Mark Omid Akhavain Hosts Long Beach Grand Prix Celebration

June 23, 2011 - PRLog -- “I love the Long Beach Grand Prix,” said Mark Omid Akhavain, owner of the Ocean Center Building. “And being here, I get to play a part in the event and meet interesting people who are involved in the races. And I’m not just talking about all the Hollywood celebrities who come into Long Beach for the festivities, and there are many.”

The Long Beach Grand Prix guest and celebrity list includes actors and entertainers like film and television star, Anthony Anderson of NBC’s Law and Order and film, Transformers; Kevin Jonas, singer-songwriting-guitarist of the Jonas Brothers Band; Tito Ortiz, Ultimate Fighter coach and light heavyweight Ultimate Fighting Champion; and Kimora Lee Simmons, model, star of Style Network’s Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, and designer-founder of Baby Phat fashions.

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, an annual street racing event that has boosted the city’s economy since it began in 1975 and has grown into the longest-running premier street race in the United States, is an open-wheel car race on the streets of downtown Long Beach, California, where Akhavain's Ocean Center Building has an extraordinary view.

“The Long Beach Grand Prix celebration at the Ocean Center Building rooftop terrace was a sponsored event for Ferrari," Akhavain said. "But we help other groups plan private and public events in our spaces. We featured show cars during the Grand Prix weekend on the lawn of the Ocean Center Building for the public. Everyone, especially children, loved getting a close-up look at these beautiful machines. Red and other very bright colors seem to be the most popular finishes for show cars.”

Open-wheel design, used in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach and other races, refers to racecar construction with wheels situated outside of the car’s aerodynamic body instead of under the fender. Designed with highly advanced automotive technology, open-wheel cars have sophisticated engines located behind the driver of a one-seat vehicle, which usually has no over-head cover. These open-wheel cars differ from regular automobiles, built to operate in normal street traffic, in that open-wheel cars are produced specifically for the purpose of achieving extreme speed. “I think everyone has had a dream of being in a race or seeing a race,” Akhavain said. “The Long Beach Grand Prix allows people to dream. It’s exciting. When I was a kid, I collected all the different kinds of models of racing cars and now that I have the opportunity to be in the middle of it all, it makes me very happy.”

Akhavain’s historic Ocean Center office complex places him at the most prestigious intersection in downtown Long Beach--Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue, across from the Long Beach Entertainment and Convention Center at the hub of the Grand Prix racetrack. Known worldwide, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is a major entertainment event in the City of Long Beach every year, attracting about one-quarter million racing fans, guests and tourists to Long Beach to enjoy the races, to spend money in restaurants, hotels and other Long Beach amenities, and to partake of the picture-perfect Pacific weather.

Warm Pacific breezes softly swirled as Akhavain greeted guests to his Ocean Center rooftop garden party, outfitted with an exquisite menu of delicacies and refreshments under crisp white umbrellas that reflected a crystal blue Southern California sky. “I love to showcase the beautiful Ocean Center Building’s location on the Grand Prix track with its magnificent ocean view,” Akhavain said. “In addition to the rooftop terrace, many of our Ocean Center office suites have amazing views of the Queen Mary and other terrific ocean and city vistas. There is no better place to see the Long Beach Grand Prix. And it gives me a chance to host gatherings and invite lots of friends in the racing industry. Marco Mattiacci, President of Ferrari North America, attended our party on the rooftop terrace, along with other guests from Italy, France, Germany, many other countries and all parts of America."

See a brief history & photo of the Ocean Center Building at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40590238@N07/5849322323/

Tourist and commercial appeal of Long Beach, incorporated in 1888, began at the beginning of the 20th century with the 1902 construction of The Pike, a seaside recreational attraction with swimming pools, spas, arcades, restaurants, roller coasters, carousels and other amusements--all walking distance from the beach and visible from the Ocean Center Building that was completed in the 1929. The graceful lower archway at the back of the Ocean Center Building on Pine Avenue leading to the beach was once linked to the Pike by the historic and romantic ‘Walk of a Thousand Lights.’ In 1979, the original Pike closed and has been replaced by the new Pike at Rainbow Harbor between Shoreline Village and the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Although Long Beach is not in a perpetual state of summer year round, it has 345 days of warm, comfortable sunshine annually, ideal for tourists who want to get away from cold weather. In winter, the highs are between 67 and 73 degrees with winter lows at night normally in the 50s and 60s. Summer highs are between 70 and 80 degrees with lows at night in the 60s.

“Long Beach is an incredible environment of warm waterfront recreation almost year round,” Akhavain said. “There’s great food, shopping, performing arts, hotel accommodations, water sports, live music, comedy and lots of family fun.”

Into the decades following the 1920s, Long Beach became the fastest growing city in the nation, discovered massive oil deposits, developed large military installations and established the Port of Long Beach. In 1933, Long Beach experienced an earthquake, which collapsed roads and buildings, but did not destroy the Ocean Center Building, whose granite and marble Mediterranean-Italian features survived. The Ocean Center Building has since been retrofitted against possible future seismic damage. The rest of downtown Long Beach also recovered and rebuilt in the era’s art deco style. Even today, almost 80 years after the earthquake, Mark Omid Akhavain and others interested in historic architecture are doing their part to preserve the charm and glory of downtown Long Beach.

“During the Grand Prix, we welcome fans to downtown Long Beach from all over the nation and the world,” Akhavain said. “And what a gorgeous weekend it was on the rooftop terrace with the blue sky above and everyone having a great time. Wonderful!”

Using his vision, artistic talents and incredible energy, Akhavain continues to create economic opportunity for his Long Beach, California, community by involving himself in worthwhile projects that have positive effects on people’s lives and by extending the value of those projects into the community where his neighbors can also participate and meet professionals and experts he has come to know. “I want to make whatever success I have accessible to my community by sharing activities I am able to sponsor,” Akhavain said. “I have found that the act of reaching out and giving back to my community helps my community, while giving me great personal satisfaction.”

Since graduating from the University of California, San Diego, in 1990, Mark Omid Akhavain has used his talent and generosity to carve out a rewarding career for himself. With degrees in electrical engineering and visual arts, this artist and entrepreneur relies more on his training in art than his training in electrical engineering, “because," he said, 'at heart, I am an artist.”

The next Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is scheduled for the weekend of April 13-15, 2012. Along with the City of Long Beach, Mark Omid Akhavain has begun making plans for the historic American racing weekend. Read more and view photos on Mark Omid Akhavain, the Ocean Center Building and the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40590238@N07/5846672545/

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Mark Omid Akhavain graduated from the University of California, San Diego, in 1990. He graduated with degrees in electrical engineering and visual arts. He uses his training in both fields to support his love of design and historic building restoration, demonstrated in his downtown Long Beach, California, Ocean Center Building, located at the prestigious intersection of Pine Avenue and Ocean Boulevard. Akhavain also has California projects in Santa Monica and Orange County, and out-of-state projects in Texas and Arizona. The first of his chain of boutique Ohotels opened in 2007 in downtown Los Angeles in the heart of the financial district near the Staples Center. Opening soon in other coastal California locations are Ohotels at LAX, Newport Beach and San Diego. To read a more extended biography of Mark Omid Akhavain, visit his Business Profile Page: http://biz.prlog.org/moaoclb/