Rigonomics:

We finally have the beginning of some positive news on the economic front. The unemployment rate dropped for the first time since March 2008. It was 4.8% then and has slowly and painfully gone up to 10.2%. But, yesterday, it dropped to 10%.

This slight drop might be erased with some technical revision next month, but for now, it looks like we are slowly pulling ourselves out of the recession.

Business commentators have recently been using the term “green shoot” to indicate signs of economic recovery.

Any signs of new business opening or new construction starts are signs that the economy is starting to grow, hence the reference to plants sprouting out of the ground.

As a member of the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, I constantly meet with people who want to start businesses or build new homes or retail centers in our city. Many of those people are also doing business in Newport Beach. Many of these projects are too premature to talk about, but I would like to give you a rundown of the ones that are moving ahead in our two cities.

New homes under construction: Waterpointe Homes just broke ground on 33 new homes in Newport Beach, just east of Santa Ana Country Club off Orchard Drive.

These new homes will start in the low $600,000s.

When I asked Waterpointe President Garret Calacci how he could sell homes in Newport Beach at that price, he said that due to the recession he has been able to knock 35% off the previous construction bids. What I had to sell for almost a million dollars before, I can now sell in the low $600,000s and still make a profit.

Costa Mesa residents in Mesa Del Mar have been waiting years to see something happen at the old commercial center between El Camino and Coronado drives.

The center may have been torn down more than a year ago, but the recession stopped further construction. I drove by this week and saw the first floor framing on eight homes of the 24-home development: the Grove at Mesa Del Mar. Its website, www.groveatmesadelmar.com, states it will be ready in March.

Many Eastsiders were upset when they heard that the Borders bookstore at 19th Street and Newport Boulevard is closing.

This may not completely ease their pain, but it might help to know that construction plans have been turned into the city to convert the location to a Mother’s Market.

This new location, if approved, is almost twice the size of their existing location on 17th Street — and with a lot more parking.

Plans also call for an outdoor cafe patio.

The 300,000-square-foot South Coast Home Furnishing Centre, at South Coast Drive and Hyland Avenue, which sits north of the 405 Freeway, is about to see a major makeover take place.

Rebranded as the South Coast Collection — or SOCO — word on the street is that several major new tenants will be announced in the next few weeks.

The center, which is 3 years old, fell on hard times when the home furnishing industry bottomed out during the recession. It is getting a multimillion-dollar makeover.

Byran Ward, principal with the center’s new owner Burham Ward Properties, said, “the center is being repositioned as a Regional Decorating and Home Furnishing center.”

Residents of the States street homes worked with the new owners to remove the 60-foot freeway sign that lit up their neighborhood at night and replaced it with several 40-foot signs that are much less obtrusive.

Ward said they are also in final negotiations for a sit-down restaurant, something local residents have needed for a long time on the northwest part of town. Construction should start in January.

Lastly, the question that I get as commission chairman almost every week: What is happening with the old Kaplan’s site on the Harbor Boulevard exit of the 405 Freeway?

I can now tell you that, yes, it will be an In-N-Out Burger!

I talked with Mike Bailey, who heads up the chain’s real estate department.

He told me they have a few issues left to iron out with Caltrans, but they expect to start construction at the end of January. Hello, Double-Double!

If you have any news of others “green shoots” popping up in your area — new businesses or construction — drop me a line.

I will write about it and let everyone know that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

JIM RIGHEIMER is chairman of the Costa Mesa Planning Commission, a local business owner and a father of four. He can be reached at [email protected].