Company that puts ads on airport bins to expand

Hoping to deliver advertising to more affluent air passengers, a company that puts ads on the plastic bins that hold the belongings of fliers at airport security checkpoint plans to expand its operations.

SecurityPoint Media of St. Petersburg, Fla., now supplies plastic bins — plastered with ads — for 30 airports across the country, including Los Angeles, Ontario and San Diego international airports and John Wayne Airport. The ads reach an estimated 1.2 million travelers per day, according to company officials.

The company announced last week that it had joined with a venture capital group and a sales consulting firm — two subsidiaries of the Raptor Group, a Boston-based financial services firm — to expand its bin business to airports domestically and globally.

SecurityPoint Media founder and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Ambrefe Jr., said he hopes the partnership will help his company expand to 30 new airports in the next 12 months, including airports in Canada and Europe.

“This is an opportunity to really build out our media network,” he said.

Airline travelers are a valued target for advertisers because they are more likely to have an annual household income of $50,000 or more and are likely to shop for designer clothes, luxury cars and high-tech digital devices, according to a study by Arbitron Inc.

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-- Hugo Martin

Photo credit: SecurityPoint Media

Spending on business travel expected to slow in 2012

 

While spending on business travel has surged this year, anxiety over an uncertain economic climate is expected to slow travel spending in 2012.

That is the forecast from the Global Business Travel Assn., a Virginia-based trade group for business travel professionals. The group estimates that spending on business travel in the U.S. will be up 6.9% this year over 2010, hitting $250.2 billion.

But the trade group predicts that a tentative economy next year will slow the spending trend, leading to a growth of 4.3% over this year, to $260.9 billion.

The one bright spot in the forecast is the continued growth in spending for international travel, which the group said should grow by 7.7% in 2012 to $34.3 billion.

“While international trips are more expensive and time consuming, their reward can be worth every cent,” said Michael W. McCormick, executive director of the association.

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-- Hugo Martin

Photo: Passengers walk to the terminal at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Luxury student housing complex near USC sold to investors

A new luxury student housing complex outside of USC called West 27th Place was purchased by New York investment manager Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors.

The seven-story, 161-unit complex at Figueroa and 27th streets is decidedly up-market, with such amenities as a 24-hour fitness center, billiards, a hot tub, barbecues and a resort-style pool with a sun deck and cabanas. Ground floor businesses will include restaurants.

Selling the complex, which opened this fall, was a joint venture of Los Angeles developers CityView and Symphony Development, real estate brokerage Institutional Property Advisors said. The price was not disclosed but downtown property experts predicted it would sell for about $60 million.

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo: West 27th Place. Credit: CityView

Historic United Artists building sold in downtown Los Angeles

A storied Los Angeles theater and office complex built by silent film stars that was later owned by one of the city’s most popular televangelists has been purchased by East Coast investors.

The historic United Artists building at Broadway and Ninth Street in downtown Los Angeles was sold by Wescott Christian Center Inc. to Greenfield Partners for $11 million.

Greenfield, a prominent hotel investor, hasn’t revealed its plans for the property that once sported neon signs proclaiming “Jesus Saves.” Representatives of the South Norwalk, Conn., company did not respond to requests for comment.

Silent film stars Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin were among the founders of United Artists, a movie production company. Pickford, known as “America’s Sweetheart,” posed at the controls of a steam shovel in early 1927 to call attention to the groundbreaking for the United Artists Building, a 13-story movie palace and office complex at 927 S. Broadway.

Construction was rushed with three shifts of workers building around the clock to get the Spanish Gothic-style building done in time for the premiere of Pickford’s film “My Best Girl” just after Christmas. Searchlights were expected to attract a crowd of 100,000 people, who would hear the ceremony from loudspeakers set up on surrounding blocks as far away as Seventh Street, The Times reported. The National Guard was called out in advance to maintain order.

The structure was purchased in 1986 by Glendale-based Westcott Christian Center. One of its founders was Gene Scott, a flamboyant preacher whose broadcasts were heard nationally. He died in 2005.

Downtown Los Angeles has enjoyed a renaissance in the last decade, and some improvements such as condominiums, bars and restaurants have come to the blocks around Broadway and Olympic Boulevard near the United Artists building.

“That area is already starting to form a bona fide neighborhood,” said downtown advocate and blogger Brigham Yen. “Broadway is the most architecturally significant street in downtown L.A., if not all of Los Angeles County."

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-- Roger Vincent

Photo: United Artists Building Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Scam watch: Child identity theft, credit repair, investments

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for.

Child identity theft –- Scammers have increasingly been using children’s social security numbers to steal their identities and establish fraudulent credit cards and loans, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. In one instance, a 17-year-old girl’s personal information was used to run up $725,000 in fraudulent debt, much of which had gone into collection, the group said. Parents should encourage children to keep their personal information secure, according to Carrie A. Hurt, president of a Better Business Bureau office that serves central, coastal and southwest Texas. Anyone concerned about their children’s credit can run a check with one of the large credit-reporting agencies.

Credit repair operators –- The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit accusing operators of a credit-repair company in Texas of unlawfully charging fees before performing services. The lawsuit against RMCN Credit Services Inc. is part of a continuing crackdown on credit-repair companies that prey on people with financial problems, the FTC said in a news release. RMCN charged a retainer fee of up to $2,000, violating a federal law the requires such agencies to collect fees without performing any services. 

Investment fraud –- A man who stole “at least $1 million” from investors has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion, federal prosecutors in New Jersey said. Robert Schroy, who lived alternately in Illinois and California, told investors he would use their money in “international bank trade” but actually spent much of it on personal expenses, including cars, vacations and dining, the U.S. attorney’s office in Trenton, N.J., said in a news release. Schroy and his unidentified partners promised investors extraordinary gains -– ranging from 10% to 100% per week for 25 weeks, plus the return of their original investments. But he never invested the money, prosecutors said. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison.

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-- Stuart Pfeifer