After setbacks, Straders vow to push projects

Tim Strader Sr. and Jr. have taken hits of late, but the father-son developers say they aren't giving up on plans for two big projects: Koll Center Newport and Campus Centre in Irvine.

The Straders' Irvine-based Starpointe Ventures has been hit with a double-- whammy this year. On Nov. 20,

The election defeat-the first test of the city's so-called Greenlight initiative-came after the financial backer for Starpointe Venture's proposed Campus Centre in Irvine got cold feet and pulled out of that project.

The Straders said they're not giving up on Koll Center Newport. An environmental study of a revised version of the project-one that further reduces the impact on traffic-is in the works, they said.

The goal: revamping the project with an eye toward getting voters to sign off on it.

"We're looking at possibilities of redesigning the project to reduce the impact," Tim Strader Sr. said. "There are only two places where you can build this-Newport Center and the airport area."