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$1.50 VOL. 38 NO. 20 MAY 18-24, 2015

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ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL

The New Home Co. is lookingto double down on OrangeCounty’s luxury home marketwith its latest batch of land deals.The Aliso Viejo-based builder is

under contract to buy a quartet ofland sites from Irvine Companyfor a little more than $250 million,

New Home Co. Nears$250M Land BuyDeal in Works With Irvine Co.Includes 2 Sites in Crystal Cove

�New Home Co. 61 �IBC 68

MAIL TO:

INSIDE

Positive EnergyGrows

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OC Data Drillpage 71

One of the first developments in the Irvine Busi-ness Complex to propose for-sale residential devel-opment in nearly a decade is proceeding aftergetting some pushback from a medical devicemaker whose local manufacturing operations arenext to the project.An affiliate of Fairfield Residential Co. in San

Diego this month got approvals from Irvine’s plan-

Device Maker WeighsIn on Change in IBC‘Concessions’ to B. Braun asFor-Sale Residential Returns

ocbj.com

Laguna Beach-based NextVR Inc. is on a hir-ing spree and considering the development of anew engineering hub in Orange County amid re-cent progress toward deals to license its virtual re-ality content technology to professional sportsleagues. �NextVR 70

Signs of growth continued last week when thestartup announced that it landed a big-time backerfrom the sports and entertainment industries. Thatfueled speculation that NextVR could be the nextbig technology hit in OC, following in the footstepsof virtual reality software and headset maker andcollaborator Oculus VR Inc., which was acquiredlast year by Facebook Inc. for an eye-popping $2

Trammell Crow Co. is eyeing a vacant land siteit just bought near John Wayne Airportfor a major office campus.The Dallas-based developer re-

cently closed on the purchase of 7.5acres along Jamboree Road, north ofDupont Drive.The site, a half mile south of the San Diego (405)

Office Campus Eyed at Jamboree & Dupont

�Trammell Crow 15

Trammell Crow Could Build550,000 SF on 7.5 Acres

By MARK MUELLERBy MARK MUELLER

Webb: “we arevery excitedabout it”

By MARK MUELLER

What’s Next?

Hollywood Backer, NBA Ties Point to Potential of VR StartupBy CHRIS CASACCHIA billion.

“Someone has to get big in this space,” saidNextVR cofounder David Cole. “The climateand sea change that’s coming in terms of content,I don’t think any of that really suggests a modestgrowth plan. The smoke signals are there.”NextVR is actively recruiting “rock-star” 3-D

Auction.com in Irvine has positioned itself totake advantage of the current boom in the hotel in-dustry, with a focus on middle-market transactionsin the $1 million to $15 million range.The online real estate marketplace matches buy-

ers and sellers of commercial and residential prop-erties. It works with brokers and doesn’t participatein transactions. Buyers pay 1% to 5% of a sales

price to Auction.com when transactions close, usu-ally within about 45 days, said Jeffrey Frieden,cofounder and chief executive.Frieden and cofounder and Chairman Robert

Friedman said the speed and transparency of saleson their site have made Auction.com successful. “Before this, it was impossible to buy online,”

Frieden said. “Now people can invest from any-where.”About 800 transactions worth $2.8 billion hap-

pened through the site last year, the company said. Hotels have always been in the mix. Three years

ago, Auction.com bought real estate broker Rock- �Auction 70

Auction.com Puts Out Welcome Mat for Hotel TradeHOSPITALITY: New hires bolsterrecently formed hospitality division

By PAUL HUGHES

Friedman, Frieden: cofounders have added talent fromSilicon Valley for latest push on commercial properties

Special Report

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Southwest AddsRoutes, Flights

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Virtually courtside: Laguna Beach-based company’s technologyseeks new view on live events

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70 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com MAY 18, 2015

� from page 1NextVRgraphics programmers, encoders, Web de-signers and Android and iOS developers. It’salso adding to its management ranks to han-dle product teams for the pending launch ofvirtual reality platforms developed by thelikes of Oculus, Sony, and HTC/Valve Soft-ware.NextVR aims to add about 70 high-pay-

ing positions to its current roster of 15 em-ployees in the next 12 months or so,positioning the company to be among thelargest independent companies in theemerging virtual reality sector.The growth has prompted management to

seek another location to house engineersnear its headquarters on Third Street indowntown Laguna Beach.“We’re out of parking already,” Cole

said.

‘Area 51’The company also is adding specialists to

its research and development unit that Colecalls its “Area 51.”The R&D team is working on “really ex-

otic stuff,” he said, including light fieldcapture, which enhances an ultra-HD cam-era’s ability to capture the depth of theworld, similar to sonar scans of the oceanfloor. The technology allows virtual realityusers to have 360-degree experiences withthe ability to move around objects that hin-der view—a referee on the court, for exam-ple. The 360-degree capability provides theeffect of being present in an environment.Don’t expect NextVR to take the same

path as Oculus, which moved its headquar-ters to Facebook’s home in Menlo Parkshortly after being acquired by the socialmedia behemoth.OC brings several advantages, according

to Cole, including its proximity to Holly-wood and the abundance of tech talent thatstretches from Los Angeles to San Diego.“The access to engineering talent has

been phenomenally better than if we hadtackled this in the Northern part of thestate,” he said. And there’s “such a biggaming-centric population here in Orange

County, which is probably our top area todraw from. It’s pretty fertile grounds.”

Guber on BoardNextVR furthered its lead in the race to

produce live content by aligning itself withthree of the biggest powerbrokers in enter-tainment, sports and broadcasting lastweek.Hollywood and sports executive Peter

Guber was named chairman of the com-pany’s newly formed advisory committee.He said he plans to make a “multimillion”investment in what could be a sizable fund-ing round to scale the business globally.“We’re swinging for the fences,” Cole

said. “It’s not a bad time in the financialmarkets to raise a war chest.”Guber is the founder and chief executive

of Mandalay Entertainment and partowner of the Los Angeles Dodgers andGolden State Warriors. He also runs DickClark Entertainment, the largest awardshow producer in the U.S.“As you can imagine, we’ll probably be

doing something there,” said NextVR Ex-ecutive Chairman Brad Allen. “His rela-tionships are incredible across sports,

media and entertainment.”Allen is a finance specialist and a partner

in the digital arm of Corona del Mar-basedventure capital firm Miramar Venture

Partners. He hasdeep connections ininvestment banking inAsia and met Guberand Warriors majorityowner Joe Lacobabout 18 months agoin Beijing at a presea-son game between theWarriors and Los An-geles Lakers.Allen joined

NextVR a short whilelater and soon en-

countered Guber at the NBA Tech Summitduring the league’s All-Star weekend inNew York in February.“When we got back to L.A., we got to-

gether and started working on doing this,”Allen said. The partnership expanded when NextVR

got approval from the Warriors to videorecord game footage for a virtual realitydemo.

The technology blew Guber away and haswowed audiences from Los Angeles toHong Kong.

Sneak PeakThe Business Journal got a sneak peak of

a 15-minute demo during a recent visit toNextVR’s modern, glass-encased, 4,000-square-foot headquarters steps from Pa-cific Coast Highway.The simulation quickly transported the

viewer from a conference table at the com-pany’s office to courtside seats at a War-riors preseason basketball game. A minuteor two later, the viewer was behind the netat an Anaheim Ducks game at Honda Cen-ter, then on center ice on the outdoor rinkconstructed at Levi’s Stadium in SantaClara for a “Stadium Series” clash betweenthe San Jose Sharks and the Los AngelesKings. One can sense the speed of the skaters

and crisp ball movement as if he’s actuallyattending the event in real time. The pic-ture resolution needs improvement, butevery new Android smartphone modelshould gradually improve the experience.NextVR’s other inaugural advisory

members include Scott Teissler, formerexecutive vice president, chief technologyofficer, and chief digital strategy officerfor Turner Broadcasting System Inc.who also served as senior vice president ofnew media strategy and CTO at CNN, aswell as sports media dealmaker DougPerlman who had stints with the NHL andtalent agency IMG. Perlman is a digital rights expert who

founded Sports Media Advisors, whichfocuses on linking sports, television anddigital platforms.That’s some serious industry muscle and

strategic guidance NextVR can rely on asit continues partnership talks with newsoutlets and Nascar, NBA and NHL execu-tives, including the sports’ commissioners.“This year for us is really about creating,

developing and getting all those contentand distribution partnerships in place whilethe VR market is growing,” Allen said.“We’ve attracted a lot of attention with ourlive VR broadcast. We’ve proven out thetechnology.” �

Guber: Hollywoodheavyweight aboardas adviser, plans toinvest

Roller, Allen, Cole: day-to-day trio in charge at HQ in downtown Laguna Beach

� from page 1Auctionwood Real Estate Advisors, which also mar-keted hotels.There’s been significant growth in the num-

ber of hotel deals lately, with “hospitality as-sets” accounting for 81 transactions for a totalof $265.5 million last year, up from 66 dealsand $245.1 million in 2013.In January, the company created a hospital-

ity division to focus on the niche and hired25-year industry veteran Anthony Falor torun it.“This is more efficient,” Falor said of the

new unit.Auction.com followed that move in March

by naming six regional heads of the hospital-ity division.

HiresIn April and again this month, it buttressed

its technology backbone, hiring two seniorengineering executives. Lawrence Yuan joined as senior director

of engineering in April after stints withLinkedIn and Yahoo!Bin Xu came on board this month as vice

president of engineering, bringing 20 years ofexperience that includes work at AcxiomCorp. and Angie’s List.Both are based in Auction.com’s Belmont

office between San Francisco and San Jose.The company said Yuan’s work in mobile

customer experience and Xu’s in software-as-a-service will strengthen the company’scommercial real estate work, including inhotels. “You can’t have enough smart people on

staff thinking about [these areas],” Friedensaid.

Sweet SpotAuction.com wants to take advantage of

the strengthening hotel industry.The new division can capitalize on the

sweet spot in the middle ground of a risingmarket.

“We have a core com-petency based on our ex-ecution, and more[buyers]” in that pricerange, Falor said.He also alluded to

“strategies and opportu-nities” on the higher endof the market. “We’re moving into

parts of the market youhaven’t seen us in,” hesaid. He said the move up-

scale comes as some sell-ers—institutional ownersand REITs amongthem—grow familiarwith the site, whichlaunched in 2007 market-ing distressed real estate

and has in recent years grown its generalcommercial sales. “We’re doing [more] to mimic the process

they know,” Falor said, to include workingwith brokers earlier, “introducing propertiesto the market [and] establishing pricing” forassets.

Employees, OwnershipAuction.com has about 1,500 full- and

part-time workers. About 650 are in OrangeCounty and about 125 are in the Belmont of-fices in Silicon Valley.Employees got 15% of company owner-

ship in 2011, Frieden said.Frieden and Friedman cofounded

Auction.com in 2007 with Monte Koch, vicechairman.The cofounders still own a slice of the pie. In March 2014, Mountain View-based

Google Capital, the tech company’s venturearm, invested $50 million at a $1.2 billionvaluation, Frieden said, which was a 4.2%ownership stake at the time.In 2008, Auction.com had sold what was

then a 50% stake to Greenwich, Conn.-basedStone Point Capital LLC through that pri-vate equity firm’s $2.25 billion Trident IVfund. Hospitality magnate Barry Sternlicht’s

Greenwich, Conn.-based Starwood CapitalGroup also holds a stake, which it took in2013.Frieden and Friedman met in high school,

and Auction.com has its roots in the 1990sreal estate auction business. Friedman is a li-censed auctioneer and author of a book on thetopic, “The Auction Revolution.”The business partners added the technology

element, and during the 2008 recession Auc-tion.com picked up speed.The economic recovery has dried up much

of the inventory of distressed commercial realestate, prompting the company to shift gearson the site. Frieden said that more than half the site’s

volume now comes from nondistressed com-mercial properties, including much of thehotel unit’s business. �

Irvine HQ: accounts for about 600 of company’s approximately 1,500employees

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