The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 124

Cos Angeles STimcfl Friday, February 10, 1989Part IV 5 Orange County Business Briefcase CompCare Panel of Directors to Consider Restructuring, Selling Part or All of Firm Hyundai Motor to Pay $27 Million for Fountain Valley Facility, 18 Acres Hyundai Motor America said it will pay $27 million for a 216.000-square-foot building on 18 acres at Talbert Avenue in Fountain Valley. Selling was QB Cos. of Costa Mesa. The building formerly housed ITT Cannon. Hyundai said.

Hyundai will remodel that building, and early next year 525 employees will move in from seven leased buildings in Garden Grove. In addition, the company will build a REAL ESTATE five-story, office tower on the site. Construction is expected to begin in 1991 and finish in 1993. Hyundai will also build a four-level parking garage. Hyundai America spent 3 years looking at "many attractive sites" in Orange and Los Angeles counties and in nearby areas, said President H.W.

Baik. The Korean car manufacturer opened its U.S. sales and marketing headquarters in one building in Garden Grove in 1985. By LESLIE BERKMAN, Times Stafj Writer Comprehensive Care Corp. of Irvine said Thursday that it has appointed a special committee of directors to evaluate strategic alternatives, including a possible financial restructuring, asset sale or acquisition by another company.

CompCare, which operates alcohol and drug abuse treatment programs in 193 hospitals nationwide, has experienced declining earnings in recent years. For the fiscal year ended May 31, 1988, profits fell 26 to $9 million on revenue of $212 million. In a statement, the company said undervaluation of its stock played a role in the decision by its board to chart a new business strategy. CompCare stock closed Thursday at $11.75 a share, up 50 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange. buy back 5 million shares of stock, leaving it with about 11 million shares outstanding.

For the first 6 months of the current fiscal year, the company posted earnings of $4.7 million, compared to $4.6 million for the same period the year before. Revenue was $117.3 million, up 17 from $100 million. New hospitals that opened accounted for the added revenue, the company said, but low occupancy rates kept them from operating at a profit. Jeff Kilpatrick, an analyst with Newport Securities in Newport Beach, said CompCare "has lost a lot of momentum and probably hasn't had a lot of research analysts' interest. It has become sort of a staid, stagnant company." At the same time, Kilpatrick said, substance abuse programs have become a hotly competitive business.

B. Lee Karns, CompCare's chairman and chief executive, said the 17-year-old company has reached "a critical point" in its growth. "We are starting with a blank piece of paper," he said. "We retained Prudential Bache to decide what would be in the best interest of our shareholders and employees." Karns said he did not know if the company would sell any of its three Orange County facilities: Brea Psychiatric, Care Unit of Orange or Starting Point in Costa Mesa. Nationwide, he said, the company owns 23 hospitals and provides services under contract in 170 others.

Karns said CompCare's earnings have been depressed for 3 years by a rapid expansion program and by repurchases of CompCare stock. In the last 2 years, he said, the company has added 7 new hospitals and spent $60 million to if When you think of the 10 best hotels in the country for business travelers, do you really think of the 2-year-old Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach? Well, somebody apparently does, because the Four Seasons just made the list at No. 10 in the 1989 Zagat U.S.A. Hotel Survey. Not so surprisingly, the posh Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point was ranked third nationally by 4,000 business travelers, travel agents and meeting planners.

The Zagat survey started out as a New York City restaurant guide run by a couple named Zagat who used reviews from friends and other contributors. This is the first year Zagat has reviewed hotels. The survey looked at 700 hotels in 38 cities. The Four Seasons, a $75-million, 284-room hotel in Newport Center owned by the Irvine won high marks for its food and service. Again somewhat surprisingly, the top hotels on the list were all in Sunbelt states.

Named top hotel for business travelers was the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans; the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas edged out the Ritz-Carlton for second place. Incidentally, two other California hotels made the top 10: The Bel-Air in Los Angeles, No. and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in San Francisco, No. 9. gp? INTERS Lea son Pomeroy Associates in Orange, the county's largest architectural firm, has landed two big contracts in Los Angeles County.

The firm will serve as lead architect on the $200-million Burbank Gateway Center, a big shopping mall, hotel, restaurant, office and retailing center that's said to be the largest such project in the city's history. Burbank chose as developer the Alexander Haagen Co. of Manhattan Beach, Southern California's largest retail developer. Leason Pomeroy will supervise all the design work and actually design the mall and some parking structures. But the firm says it doesn't yet know exactly what the entire job could be worth because the firm will also be in the running to design other buildings in the project.

Leason Pomeroy will also transform a former May Co. department store in Arcadia into a headquarters for Vons parent company of the Vons supermarket chain. About 1,000 people will work in the building. Leason Pomeroy made news late last year when it admitted that it was responsible for underestimating the cost of the new passenger terminal at John Wayne Airport by nearly $20 million. The two Los Angeles deals, however, were concluded after the airport flap hit the front pages, says the firm, which contends that the airport problems have not hurt its business.

Daum-Johnstown American which also landed in the news recently said it has moved its Newport Beach office to larger quarters in Irvine. A Los Angeles commercial real estate broker, Daum made news late last year when 50 or so of its employees and brokers who work on contract left the Anaheim office to join a competitor. The brokerage took 9,000 square feet in a 12-story building at 1920 Main St. in Koll Center Irvine North. Daum contends it's doing fine and just needed more space.

Brokers there said they recently closed one fair-size deal: The purchase of two industrial buildings near John Wayne Airport by RHB Investments of Beverly Hills from Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. for $6.2 million. MARISSA ROTH Los Angeles Times Martine Greber of Love Letters Ink of Beverly Hills composes a tender Valentine's Day missive from a wife to her husband. LOVE: Your Inner Feelings Written by Others Compiled by Michael Flagg, Times staff writer Earnings out the country. "I want to kiss your lips, first gently, hardly touching, then with the flame of passion." 1 Billion Messages Martine Greber, owner of Love Letters Ink, is a tad more subtle: "Before I met you, I would imagine that somewhere you were waiting for me," says one of 12 standard love letters.

"At last we met and today, I can touch and love you not just in my mind." Greeting cards, they're not. And they do little to cause the card industry's heart to flutter in fear. Patti Brickman, spokeswoman for the Greeting Card estimates that 900 million to 1 billion Valentine cards will be exchanged by Tuesday, contrasted with a few thousand personalized letters and Continued from Page 1 Love" and "Paradise Dream." The price tag for 100 pages: from $45 to $150, depending on how personal and how steamy you want it. Love Letters Ink in Beverly Hills will do a full third of its business about 150 standard and custom missives ranging from $12.95 to $24.95 in the 3 weeks before Cupid strikes. Special Occasions in Cerritos should mail out 1,000 letters by Feb.

14, many graced with poems such as Byron's "She Walks in Beauty." For while Victoriana chunky cherubs and lots of lace is big in the greeting card industry this year, these agents of amour offer something a little spicier: "I want to stare searchingly into your eyes," Elliot Essman, owner of Manhattan's Incurable Roman-tix, writes for his clients through their words into something presentable, intelligible, in good taste usually. "I hear people's intense emotions all the time," she says. Many Loves Some desires, however, are more difficult to translate tastefully than others, which is one of the occupational hazards of laboring in love land. Greber, for example, has had would-be Lotharios ask her to help woo married women from their husbands. And then there's Brown's very special Valentine's Day client.

"I had one fellow this Valentine's Day buy three of the novels," Brown said. "They were to different women, with very tender dedications in each one of them. And he was the hero of all of them." these personalized romance novels known as bodice rippers. And she is not worried about the new competition. "Instinctively, I do not think they pose a threat," Brickman said.

"Cards are personal but not personalized. The letter concept is very personal and I think would be marketed much differently than greeting cards." Personal is not the half of it. When Greber's customers call in to place an order, they can choose a standard letter that is already in the computer, which is equipped with a calligraphy font. Greber's assistant recites the steamy lines over the phone, the customer responds with a credit card number, and the letter laser printed on deckle-edged paper is mailed the next day. Or the customers can pour out their souls, and Greber will form AVERAGE HOME PRICE IN ORANGE COUNTY Home Prices Dip a Bit in January Doldrums National Education Irvine, reported net income of $46.1 million for 1988, contrasted with a loss of $679,000 for 1987.

Revenue totaled $457.5 million. 15 higher than the $396.2 million posted for 1987. H. David Bright, chairman and chief executive, said results were restated to include operations of Spectrum Interactive which was merged with National. For the fourth quarter, net income totaled $19.1 million, which included an after-tax charge of $1.5 million resulting from costs of the merger.

National had a loss of $1 1.3 million for the comparable quarter last year. The year-earlier loss included a after-tax charge resulting from merger consolidation costs. Revenue in the recent quarter rose 18 to $144.4 million from $122.2 million. National is the country's largest provider of training to business, industry and government. Eldorado Bancorp in Laguna Hills, holding company for Eldorado Bank in Tustin, reported record net income of $3.3 million for last year, a 4 1 increase over $2.3 million of the previous year.

Revenue climbed 21 to $25.9 million from $21.4 million the previous year. For the fourth quarter, the company's net income was $895,000, an increase of 65 over $544,000 earned in the last quarter of 1987. Quarterly revenue rose 27 to $7 million from $5.5 million in 1987's last quarter. The company's total assets increased 26 to $250.4 million at the end of December from $199 million a year earlier. Part of the growth was attributed to the acquisition in May of American Merchant Bank in Newport Beach.

The bank's total deposits grew 24 to $220.5 million at the end of the year from $178 million a year earlier, while its loan portfolio increased 35 to $163.1 million from $120.7. The company recently announced a 10 stock dividend to shareholders of record today. Downey Savings Loan in Newport Beach posted net income of $29 million last year, a drop of 13 from $33.2 million in earnings the previous year. Revenue grew 24 to $330.8 million last year from $266.2 million the previous year. For the fourth quarter, the net income was $12.9 million, more than triple the $3.7 million earned in the final quarter of 1987.

Quarterly revenue jumped 63 to $111.1 million from $68 million in 1987's last quarter. Downey's assets rose 34 to $4.3 billion at the end of December including $737.3 million in assets from its acquisition of Butterfield Savings Loan in Santa Ana from $3.2 billion a year earlier. Total deposits grew 40 to $3.5 billion, including $533.9 million at Butterfield. at the end of the year from $2.5 billion a year earlier. Total loans rose 25 to $3 billion, including $377.6 million at Butterfield, from $2.4 billion.

Butterfield is operated as a subsidiary of Downey. Notes Directors of Westcorp the holding company for Western Financial Savings Bank in Orange, approved the company's first cash dividend. The 5-cents-per-share dividend will be paid on April 15 to shareholders of record March 31. Stephen W. Prough.

president, said directors will review the dividend policy every 6 months. Westcorp, whose savings and loan subsidiary was formed by the merger of a thrift and loan and a savings and loan, became a public company in May, 1986. The average price of new and resale single-family houses and condominiums sold in the county was $218,251 in January, 0.7 lower than the December average of $219,744 and 21.3 higher than the January, 1988, figure of $179,895. By MICHAEL FLAGG, Times Staff Writer $220,000 210,000 200,000 190,000 In fact, January home sales were about the same as a year ago, when 3,498 units were sold in January, 1988. The winter months are traditionally a slow period for home sales, which then pick up in the spring.

Realtors are now watching the market closely to see if last year's extremely heavy demand for housing will reappear. So many people were in the market for a house last year and so few houses were available that local home prices soared to among the highest in the nation. Many experts, however, say that while 1989 home sales should remain strong, they won't be as frenzied as last year. Price increases, they say, should stay well below 20. Home prices took a slight dive last month as the Orange County housing market went through its annual January slowdown, said TRW Real Estate Market Information.

The average price for all homes sold in the county during the month was $218,251, down 0.7 from December's $219,774. The average price a year ago was $179,895, or about 21 less. Unlike other studies, the Colton company's market survey includes both new and used houses and condominiums. Sales fell 27.6 during the month, from 4.639 units in December to 3,362 in January. TRW said.

That seems like a lot, but it's about the same drop as last year, when sales fell 28.2 between December and January. 180,000 170.000 JFMAMJJASONDJ 1989 19SS Source: TRW Rati Estate Market Information's survey of daads filed at tha Orange County Recorder's Office. THOMAS PENIX Los Angeles Times.