Publication: Contra Costa Times (California)

According to the state controller’s office, the state is holding $5.1 billion in unclaimed property.

The most common types of unclaimed properties are bank accounts, contents of safety deposit boxes, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, uncashed cashier’s checks or money orders, certificates of deposit and matured or terminated insurance policies.

The state acquires unclaimed property through California’s Unclaimed Property Law, which requires corporations, business associations, financial institutions and insurance companies to annually report and deliver property to the state controller after no customer contact for three years. This means people can forget the account exists, or move without a forwarding address or even die without their heirs knowing about the property.

For more information and to see if you have unclaimed property, go to http://www.sco.ca.gov/col/ucp or call toll-free 800-992-4647.

Real estate

Mill Valley-based residential developer Thompson-Dorfman Partners is expected to break ground this week on 555 Ygnacio Valley Road, an upscale 87-unit condominium community in Walnut Creek.

Partners Will Thompson and Bruce Dorfman, multifamily residential developers, created units from 750 to 1,300 square feet, according to Gallen.Neilly & Associates. It also has six live/work units averaging approximately 1,000 square feet. The project is located between Broadway and Main Streets, within two blocks of Walnut Creek’s BART station and close to downtown.

The $55 million project is slated for completion in the latter part of 2008. The community was designed by San Francisco-based architects Kwan Henmi while the project architect is KTGY Group of Irvine.

Pharamceutical

South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. completed an interim analysis of its Avastin drug in a study of early-stage colon cancer, potentially accelerating a plan to market the product to more patients.

The analysis occurred in the second quarter and raised no “unexpected” safety issues, the company said. Avastin, first approved by the FDA 2004, is Genentech’s second-biggest- selling drug, with $1.7 billion in sales in 2006. The medicine is approved for advanced forms of colon and lung cancer. The drug is being tested on patients in the early, or “adjuvant,” stage in which doctors hope to wipe out cancer cells that may remain after tumors are surgically removed.

Quick hit

Walnut Creek-based Longs Drug Stores Corp. reported a 3.5 percent increase in sales from continuing operations during the month of June. The chain said it had sales of $464 million compared with $448 million during the same period last year.

Those figures do not include stores that Longs has closed or plans to close soon including 23 stores in Washington, Oregon and Colorado.

Compiled from wire and staff reports. Got Bay Area business news? Reach Drew Voros at 925-943-8099 or at dvoros@cctimes.com.