Week in review

Crown Books, which owns the trademark and name of the defunct bookstore chain, has seized on growing consumer interest in discounts to expand during the recession, Los Angeles-area Manager Gary Jones-Locke said.

The company has for the last decade owned a $1 bookstore in Burbank, at North San Fernando Boulevard and Palm Avenue, and recently changed its name to Book Heaven as it plans to upgrade fixtures and improve its brand image, Jones-Locke said.

While that store sells predominantly used books, the company’s Crown Books stores focus on heavily discounted new titles, he said.

The company’s six regional stores have upgraded in recent months, moving into larger spaces left behind by failed box stores, like Mervyn’s, he said.

The availability of those retail spaces has given Crown Books prime placement and also offered it bargaining power with property managers, he said.

The Galleria store is not yet open, and will not have all of the bells and whistles found at Borders across the street or Barnes & Noble in the Americana at Brand, he said. But Crown Books will likely capitalize on shoppers who come to the area aiming to visit those competitors, he said.

The store will help bring life back to what had previously been a busy downtown intersection, said Judee Kendall, executive director of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce.

 The new owner of Chevy Chase Country Club plans to upgrade the facility and continue operating it as a golf course, with no plans for resale or changes to the use of the 35-acre property, the company said Monday.

Chase Oak Co. had owned the rights to a $5-million loan given to the club’s former owner, JJ Lee Management Co., which defaulted on payments in 2008 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June, according to court documents.

Chase Oak foreclosed on the property Nov. 20 after a federal judge removed a stay blocking the action.

The company will now try to turn the struggling club around after Jong Lee, who ran the course, failed to draw a buyer for the property, first listing it for $8.9 million and later lowering his asking price to $6.5 million, court records show.

The firm plans to invest in upgrading the facility, perhaps including landscaping improvements and changes to its locker rooms, Robert Ahn, a managing member of Chase Oak.

That goal was reassuring to Larry Barnes, president of the Chevy Chase Estates Homeowners Assn. and a member of the club.