Is Raytheon going retail with Radar?

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Travis Slocumb has an interesting new job: He's selling some high-tech gizmos that Raytheon Co. developed for the U.S. Defense Dept. and space exploration.

Does that mean someone could buy a heat-seeking laser gyroscope and hang it in their garage, if only to impress the guy next door?

"That's not what this is about," explained the 48year-old Slocumb, Raytheon's new vice president of business and development. Raytheon of El Segundo sold about $4.5 billion worth of radar and sensor systems last year.

"Some of our traditional markets are flattening out," he explained and added that, "we want to be more competitive than ever in the domestic and international markets." Does that mean that, say, a heat-resistant laser scope would cost $20? Probably not.

"Price points matter," said Slocumb, who lives with his wife Tina and two sons in Manhattan Beach but still keeps a house in Washington, D.C.

Downbeat Broad

Eli Broad is not at all sanguine about the economy, mainly because of the residential real estate problem. He imagines a million people across the country will lose their homes to foreclosure.

"It's a big problem, and I'm not very optimistic," the billionaire philanthropist said Wednesday during a lunch panel at the Business Journal's CEO Conference & Expo at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel downtown. The recession will take at least a couple years to work through.

On the other hand, another local billionaire, John Anderson, said at the same panel discussion that his 42 businesses are making money. "I feel good about the economy."

Seoul Man

And if the real estate market is downbeat, Choonbe Jeong is upbeat. He's chief executive of South Korea's big Shinyoung Co. Ltd. development firm, and he likes the downtown L.A. and Koreatown real estate market.

"It's harder to break into the market when it's strong, because everyone wants to get in and it's difficult to secure land," said Jeong, who was in town last week from Seoul. "When the real estate market stumbles--that's when the veterans step in. I see the current climate as a huge opportunity."

For now, the opportunity has come in the form of the tallest residential building planned in Los Angeles-the 40-story tower at Wilshire and Hobart boulevards that his firm is building at a cost of $370 million.

Shinyoung is also building a $240 million luxury condo project downtown on the corner of Ingraham and Bixel. The 334-unit residential mixed use will be completed in late 2008.

"It'll give the city a taste of what we can do and hope to do in L.A.," Jeong said.