Glendora

Name Change: NTDStichler Architecture, a San Diego-based firm with Los Angeles-area offices at 955 Overland Court in San Dimas and 2025 E. Financial Way in Glendora, has changed its name to NTD Architecture. The company, founded in 1953, has been involved predominantly in health care and education facilities in the Los Angles area.

Claremont

Hotel Opening: Hotel Casa 425 has opened in Claremont. The boutique hotel and lounge at 425 First St., was built in historic California Mission architecture style and has 28 rooms that range in price from $165 to $400 per night. Amenities include free parking, complimentary breakfast, wireless Internet connection in each room and same-day dry cleaning. The property was developed by Pasadena-based Tolkin Group, which has also worked on the Metlox complex in Manhattan Beach and portions of Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade.

Marina del Rey

Residential Construction: A new residential community called Pier Pointe is now under construction in Marina del Rey. The cluster of townhomes, condominiums and a nine-story residential tower was designed by Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderbergh in Santa Monica. The tower was a an existing office building that is being converted. The beach front complex will include 122 units with an expected completion date of December 2008.

Century City

Branch Opening: City National Bank will open a Century City Regional Center in the Century Plaza Towers at 2029 Century Park East. The 25,000-square foot location will include space on the first three floors of the building and include a renovated branch office and an expanded private banking office. City National Bank also has a Century City location at 1800 Century Park East. City National Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beverly Hills-based City National Corp.

Beverly Hills

Store Premiere: Fashion designer Elie Tahari is opening a store inside Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 16. A percentage of the grand-opening sales will go to the Alliance for Children’s Rights. Elie Tahari clothes are sold at boutiques inside stores such as Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales.

Italian Leather: Geox, an Italian footwear brand, opened its first free-standing store in the Los Angeles at 400 N. Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. The shoes, designed by Mario Moretti Polegato, have a micro-porous membrane through which hot air can flow out, but water can’t flow in. The Beverly Hills store will carry a full line of men’s, women’s and children’s footwear. Geox shoes are sold in 68 countries.

Brentwood

Hotel Reopens: A former Holiday Inn at 170 N. Church Lane near Brentwood has been reopened as a boutique hotel called Hotel Angeleno. It has 209 redesigned guest rooms and a Cal-Italian restaurant/lounge called West. The property is owned by Sherman Oaks-based GH Capital LLC and is operated San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hospitality.

Torrance

Flashlight Distributed: Torrance-based flashlight producer, Pelican Products Inc. has started shipping for the general release of its 7060 LED flashlight, which premiered in March as the official flashlight for the Los Angeles Police Department. Pelican has received requests for the flashlight from 1,500 police departments in the U.S., and distributors have ordered more than 6,000 units.

Long Beach

Lunch Menu: Tracht’s Restaurant, at the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel at 111 E. Ocean Blvd., recently started serving lunch daily with a menu that includes crab devilled eggs, pot-roast sandwiches, lobster club and black mussels. Complete bar service is available. The creator of Tracht’s, Susanne Tracht, also opened Jar, a steakhouse in Los Angeles at 8225 Beverly Blvd.

Manhattan Beach

Beauty Bid: Manhattan Beach-based Intelligent Beauty, a beauty brand incubator with a full in-house advertising agency, was recently acquired by Palo Alto-based private equity firm, Technology Crossover Ventures. TCV has stakes in Expedia, CNet, E-Harmony and Fandango.