BRIEFCASE BRADBURY BUILDING GETS A NEW OWNER.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

The historic Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles has been sold to a partnership that owns several other classic properties in the area, officials said Tuesday.

Terms of the sale by Bradbury Associates to Downtown Properties Holdings were not disclosed. Bradbury Associates' general partner was the late Ira Yellin and Burbank-based Shamrock Holdings of California Inc., the investment arm of the Roy E. Disney family, was the major investor.

Located at Third Street and Broadway, the building's most distinguishing features are its five-story central atrium capped with a glass skylight, open-cage elevators, staircases that feature ornate, French-style iron work, Mexican tile floors, and pale brick and rich wood-paneled walls.

Downtown Properties' other holdings are the One Bunker Hill building, 818 West Seventh Street, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Verizon's wireless quality ranks tops

WESTLAKE VILLAGE - Verizon Wireless ranks highest in network quality performance among the top seven largest wireless providers, according to an inaugural study from J.D. Power and Associates.

The Westlake Village-based company's ``2003 Wireless Network Quality Assessment Study'' provided a detailed account of problems customers experience with their wireless calls. It used a network quality index based on seven customer-reported problem areas that impact overall carrier performance, including dropped or disconnected calls and interference.

Verizon ranked highest with a score of 104. Nextel and Cingular also performed above the industry average, with scores of 103 and 101, respectively. AT&T Wireless performed at the industry average.

Video Symphony now to offer visas

BURBANK - Video Symphony will be able to offer student visas, the entertainment instruction center announced Tuesday. Up to 20 foreign students will be able to apply for the visas, which can be used to study television, film, video and DVD production.

CalPERS has gain in past fiscal year

NEW YORK - The nation's largest public pension fund on Tuesday reported a gain for its past fiscal year, ending two years of negative investment returns.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System said its investments earned 3.9 percent for the year ended June 30.

Those gains generated $4.8 billion in profit after benefit payments and contributions, and brought the pension fund's assets to $144.8 billion.

``Our performance ends a two-year run of negative returns and shows hope for continued recovery in the markets,'' CalPERS' chief investment officer Mark Anson said.

The positive returns were a rebound from investment losses of 7.2 percent in 2001, and 5.9 percent in 2002, according to Brad Pacheco, a spokesman for the pension fund.

BP's profits fall in the 2nd quarter

LONDON - Energy giant BP PLC on Tuesday reported a drop in profits for the second quarter of 2003 but said expected strong demand in the coming six months should help support oil prices.

The group, parent to the Southern California's ARCO chain, recorded a net profit of $1.63 billion during the three months to June 30, down from $2.06 billion in the same period a year ago. In the first quarter of 2003, when uncertainty in the Middle East and ethnic tensions in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region sent prices soaring, BP made a net profit of $4.27 billion.

Surveys say pay raises are smaller

NEW YORK - Employers are dispensing notably smaller pay raises this year - well below the 4 percent-plus increases routine before the economy lost its footing - and workers should not expect much improvement in 2004.

Companies checked in a pair of surveys have budgeted pay increases averaging 3.3 percent to 3.5 percent this year and plan about the same next year, the smallest raises for workers since at least the mid-1970s.

The belt-tightening reflects employer efforts to balance pay with rising worker health care bills and pension costs in a business climate that has made it difficult to raise prices for their own products, according to a survey to be released today by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.