The automaker recently filed a notice with California’s Employment Development Department indicating layoffs might take place as it runs out the lease at 3 Glen Bell Way, the studio’s longtime home off the 5 freeway at Irvine Spectrum Center.

The facility’s closure was mentioned in the EDD filing, which is part of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — commonly referred to as WARN. Notifications are required when an employer lays off more than 50 employees.

Marlina Frederick, human resources director for Ford in Long Beach, wrote in the June 30 letter to EDD that the Irvine studio is closing Nov. 30, which could result in as many as 263 job cuts as workers shift to locations in Long Beach and Dearborn, Michigan.

All employees working in Irvine were offered employment in either city, Frederick said.

Ford spokesman Emma Bergg said not everyone agreed to the offer, with “several employees” electing not to relocate. Their employment with Ford will end Aug 31, she said. Employees who remained in Southern California were due to start work in the Long Beach office by early July, she added.

“This new facility is enabling us to move the majority of our locally based design team there when the lease for our studio location in Irvine expires later this year,” said Bergg. She declined to say whether the Long Beach development facility has opened, or how many workers are there now.   

A year ago, Ford’s Doug Field, chief of EVs and digital and design officer, said the company was coming to Long Beach, leasing a 250,000-square-foot facility with room for 450 employees in the Douglas business park, adjacent to the Long Beach Airport.

The research-and-development team at the Ford Electric Vehicle Development Center is being led by Alan Clarke. Before joining Ford in January 2022, Clarke was director of new programs engineering at Tesla.

The 87,639-square-foot Ford Building at 3 Glen Bell Way is being marketed for lease by the brokerage Avison Young.

For years, the parking lot shared by Ford, Mazda and Taco Bell hosted Cars and Coffee on Saturdays. The event grew so popular, with hundreds of car enthusiasts rolling out their new and classic vehicles, organizers were forced to cancel it in 2014. A similar show called South OC Cars And Coffee takes place every Saturday at the Outlets at San Clemente.

Ford and its Lincoln brand have a storied history in California, rooted in Orange County’s automotive industry for decades.

Along with the workforce transition, Bergg said that the focus of Lincoln automobile design will be based in Michigan at a new design center within Ford’s Dearborn research and engineering campus.

The company, which moved its headquarters to Irvine from Washington, D.C. two years ago, is cutting about 25 employees at Supernal’s Orange County operations along Laguna Canyon Road and Waterworks Way through Aug. 29, according to a filing made with the state’s Employment Development Department.

The company also is laying off 27 workers at its Fremont facility in the Bay Area, and a single employee at the company’s Mojave facility, where a demonstration flight test of Supernal’s electric air taxi technology is to take place later this year.

The layoffs, which began June 30, are expected to be permanent, the filing said. Following the cuts, Supernal will have 500 workers.

“The primary reason for this reduction in force is organizational realignment from the technology development phase to the product development phase of our business,” said Supernal spokesman Veronica Grigoriou. “The decision is not one we made lightly, and was undertaken after careful consideration of our roadmap, available resources, and goals for the remainder of the year.”

She said the company is actively working through a certification process for its technology with the Federal Aviation Administration, with the application process beginning in 2026, and a specific design of an aircraft — called “type certification” — expected for approval by 2028. “Our schedule has not been impacted by these changes.”

“Our production aircraft is slated to begin deliveries in the end of 2028,” Grigoriou said. The company has yet to determine a production site for its flying taxis.

Also see: California’s flying e-taxi business startups face daunting hurdles ahead of LA28 Olympics launch

The company conducted tethered flight tests in March but plans “untethered” tests at its Mojave facility later this year.

The layoffs follow last year’s hiring of a key NASA employee to develop a prototype.

In March 2024, Supernal named David McBride as chief technology officer. McBride, who formerly worked with NASA on several space missions with the space agency’s Flight Research Program, remains with the company.

In July 2023, Supernal LLC, which is South Korea automaker Hyundai Motor Group’s Advanced Air Mobility company, opened an engineering headquarters in Irvine to research a flying taxi.

The layoffs targeted a wide range of positions in order to “support [Supernal’s] long-term strategic goals and priorities,” according to a June 30 letter filed with the EDD by Hyunsik Kim, head of human resources with Supernal. Positions included battery cell test engineers, electrical and wiring manager, head of data, information technology coordinator, senior electric power distribution engineer, manager of intelligent flight and technical project coordinator.

The filings were made as part of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — commonly referred to as WARN, which are required when an employer lays off more than 50 employees. All affected employees are notified at least 60 days before their terminations are scheduled to occur, according to Kim.

Electric taxi concepts lift off vertically and don’t need a runway, creating a niche for air travel in a crowded urban landscape. Once these aircraft take off in the air — like a helicopter — their engines and propellers tilt to fly like an airplane.

Supernal isn’t the only manufacturer working on an electric flying taxi.

Others include San Jose-based Archer Aviation, Santa Cruz-based Joby Aviation and Mountain View-based Wisk Aero, a subsidiary of aerospace giant Boeing Co.

Bob Hendrickson, chief executive officer of Republic National, wrote in a memo to employees that the company would be leaving the California market after spirits giant Brown-Forman downsized its distribution partnership, choosing rival Reyes Beverage Group.

A copy of the memo was provided by Republic National spokeswoman Kanchan Kinkade. The memo does not say if any workers will remain in California after the layoffs.

A combined 878 jobs will be cut at Tustin and Chino facilities, according to company filings with the state’s Employment Development Department. Another 486 positions will be gone in Hayward, Morgan Hill and Pleasanton — all in Northern California.

Other job cuts are coming to Young’s Market Co. LLC, the 137-year-old Tustin-based spirits distributor that Republic National bought in 2022. A combined 392 layoffs are coming to San Diego (80), Commerce (176) and Sacramento (136).

The layoffs, effective Sept. 2, will come in phases — depending on location — through the end of the year, according to the filings.

The biggest cuts are coming to the company’s two Franklin Avenue facilities in Tustin, where 640 workers, or 36% of the company’s affected California workforce, will lose their jobs.

The decision to exit California was “driven by rising operational costs, industry headwinds, and supplier changes that made the market unsustainable,” Hendrickson wrote to staff.

Brown-Forman ended partnerships across all U.S. markets, effective Aug. 1. Hendrickson characterized the contract loss as part of “a broader strategic shift — not performance-related.

“While this brings change, we are actively evaluating the impact and charting a path to emerge stronger. We’ve faced challenges before and grown through them — we’ll do so again,” he wrote. “It’s important to emphasize this is not a reflection of our California team’s performance or dedication.”

The layoffs cover a broad swath of positions in California, according to July 1 letters filed with the EDD by Ayesha Mahapatra, senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Republic National. Positions include drivers with the Teamsters union, sales representatives, accountants, credit and collection managers, clerks, district sales managers, human resource specialists, pricing analysts and a senior vice president in charge of spirits.

The filings were made as part of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — commonly referred to as WARN, which are required when an employer lays off more than 50 employees. All affected employees are notified at least 60 days before their terminations are scheduled to occur, according to Mahapatra.

Brown-Forman produces a variety of rum, gin and whiskey brands such as Jack Daniel’s whiskey, Woodford Reserve, Herradura, el Jimador, Korbel and Fords Gin.

The company also is changing its name to Bollinger Innovations and ticker symbol before Aug. 15. The stock (MULN) finished trading Tuesday at just above 11 cents a share. The company does not yet have a new ticker.

Since January, the company has eliminated 155 jobs and reduced annual operating expenses by roughly $35 million. The company’s consolidation includes the operational shift to Oak Park, Michigan, and merging Mullen and Bollinger sales, marketing and service operations under the Bollinger brand.

The company said it plans to continue focusing on building its Class 1, 3 and 4 commercial vehicles. Class 1 through 3 trucks are generally considered light-duty vehicles, while Class 4 trucks are medium-duty.

David Michery, chairman and chief executive officer of Mullen Automotive, will have the same executive position with Bollinger Motors after the consolidation takes place.

Mullen began assembling EV cargo vans in 2024 at plants in Tunica, Mississippi, and Mishawaka, Indiana. The Indiana facility was recently sold to the GEM Group through a legal settlement, said Mullen spokesman Jason Putnam on Tuesday.

He said that the company has no plans to move its headquarters and battery plant out of California, despite the concentration of operations in Michigan — including a move for its sales and marketing teams.

Manufacturing will remain in Mississippi while production on EV truck batteries recently started in a leased a 121,615-square-foot warehouse built on the former home of Kraft Heinz Foods in Fullerton, Putnam said.

In September 2023, Mullen announced the initial purchase of battery production assets from Romeo Power, a unit of Nikola Corp., for $3.5 million. In January, the Fullerton facility furthered its U.S. battery production capabilities with the additional purchase of battery line equipment from Nikola, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

“Both Brea (headquarters) and Fullerton are staffed and operational,” Putnam said.

The EV truck business hasn’t been smooth sailing for Mullen.

In June, Bollinger Motors said it emerged from receivership after parent company Mullen Automotive settled claims in a lawsuit filed by Bollinger Motors’ founder, Robert Bollinger. In connection with the settlement, Mullen Automotive boosted its investment in Bollinger Motors and became a 95% owner.

In the past year, Mullen landed $10 million in financing from Robert Bollinger, and regained Nasdaq compliance to trade on the stock exchange following three reverse stock splits in 2023. Mullen made its first delivery of EV trucks on the East Coast to Randy Marion Automotive Group in North Carolina in June 2023.

The company claims to have seen a steady order flow in recent months.

In September, the United Arab Emirate-based Volt Mobility placed $210 million worth of pre-orders with Mullen for EV vans and trucks. The deal with Volt Mobility provided 300 all-electric commercial cargo vans, heavy-duty pickups and commercial trucks in 2024 with a total of 3,000 deliveries in 2025.

The Crystal Ball gala, held in November 2022 at the Pasadena Convention Center, was raising funds — at $600 a plate — to benefit patients and communities served by Methodist Hospitals.

The group of activists that night split up. Half remained outside picketing, while the other half went inside, dressed for the red carpet gala.

“Some of us started chanting that Mike Nijjar is a slumlord,” said Jones, pointing to video provided by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

In the video, clapping and chanting protesters can be seen standing next to tables topped with china, silverware and bottles of wine while surprised philanthropists mill about in tuxedos and gowns.

When the protesters were escorted out by police for causing a disturbance, Jones sidled closer to Nijjar.

“I just politely walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder, and I said, ‘You know, we’re going to continue,’ ” Jones recalled of the only time she met Nijjar.

” ‘Your tenants would really like to have a conversation with you. Do you think you might be able to have a conversation?’ He kind of shook my hand politely and nodded yes, and I kind of patted him on the shoulder, and said, ‘OK, have a good evening.’ “

Jones, who has been hounding the 77-year-old Nijjar for nearly a decade to listen to tenant complaints, said that follow-up conversation never happened.

But she’s remained a thorn in Nijjar’s side.

Over the years, Jones has been involved in lawsuits with the Nijjar businesses over conditions of their apartments. She also played a part in the dismissal of a complex lawsuit that claimed excessive gang activity at the Chesapeake Apartments — a move that stopped evictions from proceeding.

“Their model is to get people in at the highest rent possible, and then ignore all of their repairs until it gets out of hand,” Jones said of the Nijjar real estate empire. “The way they treat tenants is all the same.”

The Nijjar family and their related companies own and manage more than 22,000 rental housing units statewide, primarily in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Kern Counties — and spanning up to Sacramento and San Joaquin counties.

State makes its case

Three years after the state launched an investigation into Nijjar’s business practices, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is taking a host of complaints to court.

In June, Bonta filed a 143-page lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Nijjar, his sister, Daljit “DJ” Kler, and other family members and their companies, alleging widespread tenant exploitation. The lawsuit follows an investigation launched by the state Department of Justice in late 2022, and was filed against Nijjar and his family-run businesses, known as PAMA Management.

Tenants may know PAMA by the names of their current and recent property management companies: I E Rental Homes, Bridge Management, Equity Management, Golden Management, Hightower Management, Legacy Management, Mobile Management, Pro Management and Regency Management.

His companies previously were cited by code enforcement offices across the state and the target of lawsuits by the Kern County District Attorney’s Office and the city of Los Angeles — the latter of which has an ongoing case. Nijjar’s companies have failed to comply with basic real estate licensing requirements since 2020.

While others have cited Nijjar and his companies for a garden variety of code enforcement issues over the years, Bonta’s lawsuit is the first time the state has brought action against Nijjar, said Joanne Adams, deputy press secretary for his office.

It’s the biggest slumlord case ever brought against a real estate owner in California, Adams said.

Some observers aren’t surprised.

“I don’t think I’ve ever encountered something of this scale, and just the impunity with which he carries on shocks me,” said Ryan Bell, the Pasadena-based Southern California regional coordinator for Tenants Together. “He doesn’t seem to care. He gets cited and fined, and he’s been in court over and over again, and he just keeps going.”

The suit alleges PAMA egregiously violated numerous state laws by subjecting tenants to unsafe living conditions, including cockroach and rodent infestations, leaking roofs and outdated plumbing, overflowing sewage, structural damage caused by water leaks and deferred maintenance.

The lawsuit also alleges the companies discriminated against applicants with Section 8 housing vouchers, overcharged some tenants for rent and relied on leases that deceive tenants about their legal rights.

“These violations are not just a mistake, they are part of ongoing business practices,” Bonta said in announcing the lawsuit. “PAMA defers necessary investments in maintenance in favor of quick and cheap repairs; uses unskilled handymen even for specialized work; provides little to no training to staff, many of whom have no experience in property management; and fails to track maintenance requests in any systematic, routine fashion — requests are often lost or never completed.”

PAMA is aware of these issues and knows their operations lead to uninhabitable conditions, yet these business practices have persisted for years, Bonta said.

Code enforcement officers in the communities where Nijjar’s businesses operate routinely cite the Nijjar family’s properties for violating minimum habitability standards, according to the lawsuit. In recent years, the family’s companies have settled dozens of lawsuits alleging habitability defects and unsafe conditions involving hundreds of tenants. 

In 2016, an infant died in a fire in Oildale at a substandard mobile home owned by PAMA, which investigators said was occupied without permits and smoke alarms.

In 2017, tenants in Jones’ complex were threatened with evictions after former Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer filed a nuisance abatement lawsuit claiming excessive criminal gang activity as the cause. The residents were able to get the suit tossed out.

In 2022, Jones and other tenants at the housing complex declared victory over one of Nijjar’s companies after persuading city and county health and code enforcement officials to inspect conditions of their apartments. Tenants alleged a growing list of slum-like conditions, including mold, rats, broken tubs and showers, no screens on windows, and electrical outlet shortages.

Bonta’s suit is seeking a court order barring Nijjar and his companies from continuing its unlawful business practices, penalties for violating tenant laws, restitution for tenants and “disgorgement” of profits obtained illegally.

Day in court

Nijjar’s attorney disputed the state’s lawsuit.

“The allegations in the complaint are false and misleading, and its claims are legally erroneous,” attorney Stephen G. Larson wrote in a statement to the Southern California News Group. “We look forward to demonstrating in court that Mr. Nijjar and his companies are not only compliant with the law, but they provide an extraordinary service to housing those disadvantaged and underserved by California’s public and private housing markets.”

Much of what is known about Nijjar comes from tenant advocacy reports, the family’s involvement with nonprofits, and county and state documents.

According to the tenant alliance group, the Nijjar family has amassed a $1.5 billion real estate empire over the last 40 years, collecting more than $100 million in “affordable housing rental profits” from low-income families throughout California. He also has expanded to Nevada and Texas, according to ACCE in a video dating to November 2022.

Nijjar’s wife, Patty Nijjar, is a board member of the USC Arcadia Hospital Foundation — formerly known as the Methodist Hospital of Southern California in Arcadia. The billionaire couple lives in a 12,196-square-foot mansion in a gated community in Bradbury, a Los Angeles suburb in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, sandwiched between Monrovia to the west and Duarte to the east and south, according to county records.

The 24-year-old estate on 5.757 acres is owned by Villa Bellefontain LLC, a limited liability company with a headquarters at 4900 Santa Anita Ave. in El Monte, which lists as owners Mike and Patty Nijjar and the Nijjar Family Trust. Mike Nijjar is listed as “manager” for Villa Bellefontain, according to state corporation filings.

Speaking up

Several tenants interviewed by SCNG underscored the concerns raised in Bonta’s lawsuit.

Deirdre Larson, who lives in an accessory dwelling unit along 33rd Street in San Bernardino, is providing in-home care for her disabled ex-husband. She lost her job last fall as a property manager, had her 2017 Ford Explorer repossessed, and moved to the ADU behind a single-family home in a residential area in September after staying a few days at a Motel 6 in Riverside.

Nijjar’s Bridge Management moved to evict the 53-year-old by Aug. 1 after she fell a few months behind on her monthly rent of $2,295 earlier this year. She’s trying to catch up with a patchwork of federal and state funding sources, and a new job.

She complained Tuesday, July 8, of having bad electrical wiring throughout the house, forcing her to hook up a microwave and other cooking appliances by running extension cords to other rooms of the house from her kitchen. She’s complained to local code enforcement officials, as well as filled out maintenance requests forms for Bridge Management, but nothing happens.

Other maintenance requests also have gone unfilled.

Larson also rigged a drainage system of clamped hoses so her washing machine could drain into her bathtub in the master bedroom. There’s no water drain in the appliance’s closet.

Installed solar panels also aren’t connected to the grid, leaving her with a high monthly power bill.

“I’m going to fight this,” said Larson, who plans to join in Bonta’s lawsuit. “They are bullying their way throughout these low-income properties by taking them over and just kicking the residents to the curb because they don’t know how to speak up for themselves, and no one’s trying to help them.”

Shonnette Mosley, who lives in the Virginia Circle Apartments in San Bernardino, can’t get Nijjar’s Hightower Management to fix the security gate in front of the apartment complex where she lives, or properly vent ductwork for her oven where a pigeon entered the apartment, or repair electrical outlets and replace screens that are gone. She recently had to buy a bottle of bleach to clean up human waste left in the unlit hallway that leads to her third-floor, two-bedroom apartment.

“They’re all worried about the money, not the tenants who live here,” said Mosley, who has complained at the property management’s main office at 248 E. Highland Ave. “They always tell me they’ll work on it, but nothing ever happens.

Since moving to her North Arrowhead Avenue apartment in January 2024, Ashley Dial has complained about an infestation of roaches invading her apartment, mold under her kitchen sink, no screens on windows, electrical outlets that spark when a cord is plugged in, a leaky roof and an air conditioner that cooled only half the apartment in San Bernardino’s 100-degree heat wave on Tuesday.

“When we ask questions, we’re always met with they’ll get to it next week. They have other obligations,” Dial said.

Bridge took over ownership of her complex in May and immediately added a $53 monthly rental increase on top of the $1,800 that she already pays for the two-bedroom apartment.

Looking out her front living room window, she pointed at a red rental sign down 16th Street, across from her building.

“That’s another Bridge property. You drive around, you’ll see a lot of them signs. It’s really sad in San Bernardino, because I feel like it’s a dark cloud,” Dial said. “I tell my kids to acknowledge (human rights activist) Malcolm X, who has a quote that helps me deal with this. ‘Education is the passport of the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.’ “

International travel is down across the region, keeping tourism and local officials in a ‘wait and see’ mode with possibly billions of dollars in the balance, according to travel and tourism experts.

Also see: July 4th fireworks: Cancellations, drones, where to watch and more tips for Southern California

Flights and hotel bookings have slipped in the early part of 2025, with some experts saying trade and immigration rhetoric from Washington, aimed at Canada and other nations, is forcing travelers to reconsider their U.S. vacations.

The drop in travelers out of Canada may be the earliest canary in the coal mine, a warning about future spending shortfalls across the region. Automobile and air travel to the U.S. during the first five months of 2025 has dropped significantly, according to Canada’s national statistical agency, Statistics Canada.

The World Travel & Tourism Council predicted in May that the U.S. this year would lose $12 billion in international tourism dollars, a 22.5% decline from 2024. The U.S. was the only country in 184 studied that would see visitor spending decline this year, according to the report.

“This is a wake-up call for the U.S. government,” said Julia Simpson, WTTC president. “The world’s biggest travel and tourism economy is heading in the wrong direction… While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the ‘closed’ sign.”

International spending down

While tourism in Southern California is expected to see mild growth in 2025, international visitor spending is expected to fall.

Tourism is big business in the region, with visitor and other travel spending growing to $85.4 billion in 2024, up 2.5% from $83.3 billion in 2023, according to a recent reported published by Visit California, the state’s tourism marketing organization. That’s more than half of total travel spending in the state.

Travel spending in California increased 3% to $157.3 billion in 2024 from $152.7 billion in 2023. Visit California expects it will reach $158.1 billion in 2025.

However, a forecast the organization released in April says international visits were expected to fall by 9.2% in 2025, driven by the impact of higher tariffs on the global economy and negative sentiment toward the U.S. due to the administration’s trade policies.

International visitors are expected to spend $25.1 billion in 2025, down 4.2% from $26.2 billion last year.

Travel to the U.S. could be “negatively impacted by impediments to visas such as reductions in consulate staffing or greater scrutiny of travelers from certain origins,” according to the forecast prepared for Visit California by Tourism Economics Inc.

Hotel and travel by air slips

The slip in tourism is also showing up at Southern California airports and hotels.

One of the biggest destinations in the region is Disneyland and while the park doesn’t offer statistics on its visitors, analytics firm CoStar says hotel spending by travelers has slowed 13.6% in Orange County from March to May. This is a slightly steeper drop than the same year-ago period.

Over the same period in Los Angeles County, hotel spending has risen 3.5%, slightly more than the 0.2% drop seen in the year-ago period. In Riverside County, spending fell 35.7%, which is slightly better than the 36.7% drop in the year-ago period.

The steep drop is attributed to the departure of Canadian snowbirds, the retirees who leave the Coachella Valley at the end of winter. Many of these Canadians arrived in the fall before Trump won his second term.

International air travel into the region also shows a pronounced slowdown.

In the first five months of 2025, travel statistics from John Wayne Airport show a 12.6% drop in total international passengers traveling in and out of the Santa Ana airport.

Total international traffic, which includes service to and from Canada and Mexico, saw a 19.2% decrease in May 2025 compared with May 2024.

“This change may be attributed to a combination of seasonal route scheduling, broader travel industry trends and airline specific decisions,” said airport spokesman AnnaSophia Servin. “There is no direct indication that concerns regarding tariffs or immigration policies are responsible for this dip at John Wayne specifically.”

For the three airlines that fly between Canada and John Wayne, Air Canada carried 19% fewer international passengers in May, while Southwest carried 5.4% fewer, and WestJet moved nearly 45% fewer.

WestJet spokesman Josh Yeats said that the carrier reallocated flying from some Canada-U.S. routes in favor of adding connections and frequency within Canada, and internationally between Canada and Europe, and between Canada and “popular sun destinations.”

Katrina Foley, vice chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, said she is closely watching the international travel figures at the airport and is taking a “wait-and-see” approach to determine if the trend needs more attention.

“I’ve asked our county airport staff to keep monitoring it,” she said. “It is something we want to monitor because our economy here in Orange County depends on tourism. There has been a significant drop [in travel] from Canada. What we can’t identify is whether it’s because of tariffs and deportations, or because we have all these other factors that are contributing.”

She cited the January wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, earlier hail storms in parts of the country that forced some airlines to cancel flights due to significant damage, and “mechanical issues with some planes that impacted travel.”

Other airports in the region are also seeing a drop in air travel from abroad.

At Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), there was a 12% reduction in total passengers flying from Canada into the Los Angeles airport during the January–April 2025 period versus the same four months a year ago.

Airline service to LAX from Canada include flights from Air Canada, American Airlines, Flair Airlines, Porter Airlines, United Airlines and Westjet. Nearly all the airlines have announced plans this year to reduce service between the U.S. and Canada.

Ontario International Airport saw a 2.8% dip in international travelers from January to May 2025 from China, Mexico and Canada, while domestic traffic grew 1.1% over the same period.

There also was a decline in Canadian travelers who make their annual pilgrimage to Palm Springs, a haven for “Canadian snowbirds.” Many travelers from the frigid country make their way to summer homes in the warmer Coachella Valley climate in fall and winter months.

Travel spending by the numbers

Orange County: Visitor and other travel spending grew to $16.3 billion in 2024, up 2% from 2023.

Inland Empire: Spending grew to nearly $3.1 billion, up 3.9% from 2023. In the Deserts region, which include Riverside County’s Coachella Valley, spending grew to $9.2 billion in 2024, up 2.9% from the previous year.

Los Angeles County: Spending rose to over $34.9 billion, up 3% from 2023.

San Diego County: Spending grew to $16.6 billion in 2024, up 1.2% from 2023.

Source: Visit California

The three-story store at Whittwood Town Center opened in the 1990s and now boasts giant “store closing” signs.

Shopper Ron Torsy, 65, summed up the retailer’s demise simply. “Blame Amazon.”

Torsy was browsing appliances with his wife, on the hunt for a new washing machine. They spied a $525 GE model marked down $225 from its original price. “It’s a deal,” boasted Torsy, who grew up in El Monte with memories of shopping for clothes, tools and appliances at a Sears in the San Gabriel Valley city.

The Whittier store stuffed all of its merchandise onto the first floor, offering discounts on clothing, mattresses and its highly touted Craftsman tools. The former Sears Holdings Corp. sold the tool business in 2017 to Stanley Black & Decker for $900 million as the chain tried to raise cash and dodge bankruptcy.

The storied retailer that anchored countless shopping malls decades ago is soon to become another piece of retail history, ceding to redevelopment and new shopping habits.

Kimco Realty Corp., owner of the 66-acre Whittwood shopping center since 2017, wants to build 1,200 residential units and a transit hub on the property, a plan that echoes across many malls in Southern California.

Ben Pongelli, community development director in Whittier, said the housing plan has simmered since 2022, and that Sears’ departure from the city’s largest commercial retail shopping center could push the project forward.

A broker with Kimco Realty said Sears’ lease expires in the fall. “We have not heard from them as to their exact intentions,” the broker said. “For now we’re in wait and see mode.”

After the Whittier store closes at the end of July, Sears will have just two traditional retail stores in California: Burbank and Concord.

At the Sears in Burbank, the last of the 139-year-old chain’s department stores in Southern California, foot traffic was sparse on Tuesday. Just one customer was spotted inside the store, while half-a-dozen sales associates and a store manager stood mostly idle at near cash registers. The escalators didn’t work going from the first floor to the second, and the third floor was closed.

Out with the old

Sears’ slow death, which started in the 1990s with the rise of discount retailers like Walmart and online shopping platforms like Amazon, is part of an evolution at U.S. shopping centers as old brands are replaced with new concepts and even housing.

“The retail apocalypse has been bandied about for decades, but now more than ever it is an appropriate term,” said James Cook, senior director in charge of Americas Retail Research for JLL.

Coresight Research expects store closures this year to double to about 15,000 after a spike in 2024.

Major retailers closed 7,325 stores in 2024, resulting in an estimated 119.3 million square feet of shuttered retail space, according to Coresight. This was the greatest number of closures since the pandemic in 2020, when Coresight tracked 10,000 closures.

Meanwhile, retailers offset some of the closures by opening 5,970 stores in 2024, filling an estimated 96.5 million square feet of retail space.

As of June 27, Coresight said U.S. retailers have announced 5,822 store closures and 3,960 store openings in 2025.

While retailers face their apocalypse, the landlords are sitting on hot property, said Cook.

The vacancy rate for retail real estate remains low at 4.1% after peaking at 7.1% in the first quarter of 2010 — the tail end of the Great Recession.

Newcomers to Southern California include Canada’s largest Asian supermarket chain T&T Supermarket. The company plans to open a store at the Crossroads Marketplace in Chino Hills, taking the place of a shuttered Best Buy and a Bed Bath and Beyond. The company is also opening a new store at the Great Park in Irvine.

Panda Mart, a popular discount retailer with 100 stores outside the United States, is coming to Orange County, leasing its first domestic store at the former Sears in Orange. In Fullerton, a fast-fashion retailer called Dressin opened in a former 99 Cents Only store.

Cook said that fast food restaurants continue to expand as well as discount groceries — like Grocery Outlet — and larger supermarket chains, like Kroger, and Albertsons. Discount retailers like Ross Stores, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, also are expanding.

Two years ago, the Emeryville-based Grocery Outlet opened in the former Wholesome Choice store in Laguna Niguel. Last month, Kroger announced plans to close 60 stores over the next 18 months while opening at least 30 stores this year and accelerate its store openings in “high-growth geographies” in 2026.

Last July, Buena Park-based 99 Ranch Market opened a store in the former Vons at 550 E. 1st St. The store was briefly a Haggen supermarket before the company went bankrupt.

More retail closures

The number of chains that are either fading or are all but gone from their brick-and-mortar locations include Big Lots, Kohls, Macy’s, Party City and Joann Fabrics, which is closing all 800 U.S. stores.

Earlier this year, fashion retailer Forever 21 laid off over 350 and closed its Fashion District headquarters. It later closed all of its U.S. retail stores. In April 2024, discount retailer 99 Cents Only Stores announced plans to liquidate and close all of its 371 stores. One of those closed 99 Cents Only stores is located across the street from Sears in Whittier.

On June 30, a Nordstrom spokesman said that the luxury department store chain was closing its Santa Monica Place store on Aug. 26 as it restructures its network to better target customers who have moved to its “digital channels.”

John Harmon, senior retail technology analyst with Coresight Research, said that retail closures are two-fold, partly about rising prices and the growing preference shop online in the hunt for the cheapest deals. Not only do they want the best prices, Harmon said, they also have no patience for stores that are constantly disorganized, out of stock and deliver poor customer service.

“Sears is a mass merchandiser, and I think you need a certain critical mass to be successful,” Harmon said. “With Sears down to eight stores, it’s not going to have the economies of scale that other mass merchandisers have, like Target and Walmart. We never hear about Sears much anymore. It’s just losing momentum.”

Discount retailers were especially hurt by Chinese e-commerce retailers Shein and Temu, he said. These rapidly growing platforms gained popularity for their low prices and extensive product ranges, particularly fast fashion and home goods.

Temu and Shein have somewhat reversed their once-speedy growth since Trump imposed higher tariffs on Chinese imports and closed a tax loophole that allowed the retailers to undercut competitors, according to Harmon.

“They were possibly pushing weaker retailers over the edge into bankruptcy,” he said.

Bad decisions also play a role in certain retailers’ demise.

Neil Saunders, managing director of retail for GlobalData, a data analytics and consulting company, said tariffs cannot be blamed for every failure and problem in the retail sector.

“Tariffs are disruptive for retailers. They have pushed up the cost of doing business, especially in terms of imports. They have also absorbed a lot of time and resource as retailers have examined the impacts and undertaken planning to mitigate the effects,” Saunders. “The final impact is on consumers, many of whom have been a bit spooked and have become more cautious in their spending.

“A lot of retailers that have failed in recent months have done so for reasons other than tariffs,” said Saunders, citing poor management, failure to embrace online shopping and carrying too much debt.

19th century roots

Meanwhile, the epitaph for Sears’ brick and mortar stores is nearly written.

The 19th century Sears, Roebuck and Co. began as a mail-order business for watches and eventually introduced catalogs by mail. It eventually opened brick and mortar retail stores in 1925, and decades later became known for iconic brands like Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances.

At its peak, Sears dominated the retail landscape with around 3,500 stores.

Eddie Lampert, founder of hedge-fund ESL Investments and the retailer’s largest shareholder and creditor with privately held TransformCo, could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, some residents aren’t too sad to see Sears disappear.

“They didn’t keep up with the times,” said Antia Ortiz, a 54-year-old Whittier resident who lives in a condominium near the mall with her husband Sergio, 56. “There are other plans for this center to be developed with more housing, restaurants and a movie theater. People shouldn’t be afraid of the growth and change. That’s how you keep the neighborhood thriving. I’m looking forward to more places to eat.”

The tentative deal between Albertsons Cos. and Kroger Cos. and seven United Food and Commercial Workers local unions was reached three weeks after members authorized a strike.

Two of the larger UFCW locals (770 in Los Angeles and 324 in Orange County) said the agreement “secures higher wages, more money for pension contributions, additional health and welfare improvements, staffing and more.”

Last week, negotiations resumed after a month-long hiatus with Albertsons, which also owns Vons and Pavilions, and Kroger, parent company of Ralphs.

Union leaders said their members — from San Luis Obispo to San Diego — will vote next week on ratifying the proposed contract. No date has been set yet on the vote.

Also see: Southern California union leaders say 2025 labor surge is most in decades

The next round of negotiations begins for San Bernardino-based Stater Bros. Markets, which union officials have said has been one of the toughest chains with which to bargain. The chain irked some union officials when it laid off store clerks earlier this year, a first for the 89-year-old chain.

The pace of the talks between the UFCW and chains was briefly disrupted in late March when the federal mediator assigned to their negotiations was fired by the Trump administration.

Unionized supermarkets negotiating contracts also include Encino-based Gelson’s Markets and Super A Foods, a family-owned supermarket chain based in Commerce that caters to Latino and Asian shoppers in the Los Angeles area.

Gelson’s and Super A Foods have historically gone along with the labor contracts negotiated by Albertsons, Ralphs and Stater Bros.

The UFCW contract expired for all of the chains on March 2, with a strike authorization vote coming June 11.

Pacific Premier announced in April that it planned to merge with Columbia Banking System in an all stock deal worth about $2 billion.

The combined commercial banks, which will have about $70 billion in assets once regulators approve the deal, said they plan to complete their merger in the second half of 2025.

In a letter filed with the Employment Development Department on June 25, Ramina Swanson, first vice president in charge of human resources with Pacific Premier, wrote that the bank plans to lay off 78 employees at its headquarters at 17900 Von Karman Ave.

“This mass layoff is expected to be permanent,” Swanson wrote.

The bank declined to comment further on the layoffs and whether affected employees would be rehired when the merger is completed in early August.

At least one banking analyst who’s watching the merger isn’t surprised by the layoffs, most of which are corporate positions.

“When banks merge, they don’t necessarily need two chief credit officers, or two CFOs, so you see those positions going away,” said Tim Coffey, a managing director with Janney Montgomery Scott in Walnut Creek. “When two banks merge, this is where some of the cost savings happen. The redundancies are in those positions.”

A Pacific Premier filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicated that its merger with the Tacoma, Wash.-based banking parent of Umpqua, could result in an estimated $127 million in operational cost savings, or 30% of Pacific Premier’s noninterest expense. These expenses focus on “back-office redundancies with modest expected branch consolidation” and include employee salaries, rent, technology costs and other operating overheads.

“The majority of employees that customers interact with every day are unlikely to be affected by this,” Coffey said.

The layoffs are expected to begin Aug. 1, and continue through November, according to the letter filed by Swanson with the state’s Employment Development Department.

Pacific Premier reported 1,333 employees as of March 31, 2025, according to a report filed by the bank with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, a central data depository for banks.

It’s unclear what the commercial lender will do with its headquarters building along Von Karman Avenue or whether it will consolidate branch locations once the merger is completed.

The bank has its largest concentration of 44 branches in Southern California, including a dozen in Los Angeles County; nine in Orange County; six in Riverside County; five in San Diego County; and three in San Bernardino County.  A total of 14 branches are located in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Swanson, Vickie Sherman, the bank’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, and Steven Gardner, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Premier, did not respond to requests for comment.

Gardner plans to join the board of Columbia after the merger is completed, according to the April 23 announcement of the deal. The CEO has been instrumental in the growth of the bank since he assumed the role of president and CEO in 2000 — later adding the title of chairman — and tasked with transforming the bank.

Today, the bank has more than $18 billion in assets following a flurry of acquisitions over the past decade, including its largest acquisition of Opus Bank in 2020, valued at roughly $1 billion. Pacific Premier was founded originally in 1983 as Life Bank.

The bank’s No. 2 executive, Edward Wilcox, president and chief operating officer, is leaving Aug. 1, according to Swanson’s letter.

Other executives leaving Aug. 1 through November include the chief financial and administration officer, chief appraiser, chief credit officer, chief human resources officer, chief marketing officer, the head of commercial credit and the directors of corporate finance and investor relations.

“I want to equip people to — if they’re interested — take a first step in working a trade somewhere, so that at least when they show up at a job site, they’ll know enough to be able to start a beginning task,” Crain said of a budding jobs-training program he launched last year. “But we also want to equip people to just be handy and comfortable around tools and be able to look at a set of plans, and kind of understand what’s going on.”

The Orange County Rescue Mission may be on to something to help fill jobs in the construction industry, which is short on labor and rattled by the Trump administration’s deportation of undocumented workers.

Dave Coyle, chief executive officer of Santa Ana-based Coyle Construction Inc., pitches in on helping train people living at the Double R Ranch in rustic Trabuco Canyon. He’s doing it in response to a nationwide shortage of skilled labor, and has even hired a few of the people who’ve gone through the program — all of whom are rebuilding their lives hurt by alcoholism, drug abuse or some other personal crisis.

“Yeah, there’s a major shortage,” said Coyle of labor in the building trades.

According to a report from the Associated Builders and Contractors, the U.S. construction industry needs an additional 439,000 workers in 2025 to meet anticipated demand. A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report in March said that employment for electricians and plumbers will grow over 6% through 2033, over 4% for roofing contractors, and 3.9% for residential building construction.

Also see: OC Rescue Mission opens its rehabilitation ranch to women and children

The Christian-based nonprofit, which provides housing and services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Orange County, is giving an updated look to its residential spaces at its Double R Ranch — where the Norbertine Fathers of Orange previously built the monastery and educational campus over six decades ago before selling the property in 2020 for $11.7 million.

The homeless at Double R in Silverado have a place to live and eat, help with their recovery, and a slot in the training program for construction jobs — called Firm Foundations — if they want.

The residents already work with horses, chickens, goats and other farm animals to build a work ethic — but now there’s training offered on how to use a circular saw, lathe, leveler, drill and other tools.

The in-house technical training is for people 18-65 years of age. The skills taught in the program cover the basics of carpentry, plumbing, electrical work and drywall installation. A total of 25 people have gone through two, 12-week training courses since first introduced last year, with more on the drawing board, according to Crain.

“What they are doing with job training is of high value,” said Tom De Vries, president and CEO of the Citygate Network, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based organization of 320 faith-based crisis shelters. “At some of our nationwide training events, CEOs of other Rescue Missions have taken a closer look at it. Being in a network, we are able to look at innovative ideas and best practices for programs like this, and push for them to be picked up elsewhere.”

We asked Crain about how his in-house training program came about. His answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Tell me a little bit about the OC Rescue Mission?

A: The rescue mission operates 12 programs across nine campuses in Orange County. Our flagship campus is the Village of Hope in Tustin, located in the shadow of the old blimp  hangar that caught fire and burned down two years ago.

At the Village of Hope, we can accommodate up to 260 formerly homeless men, women and kids at any given time. The program that we run is very similar to what we’re doing now at the Double R Ranch. Until now, it’s been for single men who are coming out of a crisis situation. Sometimes it’s homelessness, sometimes it’s drug and alcohol addiction, or a mental health challenge. There’s even a percentage of people there that we just call ‘failure to launch,’ or younger guys who are just sputtering and having trouble finding their way.

Q: How did Firm Foundations come about?

A: The rescue mission’s program is designed to be for 18-24 months, and during that time, there will be a volunteer job assignment. That could mean working on the maintenance team, the kitchen, or at some point they’re going to be working with the animals at the Double R Ranch.

The guys that go into this program have never been around livestock, and it’s a great opportunity for them to develop a work ethic, and learn a new skill. If they don’t have a high school diploma, they will get their high school diploma while they’re in the program. And as they get towards the end of their program, we’ll get them slotted toward some sort of vocational training, or get them ready for whatever job they’re going to pursue.

We’ve had guys go through a bus driver course with the Orange County Transportation Authority, or learn how to become a certified barber or nursing assistant. There are different tracks that we kind of push people toward. In doing all of this, we realized that there is an opportunity here for guys to develop general skills in the construction trades.

Q:  What did you see as a need for Firm Foundations?

A: We’ve been noticing the last few years that there’s so many people out there with college degrees that are having trouble finding work. We consider ourselves to be a back-to-work program. We don’t have four years for you to get a degree. We want to get you back working as quickly as possible, but in a position that’s going to help you work towards a career.

So we thought, wouldn’t it be interesting if we could do a basic overview of construction trades program for the guys that are in the Double R Ranch program, not necessarily because they’re going to go immediately work for a general contractor — although we’ve had a couple of people do that — but also, in part, because people have just lost the ability to be handy. We wanted them to learn the basics of just being comfortable around construction equipment.

Q: Do you see the OC Rescue Mission filling a void left with the loss of the Job Corps programs nationally? 

A: Setting the politics aside, let’s talk about the people who are saying, ‘Hey, I was halfway through this program. Now I have nowhere to go.’ People were banking on this being their launching point to something else.

I wish they knew about the Rescue Mission, because we have room for single guys right now. If you were in the Job Corps program, and now you’re kind of aimless and don’t know where to go, yes, this is different. It’s not exactly what you were doing, but if you came into our program, you now have a place to live and food to eat. You’d be progressing toward a launching pad to be able to start a career somewhere.

So yes, it is different, but certainly it is an option. We’re probably not at the scale where we could take in 1,000 former Job Corps students, but at the same time, we are an option.

Q: Given the challenges of labor in the construction business, coupled with efforts to rebuild L.A. following the January wildfires, and the Trump administration’s push to deport undocumented workers, where does the OC Rescue Mission fit in?

A: If it really turns out that way (with the workforce shrinking), that means that these positions are going to pay even more, right? We’re then going to need to fast track people to learn these skills. There’s good and bad in all of that, but would I rather fast track someone to learn how to plumb a building than fly a (Boeing) 747?  Yes.

Q:  How unique is your training program and are there possibilities of expanding its reach?

A: Within Orange County, is there something like this? No, I would say we are extremely unique within Orange County or the Southern California area. Even within the rescue mission community, we offer so many avenues for helping people.

There are programs that are probably far more intensive, where people attend class every day. Some of that is drying up now because of funding issues.

We’re nowhere near being a replacement for where someone comes out and is ready to be an electrician apprentice. We’re just giving them a taste of everything. This came about because we saw the need, we pulled together some people within the trades, and we said, ‘Let’s give this a go.’

My dream would be that, if you come and talk to me in a couple of years, this has grown to the point where, after people do the 12-week training class, and if they show a certain interest in say, plumbing, or being an electrician, that we then offer the next step. We could bring in a specific instructor for electrical work, welding or whatever, and adequately equip our guys to be able to go out — soon to be our ladies, too — and work in a specialized field. So that would be my dream. We’re not there yet, but we also kind of spun this up with a modest budget.

About OC Rescue Mission

Headquarters: 1 Hope Drive, Tustin

President and CEO: Bryan Crain, 49, who joined as chief operating officer in 2015, promoted to president and CEO in 2023.

Employees: 107

Estimated budget: $29 million

How many people are at Double R: The Double R Ranch has the potential to house up to 98 people. For women and children, there are 16 rooms that can accommodate up to four people per room, for a total of 64 women and children. There also are 17 rooms for men, enough housing for up to 34 men with rooms each accommodating two people. As of June 23, the current occupancy of Double R Ranch for men is 21. Women will move into the Double R Ranch in July – some of whom also will participate in the Firm Foundations program.