It appears April 20 willmark another milestone inthe tumultuous run of theFisker brand.That’s the date Costa

Mesa-based Fisker Auto-motive and TechnologiesGroup LLC is teasingamid a buzz of a revampedmodel of its Karma luxuryhybrid sports car.The company recently

launched a one-page web-site—thenewfisker.com—that pushes speculationalong. The site displays a single overview shot ofwhat appears to be a sleek black Karma with a sim-ple message that scrolls down the page: “It’s on.Luxury energized. Energy optimized. IntroducingApril 2015.”The digital glimpse could presage a name-change

for the luxury hybrid sedan and the company itself,with eLux Technology or Elux Automotive among

� � � CONEJO VALLEY � SIMI VALLEY � SAN FERNANDO � CALABASAS � AGOURA HILLS � ANTELOPE VALLEY

T H E C O M M U N I T Y O F B U S I N E S S

TM

T

$1.50 VOL. 38 NO. 15 APRIL 13-19, 2015

� � � CONEJO VALLEY � SIMI VALLEY � SAN FERNANDO � CALABASAS � AGOURA HILLS � ANTELOPE VALLEY

ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL

ocbj.com

Signs of FreshStart for FiskerAUTOS: Company circles April 20amid buzz about new name, model

�Fisker 81

By CHRIS CASACCHIA

The $5 million in seedfunding that NewportBeach-based Beall FamilyFoundation provided forthe University of Califor-nia-Irvine’s new Institutefor Innovation is bearingcommercial fruit.The institute is seen as a

particular passion of DonBeall, chairman emeritus ofaerospace maker Rockwellwho said at the time of thedonation 14 months agothat the aim of the new institute was “to bring dis-coveries to life, benefiting students, faculty, busi-ness leaders, the community and society as awhole.”UC Irvine said the institute was founded as a

“single point of contact” for the business commu-nity, faculty and students who want to make use ofthe school’s intellectual property. It offers opportu-nities for sponsored research, where companies can

Broad Range for UCI’sPush on InnovationEDUCATION: Blueberries tomicrochips, toothpaste

�Innovation 82

By PAUL HUGHES

Dragon Crowd Garment Inc. relocated its head-quarters three years ago from downtown Los Ange-les to Costa Mesa to be closer to a bunch ofOC-based customers, including Oakley Inc., VansInc., Quiksilver Inc. and Pacific Sunwear of Cal-ifornia Inc.A change in business strategy came with the

move: Dragon Crowd is approaching the retailersand brands who rely on it for private-label produc-tion with original designs inspired by trends it seesin the marketplace as it churns out some 21 milliongarments each year.“Far too often as manufacturers we sit back and

wait for our customer to bring us an idea and say,‘This is what we want you to manufacture for us,’ ” �Dragon 82

said Dragon Crowd President J Spencer. “We aregetting input from so many different places about

Apparel Maker’s Ambitions Tied to Costa Mesa HQ, China ProductionHow to Unchain Your Dragon

By MEDIHA DIMARTINO

MAIL TO:

INSIDE

Newport HeightsMoves Forward

page 3

page 61

Luxury Homespage 12

Dragon Crowd: apparel maker works for big brands,hired magazine designers to create swatch book ofnew styles

Lu: tapped fortune tobuy Costa Mesa-based auto brand outof bankruptcy

Way Up InArts District

Proposal for LuxuryCondo Tower to CostaMesa Planners

Rendering: “aluminum cladding and curvilinear vertical projections” billed as complement to nearby Renee &Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall

By MARK MUELLER

The owners of the Avenue ofthe Arts Wyndham Hotel aremoving ahead on plans to buildthe first high-rise condo-minium tower in Costa Mesa’sarts district.

Rosanna Inc., an affiliate ofthe Wincome Group, a HongKong-based real estate ownerand investor, has filed planswith the city to build a 23-story, 100-unit luxury condotower on land it owns next tothe Wyndham at 3350 Avenueof the Arts.The developer bought the

hotel and adjacent land in 2009and renovated the property toits current four-star status. The site is a short walk from

�Condo Tower 76

Jaksch: conversationat a wedding led toUCI collaboration

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82 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com APRIL 13, 2015

� from page 1Dragonwhat’s happening and where the trend isgoing, so we wanted to be a more dynamicforce in driving that conversation.”The knitwear manufacturer, founded in

1998 by Chief Executive Edward Zhou,wrapped up 2014 with more than $120 mil-lion in sales to action-sports brands and re-tailers, including local stalwarts of thesegment, as well as Nike Inc., Blooming-dale’s Inc., BCBG Max Azria Group Inc.,Nordstrom Inc. and Macy’s Inc.

HQ, WorkersDragon Crowd’s headquarters are in an in-

dustrial park near John Wayne Airport,where 32 workers spread over sales, market-ing, design, customer service and productdevelopment teams tend to 40 accounts.The company has more than 3,000 em-

ployees in China, where it owns and operatesone mill for woven fabric and two knittingmills in NingBo, a center of some 2,000 gar-ment manufacturers, according to NingBoForeign Trade & Economic CooperationBureau. Dragon Crowd’s newest garment factory

just opened there at a cost of about $10 mil-lion. The newly built structure features state-of-the-art equipment, while its workforce,more than 800 employees, were drawn fromtwo factories whose accounts were acquiredby Dragon Crowd.The company is staking a firm claim in

China as some others are chasing cheaperlabor and other breaks on overhead that canbe found in less-developed markets such as

Bangladesh or vari-ous countries inAfrica.“We see China as a

tremendous growthopportunity whereasother people are run-ning away because ofincrease in costs,”Spencer said.A lot of factories in

China are closing be-cause their owners“were not looking tobuild a company” butto “create a large rev-enue streams for themselves,” Spencer said.“There’s nothing wrong with that—DragonCrowd was started under the same guise—but what we are trying to do today is a littlebit different; we want to create a great com-pany” on par with established China-basedmanufacturers such as Youngor Group orNingBo Yinzhou, which makes goods forbig brands such as Adidas, Nike and Fila.

Shift to OCDragon Crowd’s move to Orange County

in late 2012 was a first step in that direction.For the better part of 2013, the team focusedon rolling up several of Zhou’s business ven-tures under the Dragon Crowd umbrella.They included apparel brands such as Col-orfast, 3rd & Army, Brigade, Social Re-public, AtoZ Trends and Lovebird.“We did an assessment of the organization

and determined that we are a manufacturer,not brand builders,” Spencer said. “We useprivate brands to show the products that wecan make, to be able to innovate, to do some

things that the customer might not be seeingin the marketplace (that) we want to buildsamples around.”Last year he and Zhou assessed Dragon

Crowd’s operations, examining merchandisingsystems and processes for quality control. Thereview led a five-year strategic plan that sets outa goal of shipping 55 million garments for $500million in annual revenue by 2020.“We see that as feasible, not just [by gain-

ing] new clients, but also through acquisi-tion of other factories,” Spencer said. “Wewant to be able to control every facet of themanufacturing process.” About 80% of Dragon Crowd’s produc-

tion is done at its own fabric mills and gar-ment factories. The rest comes fromcompanies that Dragon Crowd either par-tially owns or has been doing business withfor a long time.Spencer said he anticipates acquisitions

that will add “at least another 10%” of pro-duction capacity by 2016.

Savings, QualityManufacturing a garment at a company-

owned facility rather than sending designsout for contract sewing generates on average15% to 18% in savings, he said.“You can also control the quality and the

treatment of the personnel,” he said. “Morethan 3,000 families are affected by DragonCrowd, and we have (a) responsibility tothem to deliver a future and we take thatvery seriously.”The company’s strategy for this year is all

“about dollars—how we make dollars andhow we spend dollars,” Spencer said.Dragon Crowd, which competes locally

with apparel manufacturers Mydyer Inc. in

Long Beach and Culver City-based TopsonDowns, recently invested in new promotionalmaterials to stand out from the crowd. It hiredcreative staff from men’s magazine Hype-beast—a relative newcomer with digital rootsand a young and artistic edge—to develop acouple of trend and fabric swatch books.Customers can “see and feel fabric,” while

the packaging by the Hypebeast vets provide“street cred,” said Marketing Director JeffMarshall.The team is using the new promotional

materials this spring during meetings withclients in Europe, a market in which DragonCrowd hopes to make a push this year.

ActivewearDragon Crowd has also put a focus on ac-

tivewear—garments that work for the gymand everyday wear. The category outpacedsales growth for the apparel market as awhole last year.The move followed a recent acquisition

that strengthened the company’s offerings inthe category.“To compete in that market, we bought a

factory that was already building productlike that for other customers,” Spencer said.“We now we own those (accounts).”Dragon Crowd’s research and develop-

ment team is using 30 dedicated knitting ma-chines to develop new fabrics and designs.It also hired a freelance designer who hascreated activewear products for brands suchas Reebok, Puma and Nike.“She’s amazing,” he said, declining to dis-

close the designer’s name. “We’re designingentire lines for customers. All they have tosay is, ‘I want this, this and this, in these col-ors,’ and ‘I’m done.’ ” �

Spencer: wants com-pany to be “dynamicforce in driving con-versation” about de-sign for apparellabels, retailers

� from page 1Innovationwork with UCI faculty or pay for their serv-ices. A push to encourage angel investing aswell as business incubation and accelerationis under way.Then-Provost and now Chancellor Howard

Gillman called it “a strategic priority” to en-sure cooperation between the school and “alively entrepreneurial community” locally.Angel investor and UCI alumnus Richard

Sudek—who formerly led Chapman Uni-versity’s Leatherby Center for Entrepre-neurship & Business Ethics—signed on todirect the new institute last July.The institute’s first fruits range from a

small, privately held maker of a new tooth-paste to a startup that hopes to make home di-agnostic kits for cancer and a publicly tradedingredients developer.

BlueberriesUCI jointly owns patent No. 8,841,350

B2—granted in November by the U.S. Patentand Trademark Office—with Irvine-basedChromaDex Corp.Chromadex participated in and helped pay

for the research behind the patent, which cov-ers the use of pterostilbene—a naturally oc-curring polyphenol in blueberries—forpreventing damage to the skin by ultravioletlight. The company sells proprietary ingredients

that go into food, drinks, cosmetics and ani-mal care products.It traded recently at a market cap of $155

million and had net sales of $15.3 million lastyear.ChromaDex controls two other patents on

pterostilbene, which is the basis for an ingre-dient that’s used by various ChromaDex cus-tomers in about 40 food and beverageproducts, according to the company.ChromaDex Chief Executive Frank

Jaksch said a company employee’s conver-

sation with a UCI researcher at a wedding ledto the joint effort.“We planned to work on its skincare poten-

tial but hadn’t started yet,” Jaksch said.The collaboration started under UCI’s Of-

fice of Technology Alliances, which now ispart of the Institute for Innovation. The proj-ect accounted for just one of 81 patents issuedto UCI in 2013 and 2014 that was based onthe university’s research, according to Ron-nie Hanecak, director of the Office of Tech-nology Alliances.ChromaDex paid UCI $15,000 for its work,

the company said, and royalty payments areat least $5,000 a year, according to a regula-tory filing.

Tuck-InUCI chemistry researchers Reginald Pen-

ner and Gregory Weiss have done work thatcould lead to at-home urine tests—similar toover-the-counter pregnancy tests—to detectprostate cancer.Development-stage healthcare firm

PhageTech LLC, which shares space at theEvoNexus business incubator in UniversityResearch Park in Irvine, licensed the technol-ogy, which uses a microchip to test for dis-

ease. Then it asked Penner and Weiss to takea different tack and pursue research for pa-tients with kidney failure or bladder cancer.PhageTech Chief Executive Richard Hen-

son asked for the new focus—a midprojectrequest that can generate what’s called “tuck-in” research—in hopes of developing a prod-uct to serve a bigger market.The request met a key criterion UCI main-

tains for companies seeking research, accord-ing to Carolyn Stephens, the Institute forInnovation’s strategic marketing director.“The company brings it in, and the faculty

asks, ‘Will this move the science forward?’ ”she said.PhageTech’s request passed muster.“The professors knew it was a platform you

could run almost any kind of test on,” Hensonsaid. “So we’ve licensed the existing patents,and now they’re going to refine the technol-ogy.”Henson estimated PhageTech could pay

$350,000 to $500,000 for UCI’s new re-search.“We think we could start a clinical trial by

the end of the year,” he said.UCI’s Beckman Laser Institute helped

Los Gatos-based health sciences company

Wilder-Smith: reputation for imaging research led to work for Los Gatos-based toothpaste maker

Livionex Inc. with a new dental gel.Petra Wilder-Smith, director of dentistry

at the laser institute, said she first told Liv-ionex Chief Executive Amit Goswamy, “Idon’t really do toothpaste—I’m more in-volved in cancer research.”

Potential OverlapWilder-Smith was drawn to the potential

overlap with her regular work.“Many people with oral cancers can’t use

regular toothpaste” because of chemotherapy,she said, and the Livionex gel’s natural ingre-dients could address that problem.On top of that, she said, “I’m always open

to a challenge.”Goswamy, meanwhile, said an activated

food preservative in his company’s gel in-hibits plaque, and he wanted to see ifhigh-resolution fluorescent microscopy—Wilder-Smith’s expertise—would give clearsupport to the claim.“Research [brings] credibility, [and] a U.S.

university is the gold standard for research,”he said.Goswamy cited Wilder-Smith’s “rigor and

balance” in past work and Beckman’s reputa-tion for imaging.“You need the photos,” he said. “I wanted

objective data.”UCI did the work in 2013 and published re-

sults in two journals last year, bringing awindfall of publicity just as the Institute forInnovation took shape.“The product worked very well indeed,”

Wilder-Smith said, “removing plaque, pre-venting re-accumulation and [working]quicker” than the toothpaste the study com-pared it to.Wilder-Smith said her research team at any

one time does research for 10 to 20 companies.Research has included work for Glidewell

Laboratories in Newport Beach and a dentallaser maker in Carlsbad.Livionex paid $20,000 for the work, she

said, which covered costs.“We never make a profit off our studies.” �

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