BRIEFLY IN BUSINESS

William Lyon Homes sales fall dramatically

Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes announced Thursday a major dip in third-quarter sales and home orders compared with 2005.

The home builder’s 72% decrease in net income comes as the real estate market is experiencing a major cool-down. Home prices are dropping, and according to William Lyon Homes, new home orders are down 40% from third-quarter 2005 to the same time this year.

The builder reported that it began experiencing a slowdown during the last half of the fourth quarter 2005. Pressure to lower home prices because of its competition also softened its markets this year.

Despite its dropping sales, over the last nine months, the homebuilder increased its number of sites it was selling on by 24%.

The homebuilder sells its homes in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Real estate firm makes multimillion-dollar deal

Newport Beach-based Buchanan Street Partners just helped push through a $23-million deal for Pacifica Real Estate Group and Investcorp, which were selling two Long Beach buildings.

The 124,361-square-foot property near the Long Beach airport was sold to Legacy Partners in Foster City and are considered a class A project. They are 98% occupied by companies, including Verizon and the Federal Aviation Administration. Pacifica Real Estate Group is headquartered in Santa Barbara, but has an office in Newport Beach. Investcorp is headquartered in New York.

Celebrities coin phrases for charity

South Coast Plaza’s Replay is auctioning off its Celebri-Tease Shirts beginning Nov. 21 through Dec. 8 to raise money for Homeless Health Care Los Angeles.

The New York-based Italian brand got celebrities such as Al Pacino, Paris Hilton, William Shatner and Jeremy Piven to put their thoughts on a T-shirt canvas. Each celeb also signed the shirts. Hilton’s “That’s Hott” and Shatner’s “Just Give,” among others, show up on the T-shirts. The shirts are available on www.charityfolks.com through Dec. 8.

Nursery director designing ornaments

Roger’s Gardens creative director Eric Cortina introduced his Christmas ornament designs to the international community last week.

His designs were previously available at only Roger’s Gardens, but now his handmade glass ornaments will be going to boutiques such as Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel and Fortnum & Mason in London.

Cortina released his first line of ornaments in 2003, and in the past two years more than 2,000 pieces have been sold. He got his start while looking for hard-to-find pieces for Roger’s Gardens in Germany. The German vendor asked him to draw a design and the rest is history, according to Roger’s Gardens. His ornaments are made in a family-run factory in Krakow, Poland. His ornaments are still available at Roger’s Gardens and online at www.rogersgardens.com.

Newport engineering firm hires new manager

Newport Beach-based Boyle Engineering Corporation announced last month it hired Matthew Thomas to head its water and wastewater practice group.

The group serves clients throughout Orange County, and the addition of Thomas is part of its planned expansion.

Most recently, Thomas served as a division manager with oversight of water and wastewater projects at PBS&J;, an engineering consultancy firm based in Florida. He is a registered engineer in California and received his degree in civil engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Boyle plans, designs and creates infrastructure projects and specializes in water resources, treatment and distribution.

Newport company joins broadband alliance

Newport Beach-based BandTel announced this month it has joined the Retail Broadband Alliance, a forum that tries to make it easier for businesses to join broadband networks to increase sales and cut expenses.

BandTel is an international provider of Session Initiation Protocol Trunking services, which were designed to allow telephone-like features — such as dialing a number, hearing ring tones or getting a busy single — to happen over the Internet.

More than 200 companies belong to the Retail Broadband Alliance, and they provide products and services to retail stores’ high-speed data networks. The alliance tries to increase awareness of broadband solutions that will improve customer service and cut expenses.

Software company goes live in the U.K.

Newport Beach-based LiveTime Software announced last week its LiveTime Help Desk software was adopted by Genus, a United Kingdom firm applying genetics and biotechnology to animal breeding.

Genus adopted LiveTime’s software to support its technicians in remote offices that couldn’t connect to local area networks the company was using before.

LiveTime Software provides service management, help desk and customer support software to companies around the world.

Senior-living firm announces major sale

Newport Beach-based Nationwide Health Properties Inc. announced last week it’s going to sell 30 of its senior living communities to a Chicago company for over $148 million.

The communities were being leased to Brookdale Senior Living Inc. in Chicago for about $10 million a year before the deal was inked.

The company expects the sale to benefit the company by allowing it to acquire other companies and properties, as well as lower the cost of capital and diversifying its portfolio.

Nationwide Health Properties specializes in senior living and long-term care facilities. It has more than 430 facilities in 40 states.

Hoag Hospital nurses to be honored

UnitedHealthcare announced last month its plans to give $12,000 to support the DAISY Foundation’s award for extraordinary nurses, which will honor nurses at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, among others.

DAISY stands for Diseases Attacking the Immune System and was started by the family of a man who died from an auto-immune disease.