Developer Buys the San Diego Union-Tribune-Weekly Reader

I'm staying in Coronado for a couple of days and the hotel provided a free copy of the San Diego Union-Tribune this morning. I was shocked at how puny the newspaper is these days. It looks like it's about the size of the Weekly Reader I used to get in elementary school. Frankly, I'm not sure why anyone even bothers with newspapers anymore, but one guy decided he wants to own this one:

The San Diego Union-Tribune is being sold to MLIM, owned by local hotel magnate Doug Manchester, current owner Platinum Equity announced Thursday.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed by Los Angeles-based Platinum, which bought the 143-year-old newspaper from Copley Press in 2009. The acquisition is expected to close by Dec. 15.

If I look in the right direction from my hotel I can see the San Diego Marriott, which is right on the Bay by Seaport Village. Back in the early 80's that hotel was built, originally as the Intercontinental.

 Beverly Hills Savings, the S&L I worked for at the time, provided $20 million in financing for the project. I remember one day there was a lot of excitement in the office because the developer had just arrived via helicopter. I watched him take off a little later.

Not long after that the whole project went bust and the bank lost the $20 million investment. It helped put my S&L into bankruptcy.

The developer was Doug Manchester.

Good luck, U-T.