North Bay Business Journal

NAPA — Petaluma-based Pure Luxury Transportation is establishing a Napa Valley base of operations for up to a quarter of its 100-plus limousines, sedans, SUVs, buses and, soon, motorcoaches as part of a Bay Area expansion plan amid a double-digit increase in revenue last year.

The recently completed, $150-million Green Music Center at Sonoma State University, that will play host to the North Bay Business Journal’s annual Economic Outlook Conference on Feb. 27. For 2013, the conference is titled Game Changers: Innovations and Leaders Transforming the North Bay Economy.

Featured in this spotlight on commercial lenders are executives at American River Bank, AltaPacific, Bank of America, Bank of Marin, Bank of Napa, Bank of the West, Comerica Bank, Exchange Bank, First Community Bank, First Northern Bank, Luther Burbank Savings, JP Morgan Chase, Mechanics Bank, Presidio Bank, Rabobank, Silicon Valley Bank, Sonoma Bank, State Assistance Fund for Enterprise Business and Industrial Development Corporation (SAFE-BIDCO), Summit State Bank, Travis Credit Union, U.S. Bank, Umpqua Bank, Union Bank, Warren Capital, Wells Fargo and Westamerica Bank.

The New Year is a great time to seize the opportunity of hitting your “refresh” button. Although it’s certainly something we can do any time, a new year is a natural time to make a fresh start, to take stock of what’s important to you, what you’re doing, and why. When we clarify our values as individuals, we can then update, re-prioritize or renew our commitment to the things we hold dear.

Clearly, the U.S. and global economy are still in a slow-growth recovery period, but there is some reason to be optimistic that 2013 could be a turning point in the long climb out of the Great Recession. After six years of decline, the housing market appears to have finally bottomed out in 2012. The inventory of homes on the market is down 20 percent or more from a year ago, and sales of existing single-family homes jumped 11 percent in 2012.

Most people would agree that if a school, hospital or road project has been subjected to extensive environmental review and met all federal, state and local environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act, the project should go forward without being sued for purported environmental reasons. Unfortunately, [...]

Sunny Hills Services, a private nonprofit organization with more than 15 programs throughout the Bay Area serving vulnerable children, youth, and their families, was recently named a recipient of a $5,000 grant by Umpqua Bank, through the bank’s “Joy of Giving” campaign on Facebook. …

Redwood Credit Union recently provided $7,787 to assist the American Red Cross with Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Members and employees contributed more than $3,500 to the fund over the past several weeks, making donations at all 18 RCU branches or via an option in their online banking. …

Santa Rosa’s Food & Wine Trails, the 28-year-old tour division of the HMS Travel Group, announced that Tenuta dell’Ornellaia, one of Italy’s most lauded wineries, will be the winery host on Food & Wine Magazine’s fourth-annual Wine Voyage. …

The Angel Resource Institute and Silicon Valley Bank released their third-quarter Halo Report, a nationwide survey of angel group investment activity with data from CB Insights. …

2K Sports, based in Novato, announced that the company has reached an agreement with Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and Major League Baseball Advanced Media to release Major League Baseball 2K13, the next iteration of the popular MLB 2K franchise. …

Santa Rosa-based Liquid Image announced completed development of the Ego Mini, a wi-fi equipped high-definition video sport/DVR/IP camera nearly half the size of the company’s Ego model, which is currently the smallest camera of the same application. …

Calling, downloading apps and surfing the web on the Verizon Wireless network is now easier and faster for residents and travelers in Sonoma County thanks to new cell sites in Healdsburg, Petaluma and Santa Rosa. …

St. Helena-based Albion Surveys announced John “Steve” Parrish as the newest member to its land surveying team. …

Cardiologist Monica Divakaruni, M.D., has joined Adventist Health-operated St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake. …

Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation announced the addition of Aruna Krishnan Jayaraman, M.D., to its network of gastroenterologists in Santa Rosa. …

Francine Halberg, M.D., radiation oncologist and breast cancer specialist at Marin General Hospital’s Marin Cancer Institute, is among 12 nationally prominent researchers and physicians named as 2012 Fellows of the American Society for Radiation Oncology. …

Tammy Brawner, a former Dominican University of California women’s basketball player and Dominican MBA grad from Oakland and Skyline High School, is the 10th female to play for the Harlem Globetrotters in its history. …

Marin Theatre Company’s board of directors has named Michael Barker as the nonprofit theater company’s new managing director. …

Jade Barrett has been named winemaker for the Howell Mountain Cabernet house. …

Events of interest in the north San Francisco Bay Area of interest to the business community

In the wake of his sudden death Monday, the North Bay business community remembered David Brown as the epitome of a community banker: a man for whom personal and professional relationships frequently converged, with an underlying sense of charity that influenced all aspects of his life.

ROHNERT PARK — Sonoma County’s economic recession that led to more than 25,000 jobs lost is mostly over, as job growth through most of last year outpaced that of the Bay Area, state and nation as well as nearly matching national growth leader North Dakota, an economist with the closely watched UCLA Anderson Forecast told an annual gathering of civic and business leaders in the county.