The Irvine-based fast food chain announced in social media Tuesday morning that it is planning a restaurant in Albuquerque and will be “fully in the Four Corners” by 2027. A Facebook meme features a signature of owner and president Lynsi Snyder.

In-N-Out currently has restaurants in seven states, and opening in Albuquerque would boost the number to 10. Idaho is waiting for its first In-N-Out to open in Meridian, a few miles west of Boise, and the chain plans to open a hub in Tennessee and begin building restaurants in 2026.

Its current states are California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon and Colorado.

In-N-Out was founded in Baldwin Park in 1948 and celebrated its 75th anniversary two weekends ago with a 12-hour festival in Pomona.

For 59 Holocaust survivors from Orange County and San Diego who came of age during war or in the years of tumult after and never had the opportunity to affirm their faith through the sacred rite-of-passage, a b’nai mitzvah (the term for a ceremony for multiple people) held Sunday, Nov. 5, at the Merage Jewish Community Center in Irvine was described as an “overdue celebration” of their “Jewish identity and heritage that was robbed from them during their youth.”

When Walter Lachman, 95, was to have his bar mitzvah in 1941, the ceremony had to be held in a schoolhouse because all the synagogues in the community had been destroyed by Nazi violence. His mother died of leukemia when he was 7 and his father of tuberculosis just four years later.

“Mad at God” for all he had lost, Lachman, who had been born in Berlin, refused during the ceremony to read from the Torah. The next year he was put on a train with his grandmother and taken to the first of three concentration camps he survived before being liberated on April 15, 1945.

The Laguna Niguel resident said he found closure properly commemorating the belated rite of passage with Sunday’s celebration.

“I don’t know what got into my head as a 13-year-old kid,” Lachman said, having regretted his decision later in life. “I’ve been looking forward to this event.”

The ceremony was sponsored by the Honig Family Foundation, a nonprofit started by Newport Beach philanthropist and entrepreneur Ken Honig, and featured survivors who immigrated to the U.S. from 14 countries, including Algeria, France, Germany and Ukraine.

“Their Holocaust-era experiences vary tremendously as does their country of origin, age and stage of life at the time of WWII,” said Honig, a student of the Holocaust who helped build the Merage Jewish Community Center in Irvine and fund Chapman University’s Holocaust Studies Program.

“Their’s is a tapestry, a big picture made up of many different individual stories threaded throughout that time in history,” he said during Sunday’s ceremony. “We have here those who were young adults and those who were infants or in utero and who may not have their personal memories, but whose lives were imprinted during the years following the war as they came to understand their collective losses.”

The oldest survivor to be celebrated in Sunday’s b’nai mitzvah was 102-year-old Helen Weil of Laguna Woods.

Born in Germany in 1921, Weil’s parents and older sister were deported to a concentration camp in 1938, where they died. With help, she managed to escape to England and stay with a family in the Yorkshire region before eventually obtaining a visa to come to the United States at age 20. She never had the chance to have a traditional bat mitzvah.

“Now I’m here to still enjoy life,” Weil said, describing the “wonderful” feeling of participating in a b’nai mitzvah. “It’s a holiday we are celebrating today.”

Laura Breitberg, 83, was just 8 months old when war broke out in Russia and her family fled to Siberia.

“And on the way we were bombed several times and some of my relatives were killed,” said Breitberg, a San Diego County resident.

“I think that today, it’s a great thing,” Breitberg said of the b’nai mitzvah held for the survivors. “And especially very symbolic for me personally because I’m getting bat mitzvah to celebrate, to be proud of being Jewish, to celebrate this thing and to show the younger generation how important it is to keep your Jewish identity.”

Honig said he was inspired to organize the b’nai mitzvah during a trip to Jerusalem in January, when he made a pilgrimage to the Western Wall, also known as the “Wailing Wall.”

For centuries, the wall has served as a symbol of faith and a place for prayer and reflection for generations of Jews.

“After witnessing many of the elderly praying there, I started to think about how many of these people had a bar or bat mitzvah in their past,” said Honig, a former wrestler, rugby player and real estate developer who retired at age of 37 to engage in charity work.

When he returned to California, Honig said approached the Jewish Federation communities in San Diego and Orange County about finally giving Holocaust survivors the opportunity. With the help of local Jewish Family Service programs, which provide support and services to survivors, the offer to participate went out.

There are about 400 Holocaust survivors in Orange and San Diego counties, said Carole Yellen, senior director for the Center for Jewish Care at Jewish Family Service of San Diego.

Though planning for the b’nai mitzvah started earlier this year, the recent attack of Israel added new meaning to the day, said Carole Yellen, senior director for the Center for Jewish Care at Jewish Family Service of San Diego.

“In the midst of the heartbreak that we’re experiencing as a Jewish community, we have to take moments to celebrate loudly and proudly our Jewish identity and opportunities to celebrate in the Jewish community,” she said. “And that, I think, is giving a lot of people healing at this time.”

Once she arrives, she goes straight to the kitchen, puts on a red apron and gets right to work chopping vegetables, cutting deli meats, packing Caesar dressing and scooping hundreds of containers of soup.

Vo, a second-year student at UC Irvine, is part of College Corps, a state initiative that provides undergraduate students at 45 public and private colleges and universities across California the opportunity to earn $10,000 for committing to one year of service focused on three key issue areas for the state: K-12 education, climate action and food insecurity. The program, which began last school year, is slated to run until 2026, according to the Governor’s Office.

At UCI this year, 91 students were chosen as fellows; 42 of those spots filled by undocumented students. That’s a slight increase from last year’s inaugural cohort of 75 fellows, said Student Affairs deputy chief of staff Sherwynn Umali, who helms the program at UCI.

“Our community partners ensure that they have sites where students are learning and developing. They’re not there to just stock shelves,” Umali said. “They’re learning about what it means to be food secure. They’re learning how the environment is impacting their daily lives. They’re coming out of it with their eyes open to the work of public service.”

Bracken’s Kitchen, where Vo spends 10-15 hours volunteering per week, is one of 23 community host sites where UCI places College Corps fellows.

Vo, who is majoring in environmental science and policy and minoring in civic and community engagement, said the food insecurity-focused nonprofit, is a perfect fit.

Vo, born and raised in Orange County, said she was searching for ways to continue her volunteer work within the community when she came across the College Corps program. She had done a lot of volunteer work in high school and wanted to get involved in something hands-on, she said.

“I’m really interested in looking at our food system and seeing how we can mitigate food waste since food waste that ends up in landfills releases a high amount of methane, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions,” Vo said.

Bracken’s Kitchen addresses food insecurity in Orange County through several different ways, said volunteer coordinator Travis Bannerman. The first is through “food rescue,” in which Bracken’s Kitchen intercepts food on its way to the landfill through partnerships with local farms, meatpacking plants, grocery stores and restaurants, Bannerman said.

“85% of what we use here is rescued food that’s donated,” he said.

Community feeding, which Vo helps out with, is the nonprofit’s primary function, said Bannerman.

“This is a grand production of approximately 8,000 meals every single day,” he said. “We also have a food truck that goes out around two to three times a month to different low-income communities as well as churches, elementary schools (and) anywhere that needs help.”

The thousands of meals prepared every day with the help of Vo are picked up or delivered to local food banks, shelters and pantries, including the UCI Basic Needs Center.

Bracken’s Kitchen relies heavily on volunteerism, and Vo and several other UCI fellows have been an integral part of its operations, said Bannerman.

“We’ve really depended on them to show up every day and make an impact,” Bannerman said. “They’ve really been the lifeblood of maintaining our operation here in Garden Grove as well as our satellite kitchen in Costa Mesa.”

Nearly a quarter of all College Corps fellows from year one have come back to serve this year, said California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday. That indicates the program’s success and its value within the local communities students serve, he said.

Matthew Margrave, a fourth-year anthropology major at UCI, is one of those returning fellows.

After volunteering at the Newport Beach Bay Conservancy last year, Margrave said he applied again to further his experience in the environmental sector. For 10-15 hours each week, Margrave takes on a variety of tasks, from cultivating native plants to writing short articles for pamphlets.

“I would say this program is a connector because not only does it connect you to resources you need — it allowed me to pay for housing last year — it connects you to the community around you. I would not know as much about this area or the environment if I wasn’t in this program,” he said.

Margrave and Vo both expressed a desire to continue working in a public service setting.

“What I’ve learned so far is that there’s just so many opportunities, especially in the environmental sector,” Vo said. “Right now I’m focused on exploring the opportunities that are out there and seeing where that takes me.”

Of the students who went through the program in the first year, Fryday said over 90% said they want to pursue a career and a life in public service.

“Because the program is creating service opportunities in the community, it’s really connecting these young people to their campus and to their community in a whole new way,” Fryday said. “And because of that, they’re gaining a really important sense of agency where they’re able to create and shape and change their community on issues that they’re passionate about.”

Contributing Writer

As Irvine sketches the details of a massive Great Park expansion, it’s turning the page to a long-envisioned library.

The library is under the umbrella of the Great Park Framework Plan, a sprawling recreational blueprint that the City Council approved last summer. The project area spans 1,300 acres of proposed botanical gardens, meadows and infrastructure — and a new library to be included in Phase 1 of the project.

The library will be stationed by the eastern entrance, adjacent to what officials envision as the Veteran’s Memorial Park and Gardens.

Both sites are in the middle of large-scale demolition to pave the way for the upcoming structures. In the meantime, the city is locking down its design for the library.

“We’re in the middle of the idea and fact-finding stage where we’re trying to pick up as much input as possible from stakeholders — such as community leaders, residents, people old and young and everywhere in between — to see what their vision is for a library that can be worthy of the city of Irvine,” said Councilmember Mike Carroll, who also chairs the Great Park board.

Officials are collecting public input via community meetings; one was held in October, and the next will be held on Nov. 16.

Carroll said many residents have called for a place that combines modern learning with traditional aisles of books, ideally on the collection scale of locales like the New York Public Library. He has high hopes for the children’s area along with a vast reference section to foster developing minds.

“That’s really the goal: that we create a place of learning where the youth of our city and beyond will be inspired to grow and to learn and to be better citizens,” Carroll said.

The library will be a part of the city of Irvine rather than the Orange County Public Library system — which means ownership and funding will fall to Irvine, Carroll said. He added that it would be a member of the greater inter-library lending system with the county.

Architecture company Johnson Favaro has partnered with the city for the planning and character development of its new library. It has a history with such projects, including Riverside’s Main Library and Costa Mesa’s Donald Dungan Library.

Research and development of the Great Park’s library design and programming will run through the end of January, said co-founder Steve Johnson. From there, the timeline is in the hands of elected leadership.

For Irvine residents, the library has been a long time coming. Consultants previously pitched design ideas to the City Council back in 2017 but little traction was made in the following years.

This time, Carroll said, the library “is actually going to be happening.”

Johnson, who oversaw the last community meeting, said he heard consistently about the public’s desire to prioritize diverse collections, including a large international language collection of all genres and ages.

Another request is including recognition and resources regarding local history, dating back to Indigenous peoples and pre-state California — something that the library would be a perfect place for, Johnson said.

Books aren’t the only thing that the library needs to hold. Parking is one of the main architectural challenges. Not only does the lot need to hold enough cars for a large library, but it also needs to provide space for high-attendance events like book fairs and speaker series, along with spillover from other park activities.

“One of the councilmembers said it very well: We’re building the Great Park, not the Great Parking Lot,” Johnson said. “Nobody wants to create a library where you’re staring out at vast amounts of a surface parking lot. That destroys the ambition of the park so one of our key challenges is situating parking that is both plentiful and convenient but out of sight.”

Design options will be reviewed and discussed at the next community meeting on Thursday, Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. at Lakeview Senior Center at 20 Lake Rd.

“It makes a difference in how people feel, how they look at themselves,” Woods, an ally, said. “We’re a huge community, so why not do something for somebody else?”

Like Woods, many hair stylists and salons across Southern California are leading the charge in centering LGBTQ+, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people, at a time when these communities’ rights and gender-affirming care are being challenged nationwide.

Gender-affirming care — which includes medical care, mental health, social and even cosmetic services — can include any care or approach people get to transition themselves, and their bodies, to fit with their gender identity.

In 2023, states like Florida, Texas, and at least 15 others have passed laws that either restrict or outright ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and severely limit the rights of LGBTQ+ people, according to a tracking map by the Human Rights Campaign. At least 35% of transgender youth live in states that have passed bans on care. Over 70 anti-LGBTQ laws have been enacted this year; 15 of which banned gender-affirming care for trans youth.

Advocates hope people in these diverse communities know that there are resources available, especially if they are a person of color, queer or trans — groups that are historically underserved in health care and within the beauty industry, they say.

Woods, who owns her own salon in Loma Linda called BeUti 4 Ashes, took part in a recent event in the Inland Empire that provided free gender-affirming haircuts and styles for college students.

The second annual Queer Cuts, held at Cal State University San Bernardino on Oct. 18, brought in local stylists to provide gender-affirming haircare, in a safe environment, for free.

“I always say, ‘We always start with our crown’,” said Woods, who styled braids, locs — different from dreadlocks — and silk presses for natural hair, at the event. “So you start with your hair and if your hair looks good and feels good to you, everything else will fall in place.”

Lee Stovall, the coordinator of Cal State San Bernardino’s Queer and Transgender Resource Center, founded Queer Cuts on campus in 2022, where nearly 80 students received free haircuts, braids or locs. Stovall, who uses she and they pronouns, said the goal is to give students a “space where they can come and get essential services in a space that feels gender-affirming.”

Gender-affirming services, which are most often associated with transgender and nonbinary people, can include hormones or surgeries, such as top surgery, which aligns people’s bodies with their gender identity. Stovall said that someone getting a haircut and wardrobe that “feels more them” can help a lot with their sense of self, and is less permanent for those who want to “explore gender,” but don’t yet want surgeries.

Gender-affirming services are also not exclusive to the LGBTQ+ community, Stovall said. For example, a cisgender woman waxing her facial hair can be seen as gender-affirming.

At this year’s Queer Cuts, 32 students — of which 23 identified as trans, nonbinary or gender-nonconforming — were given haircare services, according to Stovall. Many who attended said they felt both valued and seen.

Ariz Martinez, a fourth-year liberal studies major, said she had been stressed with balancing school, her job and social activities, and hadn’t had time to get her hair done or practice self-care in a year. She said it was “meant to be” that the Queer Cuts event happened when it did.

“I feel like life has gotten to me lately,” Martinez said. “I feel so much better, I feel happy I brought myself today… The stylist was really nice, which made me feel better because I was really nervous about coming.”

Stovall said that getting services can be “really tough,” especially for queer and transgender people, because “just doing things that align with your gender identity can be really scary for folks.”

But removing any financial, psychological and emotional barriers is important to ensure overall comfort and safety, especially for youth, Stovall said. Having inclusive amd accessible events — like on a college campus — that advocate for these communities, while celebrating and affirming them, is essential.

“It’s a scary time to be queer and trans right now,” Stovall said.

Like Stovall, many LGBTQ+ people and allies worry about safety, especially with the recent influx of laws they say explicitly discriminate against them.

Over the summer, the Supreme Court ruled that a religious web designer in Colorado can’t be forced to create wedding websites for same-sex couples under the First Amendment. The ruling outraged many LGBTQ+ communities and allies, worrying that it could set a new legal precedent.

In response to growing anti-LGBTQ legislation reported around the U.S., California Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed several laws that protect LGBTQ+ students and their privacy. They include AB 233, the Transgender Youth Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of minors applying to legally change their gender or sex identification by sealing those court records. Newsom also signed SB 345, which protects insurance providers against the enforcement of other states’ laws that criminalize or limit reproductive health care services or gender-affirming health care.

This past summer, L.A. County officials created a new LGBTQ+ Commission to expand gender-affirming care and programming.

Psychologists and health experts say that, while not a one-size-fits-all approach, finding gender-affirming care — particularly for many vulnerable transgender and nonbinary people — can save lives.

In California, 44% percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide in the past year, including 54% of transgender and nonbinary youth, according to The Trevor Project’s most recent survey on LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health. Gender-affirming care is associated with positive mental health and overall well-being, and reduces overall suicide risk, researchers said. Major medical associations – including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics – concur that gender-affirming care is clinically appropriate for children and adults.

“Gender-affirming care is healthcare,” said Madia Lopez, executive director of ProjectQ, an L.A.-based nonprofit that specializes in providing free gender-affirming haircare and community resources.

“When it comes to trans folks, we have we have a bit more of a struggle because we’re not only having to fight against the external view of who we are and how we show up in the world,” Lopez said, “but we also have to struggle with the internal.”

Breaking the binary

Hair stylists around Southern California said they felt proud to be a part of a community that helps people feel safe — while helping them step into and become more themselves on the outside.

Tustin resident and stylist Brenna McCarthy, who works at Studio Cru in Orange, has always made it a goal to provide a safe, open space for queer, trans and gender-nonconforming clientele. McCarthy said that can be challenging when options are “limited.”

“People are looking for specific queer stylists within Orange County, and there’s not a lot of spaces for that,” McCarthy, 30, said. “The biggest thing I love about my job is being able to help people match their outside appearance with the way that they feel on the inside.”

McCarthy said she’s often one of the first — and sometimes only — stylists to ask clients their pronouns, an effort to normalize using gender-neutral language and avoid assumptions.

With inclusive salons or programs like Queer Cuts or ProjectQ, “people come to you because this is the safest spot that they can be in,” she added. “They’re being so vulnerable with you and trusting you with their appearance.”

Stylist Bec Farrell, who works at Gray Area in Riverside and uses they and them pronouns, said that an important part of providing a safe environment is working at a shop that is accepting of gender-nonconforming people. Some barber shop environments, they said, “can be very intimidating and toxic for queer people.”

But Farrell believes that getting a haircut, where one usually connects with their stylist, can be equivalent to a therapy session.

“Hair holds trauma, in my opinion,” Farrell said. “Anytime I felt like I needed to start anew, I’ve shaved my head and that helps me embrace a new chapter in life. I wanted to really break the binary in hair, because hair doesn’t have a gender.”

“Whether you decide to have a gender or not, your hair has nothing to do with it. It’s just an extension of you expressing yourself and how you want to present yourself to the world,” Farrell said.

Fighting transphobia

Each year, more LGBTQ-owned entrepreneurs and allies are advertising as such, and research shows that their businesses are thriving.

In L.A., LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs contribute around $1.24 billion in funding, according to the latest State of LGBTQ Entrepreneurship report from nonprofit StartOut, which supports LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.

Providing gender-affirming services not only creates safe, inclusive spaces, they can also drive the economy and are overall beneficial for LGBTQ+ communities.

Some stylists, who have shared their experiences with hate, are finding ways to empower their communities — one hairstyle at a time — at a time when people need it most.

Longtime stylist Jessie Santiago has experienced incidents of homophobia, racism and transphobia at her business, Salon Benders near downtown Long Beach. The salon has been targeted repeatedly with hate mail and vandalism, Santiago said.

“For the past five years, we have been infiltrated by a ton of hate. I’ve had restraining orders put out against people. I’ve had to basically keep my doors locked during business hours at all times,” Santiago, 40, said. “It’s just gotten to the point that I just don’t feel safe anymore.”

With Salon Benders, Santiago wanted to provide a safe and “revolutionary” space for queer, trans and gender-nonconforming people. She identifies as queer and has a trans partner.

In October, Santiago closed Salon Benders for security reasons. She plans to open a new private salon, the Benders Collective Art Studio, in Long Beach before 2024. She also hopes to start a podcast where participating clients can share their experiences and stories while getting their hair done.

One of the things that Santiago felt made her business stand out was the salon’s consultation style and “trauma-informed” approach, created with the help of a trained and licensed trauma therapist. Providing gender-affirming haircuts was something she focused on in her salon and required training from all her stylists.

“It involves understanding the person holistically, not just their hair,” she said. “It has to do with understanding what their gender identity is, and how we could help support that through their hair and wellness. It’s not just asking clients for a photo of what they want.”

Gender-affirming haircuts was something Santiago prioritized in her business.

“Providing affirmation as a person is so incredibly important, especially to younger folks, because they need to see themselves reflected in this world,” Santiago said. “For us, it was just really important to create more representation, more reflection of our community out in the world.”

Here are salons and resources in Southern California that provide gender-affirming haircare and services. They include:

• Gray Area: 3750 Main St, Riverside, 951-370-4145
• Bishops Cuts/Color: Various locations including Pasadena, Lake Forest and Irvine, bishops.co
• Studio Cru: 665 N Tustin St Suite A-114, Orange, 714-453-7741
• Benders Collective Art Studio: Private salon in Long Beach, opening in 2024
• BeUti 4 Ashes: 25051 Redlands Blvd., Loma Linda, 909-674-3046
• Strandsfortrans.org is a global network of hair, beauty and wellness organizations that seek to create safe, gender-affirming experiences
• ProjectQ: 4709 Fountain Ave, Los Angeles, 323-407-6676
• Bang Bang L.A.: 4511 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, 310-893-9856

Staff writers Beau Yarbrough and Allyson Vergara contributed to this report. 

The price for South Coast Collection was reported by a news division of Newport Beach-based Green Street.

The buyer was Baltimore-based Continental Realty Corp.

“South Coast Collection is the only shopping venue of its kind in an extensive, high net worth trade area,” stated Josh Dinstein, a senior vice president at CRC. “The asset’s institutional quality and strong value-add potential, plus its location in the heart of Orange County, make SoCo the perfect acquisition for our entry into the southern California marketplace.”

The 292,000-square-foot retail center sits on 20 acres not far from IKEA and the new Anduril headquarters in the previous LA Times printing plant. The shopping center is known for its high-end home furnishing brands and the dining hub known as The Mix.

Tenants at 3303-3323 Hyland Ave. include COCO Republic, Design Within Reach, Roche Bobois, Pirch and Paul Mitchell the School, Natuzzi Italia and Room & Board. Restaurants include Arc Food and Libations, Butcher’s House, Greenleaf Kitchen & Cocktails, Moulin, Paragon and Portola Coffee.

In 2015, the White Plains, New York-based Rockwood bought the 405 freeway-adjacent property from Burnham Ward Properties for $120 million . Joel Mayer, a managing director at Rockwood, said at the time that the firm was looking forward “to enhancing the property to create an environment that is among the preeminent lifestyle centers in Southern California.”

Burnham USA Equities, a sister company to the developer of the property, Burnham Ward Properties, was managing the center for Rockwood and also will run it for the new owner.

Eastdil Secured LLC represented Rockwood Capital in the sale.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the seller of SoCo.

More small apartments trade hands

The investor thirst for small apartment complexes continues in Orange County.

In recent weeks, a beach-adjacent building with eight apartments in Laguna Beach sold for $3.075 million or $384,375 per studio unit, according to CBRE.

The 66-year-old apartment building at 525 Catalina is a few blocks from Laguna’s Main Beach and downtown village. Built in 1957, the two-story, 3,388-square-foot complex is made up of eight studio units.

CBRE said it was the first time the property has been available for sale in “over five decades.”

To the north in Garden Grove, CBRE also sold a 10-unit property at 11821 Stuart Drive for $2.875 million or $287,500 per unit.

It was another first-time sale for the property since it was built back in 1958.

The two-story, 8,601-square-foot building completed in 1958 has a mix of three one-bedroom and seven two-bedroom units. The building comes with a community pool, on-site laundry and garage parking.

The previous owner had recently completed improvements to the property that included new paint, a new sprinkler system, updated gas lines and new garage doors.

The new owner could increase rents by 25% for “an approximate cap rate of 6.25% through a renovation plan.” said Andrew Boukather, a senior associate at CBRE.

The CBRE team represented the unidentified seller and buyer, both of whom live in Orange County.

Buchanan breaks into Northern California with storage buy

Newport Beach-based Buchanan Street Partners recently bought a self-storage facility in Auburn for $21 million.

The 116,500-square-foot facility includes 825 self-storage units and 40 RV parking spaces.

The purchase marked the fourth self-storage property Buchanan has bought in California in recent years.

“The Auburn transaction represented a unique opportunity for us to acquire a high-quality stabilized self-storage property near replacement cost and with plenty of upside potential through professional third-party property management,” said Feerooz Yacoobi, a vice president at the firm.  “I’m excited for Buchanan Street to break into the northern California market.”

On the move

Donald “Don” Kennedy is the president of the American Land Title Association for the 2023-2024 year. He is a Santa Ana local and the managing director for First American Title Insurance Co.’s Agency Division. Kennedy is a third-generation ALTA president, following his father’s, Parker S. Kennedy, presidency in 1993-1994 and his grandfather’s, Donald P. Kennedy, presidency in 1983-1984.

Newport Beach-based The Saywitz Co. has made two new hires. Ariana Bolin is the new director of support services, assisting executives as well as marketing, communications and back-office operations. Sabrina O’Brien is working in client relations, helping the company’s commercial and multifamily management operations.

Milestones

MVE + Partners, an architecture, planning, and interior firm based in Irvine, received three awards from the American Institute of Architects from both the Orange County (AIAOC) and Utah chapters for its work on three different projects.

Those projects included the Mandarin Oriental Residences in Beverly Hills (Best Multifamily Mixed-Use Development), and Silo Park and Post District Residences in Salt Lake City (Best Multifamily Mixed-Use Development and Merit Award, respectively).

The awards come as the firm approaches its 50th anniversary in 2024.

Real estate transactions, leases and new projects, industry hires, new ventures and upcoming events are compiled from press releases by contributing writer Karen Levin. Submit items and high-resolution photos via email to Business Editor Samantha Gowen at sgowen@scng.com. Please allow at least a week for publication. All items are subject to editing for clarity and length.

In addition to khao mun gai, a dish found available in street carts throughout Thailand, Rooster and Rice now offers khao tom gai (chicken rice porridge), fried chicken cutlets, fried chicken skins, Thai coffee and more. The restaurant’s signature Mother Sauce, created by and christened after chef/co-founder Tommy Charoen’s mother, provides the perfect punch of spice to accompany the savory signature dish.

The burgeoning chicken-rice empire was created by Charoen and restaurateur Bryan Lew, who joined forces in 2017 with another Bay Area Thai-style chicken-and-rice purveyor, Chick’n Rice, founded by the creators of delivery service Caviar. Rooster and Rice’s move to SoCal comes on the heels of the recently announced opening of Thai Town Cuisine, in Los Angeles, another similar, albeit larger, chain focused on fast-casual Thai food.

ALSO SEE: Ike’s Love and Sandwiches opens Huntington Beach location

“Most restaurant brands grow because they have an explosively popular offering or an air-tight operational model that makes them easy and inexpensive to scale. Rooster and Rice is one of very few brands that has both,” said Lew in a written statement, adding that the combination has “allowed us to grow rapidly throughout the Bay Area, and we’re finding increasing demand from neighboring markets.”

Rooster and Rice’s Irvine locale will have its grand opening to the public on Friday Nov. 17 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The first 50 guests will receive one free bowl and the second 50 guests will receive one bowl at 50 percent off.

Find it: 15354 Alton Parkway (at Ada Road), Irvine

Contributing Writer

Another 50-meter competition pool is coming to Heritage Community Park, and Irvine has just found its architect.

The city plans to add the pool — along with a small splash pad for children ages 2 to 12 and amenities — to the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center. Nestled between the public park and Irvine High School, the center is already home to two 50-meter competition pools and a 25-meter teaching pool.

An evaluation team selected PBK Architects out of 14 proposals, and the City Council approved starting a contract with the company at its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 24. The architectural planning and design firm is already responsible for over 40 aquatic centers and 125 sports centers, including Fountain Valley High School Aquatic Center and Yorba Linda High School Swimming Pool.

Services are not expected to exceed $1.15 million, according to the staff report.

Once agreements are finalized, Irvine will begin the approximately one-year design process, with an aim to finalize the conceptual design by spring 2024 and the final design by that fall. Construction has a tentative competition date of summer 2025.

This will be the center’s fourth pool, which has been on the drawing board since the City Council approved a Parks Master Plan in 2017. The current outline also details 600-person bleachers, including room for a temporary expansion that seats 4,000.

Amid an uptick in the popularity of local water sports, the center has struggled to accommodate the rise in usage requests from both local programs and national competitive events, according to a staff report.

The center is a home base for aquatic activity, including “Learn To Swim,” one of the largest municipal swimming programs in Southern California.

Though recreational swimming is seasonal, reservations for lap swimming, as well as classes and aquatic groups, are available online.

The Patriots swept the Comanches 25-9, 25-20, 25-13 at Beckman High.

Beckman (33-5) will play Campbell Hall (32-4) in the final on Saturday, Nov. 4. The site and time will be announced later.

It will be the Patriots’ second appearance in a CIF-SS final. They lost to Ventura in the Division 2 final in 2016.

Canyon (21-4) qualified for the CIF Southern California Regional, which begins Nov. 7, by reaching the CIF-SS semifinals.

The Comanches were not in the final CIF-SS Division 3 Top 10 yet advanced to the division’s final four.

The Patriots were seeded No. 1 in the division and has played like the top-seeded team throughout the playoffs. They have not lost a set in their four playoff matches.

Beckman senior outside hitter Nika Safavi had a team-high 14 kills, many of them seemingly powerful enough to knock some air out of the ball.

Senior outside hitter Camryn Hayek contributed nine kills and three aces. Senior opposite hitter Victoria Turner added nine kills and two blocks and junior opposite hitter Sophia Saad had five kills.

Canyon senior opposite hitter Rowan Dillard had a team-high six kills.

As good as Beckman was offensively, it was the team’s defense that again impressed Patriots coach Darin McBain.

“Our defense is ridiculous,” he said. “We don’t give up anything and when we do, when we give up even one point, we take it upon ourselves to go ‘OK, that mistake can’t happen again.’”

Beckman senior libero Stacy Reeves, who is going to Texas Christian University on a beach volleyball scholarship, agreed that defense led the way.

“I think we did a really good job on defense and on serving,” Reeves said.

Beckman in the first set jumped to a 4-0 lead and grew that to 10-2. The Patriots scored six of the set’s final seven points for a 25-9 victory.

Canyon had a 6-1 lead early in the second set. Beckman caught up at 15-15 and from there outscored the Comanches 10-5 to up 2-0 in the match.

A 10-2 run to finish the third set led to the 25-13 win that completed the sweep.

Comanches coach Matthew Silva was impressed by Beckman.

“I feel like they had a range that we couldn’t quite figure out,” Silva said. “It’s not just one girl. They’re just collectively across the board strong.”

“Glad we got to shut it down with you, Irvine,” the band posted on its official Instagram account along with photos and video from the final show. “Honored to have been the last band to play the @fivepointamphitheatre stage last night. Where should we play next time we’re in SoCal?”

ALSO SEE: FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine hosts its final show

The temporary 12,000-capacity space was constructed in 2017 after the 2016 demolition of the long-running, 16,000-capacity Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, which was located on the opposite side of the 5 Freeway.

Brown was just as shocked as the fans were to learn this news. And Tom See, president of Venue Nation, who oversees 150 venues including amphitheaters, theaters and clubs at Southern California concert production company Live Nation, said he was pretty surprised, too.

“I thought we had a 2024 season at FivePoint Amphitheatre and that came to a screeching halt,” See said during a recent video call.

Despite the ongoing back-and-forth between Live Nation and the city of Irvine — which have worked together for more than four decades to bring live music to the area until the city abruptly ended its partnership with the company and scrapped proposed plans for a permanent amphitheater inside the Irvine Great Park back in July — See said he was confident they’d be able to continue on since there certainly wouldn’t be a permanent venue constructed in less than a year. However, because of the ongoing FivePoint residential development, there’d be no way to continue producing shows in the current space.

“It was one of those bittersweet weekends,” See said of the final two shows with Zac Brown Band, while also noting that the group later posted the song it recorded live at Irvine Meadows, a cover of “The Way You Look Tonight,” with more kind words about playing in Irvine.

“I had to give Zac a heads up on Friday night (Oct. 20) and he was blown away and instantly started thinking about all of the times he’d played in Irvine,” See said, adding that the band had performed a total of seven times between the two venues. “He took photos from this last show and melded them with the live song from Irvine Meadows and continued to reiterate how sad and sorry he is to see live music go away in Irvine and this was days after the final show. That just goes to show how important a connective audience is to these artists. They don’t take it for granted.”

What happens now

During a City Council meeting on July 25, city officials effectively ended the agreement with Live Nation to build a new, 14,000-capacity amphitheater inside the Great Park. With all of those plans suddenly scuttled, City Manager Oliver Chi was tasked with coming back to the council in 90 days with a new proposal and timeline for an amphitheater — which would replace the temporary FivePoint Amphitheatre — and include up to 10,000 seats an an in-house speaker system to reduce residential noise impacts.

“Right now, the situation at hand with FivePoint Amphitheatre now closing down is creating a lot of uncertainty for music fans in Orange County,” Dave Brooks, Senior Director of Live Music and Touring at Billboard said in a recent phone interview. “Not only that, but fans are now questioning if the City of Irvine can even pull off bringing back a new amphitheater.

“What’s most interesting about what’s going on here is that concertgoers in Orange County and overall in Southern California, they know what they are losing right now, they just don’t know what they are even getting,” Brooks continued.

Recent calls to connect with Chi have gone unanswered, but councilmembers Tammy Kim and Kathleen Treseder, who voted against the original proposed venue and agreement with Live Nation, were available to discuss some possibilities for a venue for next season. Since these processes and decisions have historically worked very slowly in Irvine, Kim pointed to setups at some local music festivals as examples of a temporary venue that Irvine could emulate.

“Look at Coachella or even Head in the Clouds. That just comes up and then goes back down,” Kim said. “It’ll take maybe a week to build a stage. … We could totally do that.”

A potential spot that’s been brought up is near the sports complex at the Great Park, said Councilmember Treseder. A temporary venue, Treseder said would most likely be bare-bones — just enough to ensure noise mitigation, safety and performances, she said.

“I’m not expecting it to be amazing design-wise. I just want to make sure we have continuity of musical programs,” she said.

Treseder and Kim both said being able to host the Pacific Symphony in a temporary venue is most important.

“We need to figure out a temporary solution for next summer,” Kim said. “Pacific Symphony has no place to play for the Fourth of July. They typically will do four or five shows for the season. They’re left without a home right now.”

City leaders are still moving forward to construct a permanent venue within the Great Park. Irvine is looking at a 10,000-seat venue that provides flex space and an in-house sound system to mitigate residential noise impacts. Several design consultants have already looked at the site, Kim said, and she’ll be having additional meetings with them next week. Kim said the ideal venue would be one that is large enough to attract A-list talent but not so large that it scares off smaller talent, and it should “tap into the diversity that is Irvine.”

“We want to provide a place where we can have various music festivals across all genres,” Kim said. “Opportunities for Pacific Symphony, opportunities for a jazz festival, K-pop, a Bollywood festival, a Farsi music festival. There’s a proven market for world music that quite frankly hasn’t been accomplished in the FivePoint Amphitheatre.”

She added: “We need the common denominator bands that work for everyone. The Goo Goo Dolls, Dave Matthews Band. That’s great because those are draws, but we also need to have opportunities where creative promoters can book their acts.”

Other potential locations

While no longer partners, See said that Live Nation would continue to support the city of Irvine and the company is open to working together in the future.

“They have the ability to get it done and I’m sure it will be a wonderful venue and we’ll be there to support them in any way we can,” he said. “We’re open to dialogue, too, if they all of a sudden say ‘Hey, we want to reopen our conversations with Live Nation and talk about what the future might look like.’ There’s no ill will here, we’re all open ears.”

While there’s no ill will, it’s still business and since parting ways with Irvine, See said neighboring cities have reached out with interest in bringing an amphitheater to their area.

“First and foremost we were committed to Irvine,” he said. “We weren’t dating, we were in a very long-term relationship and one that we thought through and had mutually agreed upon the venue, the size, and had got two approvals through the City Council and then there was a right hand turn all of a sudden and we weren’t dating any longer. Since the world has been advised of that, our phone has been ringing and our emails have been lit up. We know a permanent amphitheater takes time, it takes years, but we’re also sitting on the assets of FivePoint and are actively in conversations to determine what’s next. We can’t get into details of who, where or when. … That will come in time.”

What’s special about Irvine

For more than four decades See said that major artists have included Irvine, and the temporary FivePoint Amphitheatre, among their massive tour stops including Dave Matthews Band, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker, Iron Maiden, Brad Paisley, Incubus, Pitbull, Weezer, The Offspring, Snoop Dogg and more.

“Irvine has been on the back of concert T-shirts for more than 40 years, almost putting Irvine on the map and getting people to learn what Irvine is all about over all of those years,” he said.

It’s also important, he said, that a venue in the area have the ability to accommodate a certain number of fans, which is why the original concept for the permanent venue included a capacity of 14,000. This make it financially and economically possible for those big acts — usually with semi trucks full of staging and gear — to come to the area.

“Irvine and the Orange County market is a massive market with millions of residents and concertgoers and the one thing we’ve learned over time is the less friction you can provide a fan to enjoy live music, the better,” See explained. “They don’t necessarily want to get in their cars or take mass transit, they want to go out within their community. Orange County is as big as some states within the U.S., so it’s important to an artist to spend time cultivating an audience in Orange County. And Orange County, San Diego and Los Angeles, those are three entirely different markets. You can go to San Bernardino, too, and have an entirely different market.”

In booking tour routes, See said that the artists look carefully at these markets and use curated data to see where they could potentially maximize their revenue since acts now make a majority of their income on the road and increasingly less from selling actual music.

“They know their worth,” he said. “A big act that’s historically played Irvine and can sell 10,000-plus seats is going to want to continue to generate that income in the market somehow or some way and if they can’t there, there are other markets they can play. They can wind up playing two dates in L.A., two nights in San Diego or end up in San Bernardino. They can go to Anaheim and play The Pond (Honda Center) or head to (Inglewood) to play The Forum. There are a lot of choices for an artist and it’s a highly competitive business.”

“Irvine is a great location when it comes to touring,” Brooks echoed. “It’s a known market, so artists who bring shows there have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen, not to mention the great weather all year long. Most importantly, it’s just been a reliable stop when connecting both Los Angeles and San Diego residents. There’s nothing really else in the surrounding cities that features a great amphitheater experience.”