefit to consumers, the agency said in a statement, the data collection process "is largely invisible to consumers, and they should have a simple, easy way to control it."

The FTC said efforts by industry to improve consumers' control over personalized advertising have mostly fallen short.

A "do not track" mechanism could potentially operate by placing a setting on consumers' browsers that would indicate to Internet sites whether that consumer wants to be tracked.

Separately, Speier also introduced a Financial Information Privacy Act of 2011 which would give consumers the ability to prevent financial institutions from sharing or selling personal information without their permission.

--Tiffany Ray
tray@PE.com

More people plan to relocate and will need rental options at the same time that apartment vacancies are falling and apartment operators are expected to more aggressively raise rents, according to Apartments.com, an online apartment listing subscription service.

A national survey that Apartment.com took of 1,800 of its January website vistiors found that 28.8 percent were expecting to relocate for employment opportunities compared to 10.,porooResults of a national survey by Apartment.com survey found that in January 28.8 percent were expecting to move for unemployment opportunties. That was nearly three times as many as the 10.4 percent who said they expected to relocate for new jobs a year earlier.

Apartment.com also reported that narly 20 percent of respondents are starting their apartment search three to four months in advance and nearly a quarter are looking as early as five month os more than a year before actually making a move.

"It is a good idea to lock into a lease right now," said Chris Brown, vice president of product managment for Apartments.com in a prepared statement. "Many management companies have announced rent increases and we're starting to see this reflected in the rents advertised on our site. As vacancy rates continue to drop and the rental market improves, we expect to see the upward trend grow. Deals can still be had, but they're getting harder to find."

As finding good rental deals become more difficult, Apartments.com is encouraging renters to use tools available on line to search for apartments by rent ranges.

Many people searching for apartments apparently are new to renting. According to Apartments.com 20 percent of those surveyed said they are currently homeowners and 32 percent are first-time renters.

--Leslie Berkman
lberkman@PE.com

Greenleaf Power, a Sacramento-based owner and operator of green energy plants, completed the purchase of Colmac Energy Inc., a biomass power plant in Mecca. It is the third biomass acquisition by Greenleaf Power which now possesses more than 100 megawatts of biomass energy generation capacity.

America Consumer Industries, which operated the 47-megawatt Colmac facility since its construction and start-up in 1992, sold its majority ownership in the plant. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Greenleaf Power said the Colmac facility is one of the largest biomass plants in California and sells its electrical output to Southern California Edison under a long-term agreement. The plant burns primarily wood waste, green waste and agricultural residues.

Biomass energy is one of the lowest cost renewable sources of power and, unlike wind and solar power, it is dependable enough to meet a utility's baseload electricity requirements, noted Greenleaf Power president Hugh Smith.

"While most other renewable sources are intermittent, biomass can provide a continuous stream of power," Smith said.

Greenleaf Power says that by burning agricultural and wood waste under under controlled, low-emission conditons to generate electricty, biomass power plants create less of a carbon footprint than dirtier-burning fossile fuel power plants. Also green waste is diverted from landfills where it would decompose and pollute the air with methane.

--Leslie Berkman
lberkman@PE.com

Two attorneys have joined Best Best & Krieger's business and labor law practices.

Lowell M. Zeta, an associate who will focus on commercial and environmental litigation, hails from AlvaradoSmith, APC in Orange County. There he won a more than $2 million judgement against a national construction and development firm.

Elizabeth A. James, an associate who will focus on labor and employment law, graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of Law last year and was a summer associate at BB&K.

Elsewhere, BB&K added Nancy A. Park to its roster as an of-counsel attorney based in Sacramento focusing on real estate transactions and finance.

-- Kimberly Pierceall
kpierceall@PE.com

Rising mortgage interest rates is not the only trend that could make houses less affordable down the road. The rising cost of home building materials is another, as the National Association of Home Builders recently pointed out

"Builders are resisting raising their prices, but ultimately they're going to have to," Bernard Markstein, the association's vice president of forecasting and analysis, told The Los Angeles Times. "Builders are not going to build at a loss."

Residential construction costs are still down from their peak in September 2008, Markstein said. But the overall price for building materials has been on the upswing year over year since the summer, The Times reported. And in December, the producer price index -- published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for selected building materials -- registered its largest gain of 2010, 4.5%.

The month-to-month increases in the cost of key building materials aren't nearly as severe -- 0.4% in October, 0.4% again in November and 0.7% in December, said The Times.

But Markstein contends the trend sends a message to would-be home buyers. "If you want to buy a new house and are in a position to do so, you should do it now," he said.

--Leslie Berkman
lberkman@PE.com

Southern California Aviation, a major player at the former George Air Force Base near Victorville, has renewed its industrial facility there for three more years. This is the largest of three transactions announced at the former base.

Southern California Aviation's lease is for a 55,000-square-foot building, which it uses for aircraft maintenance, storage and repairs, according to Stirling Development Investments, the managing partner for Southern California Logistics Airport, the 2,500-acre commercial and industrial park built on the site of the base.

The news from Stirling also includes two new tenants. DS Waters, a national distributor of bottled water products, has signed a three-year lease on a 10,376-square-foot distribution facility for Sparkletts water. The facility is in the Global Access Business Center.

Also, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has signed a one-year deal for a small office space at the same location. The school trains aviation students, so it fits into the former air base scheme.

--Jack Katzanek
jkatzanek@PE.com