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This indeed has been the Year of the Roller Coaster. Wall Street climbs high, plummets sharply, then begins to rise again. Tourism booms, helped along by the rare experience of playing host to both a Super Bowl and World Series in the same year. The Padres soar, then stumble hard against the mighty Yankees, then dance again on Election Day.
The Chargers raise hopes with a promising new quarterback, then disappoint on the fragile ego of youth.
Yes, it has been an up and down year in "America's Finest City/Technology's Perfect Climate." But the ups — including the adoption of two Fortune 500 companies and a strong stake in the future of digital TV — far outweigh the downsizing. So, take the wild ride through 1998:
JANUARY
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2
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• The Port of San Diego opens a $238 million expansion of Lindbergh Field, increasing capacity from 14 million to 20 million passengers annually.
• The pullout of a major partner leads to a 20 percent drop in stock prices for Lidak Pharmaceuticals. Bristol-Myers Squibb bails on its deal to market the local biotech's oral herpes treatment, Lidakol. Company head David Katz is at a loss to explain the loss but suggests it could lead to higher revenues.
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5
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• On the upside, the FDA clears the way for Molecular Biosystems to market Optison, an image-enhancing drug for heart ultrasounds. The San Diego biotech says the approval could lead to nearly $300 million in sales initially and as much as $1 billion during the next five years.
• Hoping to hang onto its alleged independence, the San Diego Taxpayers Association steps out of a business coalition backing the $216 million convention center expansion. The group says it fears senatorial candidate Susan Golding's political opportunism.
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6
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• With the grandson of its namesake in attendance, Lindbergh Field operators unveil the completed terminal expansion.
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7
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• Chalk one up for the Red, White & Q: Russian authorities inform Qualcomm that field tech Richard Bliss won’t have to return anytime soon to face espionage charges for allegedly taking land measurements at a restricted site. But analysts' concerns about Qualcomm's investment in troubled Asian markets send its stock tumbling 7 percent.
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8
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• A busy day at City Hall. Mayor Golding drops her Senate bid as demanded by Malin Burnham in the December '97 Metropolitan, backs a public vote on the convention center expansion after Bruce Henderson's petition signatures are validated, and cringes when some council colleagues call for a new Chargers stadium contract. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Paraphrasing Li'l Orphan Annie, the mayor hedges: "But there will always be a tomorrow."
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9
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• Downtown’s Wyndham Emerald Plaza Hotel is sold to Patriot American Hospitality and Wyndham International in a deal that includes more than $71 million in cash and assumption of $35 million in debt, a huge profit for Robert Sarver, who still controls the adjacent office tower.
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13
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• In a national survey, San Diego finishes in the bottom 10 of the country's 100 best cities to earn and save money. The study, by a Minneapolis financial company, is based on income, cost of living and housing costs.
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14
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• Apparently the "Price was REIT." Kimco Realty Corp., a New York-based real estate investment trust with the country's largest portfolio of neighborhood shopping centers, says it will buy La Jolla's Price REIT for $535 million in stock and assume debts of $300 million.
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15
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• A New York investment group proposes a $200 million redevelopment of the B Street Cruise Ship Terminal into a multi-use design. In addition, a 45-story "San Diego Tower," which many liken to an oversized Tootsie Pop, is proposed for the Embarcadero.
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20
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• After an aborted stop in Ensenada, the famed luxury liner QE2 makes an unplanned visit to San Diego for the first time in eight years.
• The chairman of Lidak Pharmaceuticals, Daniel Paracka, resigns after a Los Angeles health company says it may invest tens of millions in the La Jolla biotech.
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21
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• Alan Hunt, CEO of Padre owner John Moores' software-publishing firm, Peregrine Systems Inc., resigns. Executive v.p. Stephen Gardner is named acting chief executive. Hunt says he wants to pursue other interests.
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25
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• Super Bowl XXXII, held at Qualcomm Stadium, is deemed a rousing success and the third most-watched program in television history. And a small local company that makes portable sports pumps gets a free 30-second commercial during the game, a gift from Mail Boxes Etc. valued at $1.3 million. Pocket Pump, the city and the Denver Broncos win the day.
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29
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• The county grand jury calls on the city of San Diego to renegotiate the controversial 60,000-seat guarantee with the Chargers. A bemused Bruce Henderson giggles that the council was "completely out of its league" when it negotiated the agreement in 1995 and should resign en masse. That doesn’t happen.
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FEBRUARY
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2
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• A unanimous San Diego City Council lets voters decide the fate of an expanded convention center during the June election. Henderson and the publisher of a counterculture entertainment tabloid trade high fives.
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3
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• The City Council decides to put the issue of building a new Downtown library to a public vote in November. Three council members dissent, including Valerie Stallings, claiming the plan "has more holes in it than Swiss cheese."
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4
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• Pharmacopeia, a New Jersey biotech company, says it will buy San Diego modeling-software developer Molecular Simulations Inc. for about $140 million.
• Mycogen Corp.'s stock takes a 16 percent dive after a federal jury finds in favor of the San Diego biotech's rival, Monsanto, in a battle over patent rights concerning the growth of bug-resistant plants.
• The San Diego Taxpayers Association issues a report urging the San Diego Padres to ante up a minimum of $100 million toward construction of a Downtown ballpark. The group calls on the city to kick in about $4 million a year from hotel taxes.
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5
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• Blaming economic uncertainties in South Korea that led to canceled orders, Qualcomm lays off 700 temporary workers and shuts down a manufacturing line in Sorrento Valley. Qualcomm's stock takes a plunge as several analysts switch their recommendations from "buy" to "hold."
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9
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• Undaunted by recent financial woes at his company, Qualcomm Chairman Irwin Jacobs endows UCSD's engineering school with $15 million. Coincidentally, the department is renamed the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering.
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10
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• Hoping more buyouts will follow, Bank of Commerce signs an agreement to acquire Vista-based Rancho Vista National Bank. Look out, Pete Davis is hungry. Judy Stewert says she’ll retire as the region's only female bank president.
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11
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• Spinning yarns of pocket watch-sized cell phones and other compact communications devices suitable for James Bond, IBM acquires San Diego wireless manufacturer CommQuest for $180 million.
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12
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• They came. They spent. They went. The San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau reports that more than 14 million overnight tourists shelled out a record $4.36 billion in 1997, an 8 percent jump over 1996 figures. Tourism experts credit San Diego’s high visibility during the Republican National Convention and preceding the Super Bowl with the increase.
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17
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• It’s been in the San Diego family since 1906, but now it’s British. H.G. Fenton Material Co., the local gravel-and-concrete giant near Qualcomm Stadium, is acquired by London's Hanson Plc, a large building materials firm, for $83 million. Some say Fenton's 81-acre site would make a perfect home for a new Padres ballpark. Yeah, sure.
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18
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• The host committee reports that last month's Super Bowl and the 50 events surrounding it generated at least $2.6 million for local charities.
• Qualcomm unveils its new dual-mode version of its flip-top Q wireless phone. The company says the product is key to its future success in the industry.
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19
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• Keeping the faith? With another turn of the revolving door, Mayor Golding's chief of staff, Kris Michell, quits to take a job with the Padres as director of government relations and supreme ballpark booster. She is replaced by Golding staffer Kimberley Layton.
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20
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• Speaking of former chiefs of staff, Laurie Black Ð who held that position with former Rep. Lynn Schenk Ð takes over the reins as president of the Downtown San Diego Partnership.
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24
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• The feud between Lidak Pharmaceuticals and its Beverly Hills suitor, HealthMed Inc., goes public. HealthMed urges Lidak to speed up its review of the proposed takeover deal, valued somewhere between $80 million and $130 million. Hostile takeover is whispered.
• As El Niño rains punish the region with $6 million in damages, the county declares a local emergency. Sinkholes pockmark San Diego, but no politicians are swallowed.
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25
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• Local multimedia-projection manufacturer Proxima Corp. settles a 1996 class-action lawsuit with investors for $3.2 million. The suit stemmed from production glitches that led to a drop in earnings.
• Ridership on the San Diego Trolley exceeds 200 million.
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26
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• Digital City, America Online's local bureau with offices in the Mission Brewery building, shuts its door in San Diego, moving the operation to L.A.
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27
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• Jenny Craig Inc. agrees to settle a bogus dispute with the FTC over weight-loss claims made in advertisements by the La Jolla company. A competitor is the real culprit but the FTC doesn’t discriminate. Without claiming any wrongdoing, Jenny Craig agrees to add a disclaimer that most dieting people regain the weight they lose.
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MARCH
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2
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• Saying an offer to invest instead turned into a "naked grab" for its technology, Internet marketing firm PowerAgent of San Diego files a fraud suit against system-networking behemoth Electronic Data Systems of Texas. PowerAgent, the $3.5 billion lawsuit alleges, was brought to the brink of collapse after EDS offered to invest start-up money, supposedly reneged, then tried to gain control of the local company.
• Callaway Golf stock prices drop 11 percent in heavy trading after executives with the Carlsbad company warn that the Asian financial crisis and rainy weather will drive first-quarter earnings down 69 percent from earlier estimates.
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3
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• HealthMed walks away from floundering Lidak Pharmaceuticals.
• Amylin Pharmaceuticals' stock nosedives 44 percent after Johnson & Johnson pulls the plug on funding for a diabetes drug three years and $160 million into development, much to the surprise of executives at the local biotech. A quarter of the company’s 260 San Diego employees face pink slips.
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4
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• Lidak CEO and founder David Katz goes ballistic in a public letter to board members for blowing the investment deal with HealthMed.
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5
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• Lidak board members go ballistic, firing Katz, who describes the directors as "bloodsucking bad people."
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6
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• Microsoft's Bill Gates agrees to appear in a TV commercial hawking Callaway Golf's Big Bertha drivers. First, the Asian crisis, then El Niño, now this, Ely?
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9
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• Proxima Corp. says it will be acquired by Norway's ASK asa, another projector maker, in a deal worth $84 million.
• San Diego Unified School District trustees select U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin, the "border czar," to take over as superintendent, beginning July 1. The choice is strongly criticized by several groups, including the Chicano Federation.
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13
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• Mayor Golding and convention leaders christen San Diego’s business development headquarters in Hong Kong.
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16
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• A friend of Councilwoman Valerie Stallings files suit against Bruce Henderson, claiming he failed to list his true occupation when he filed to run against Stallings. What that would be is unclear, but the self-appointed president of the one-member Association for Concerned Citizens retorts: "Give me a break."
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17
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• The U.S. Census Bureau reports San Diego was the fifth-fastest-growing county in the nation during 1997, with a population spurt of 45,400.
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20
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• A San Diego jury orders Monsanto to pay Mycogen $175 million to settle a long-standing dispute over technology involved in creating bug-resistant plants. Monsanto says it will appeal.
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24
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• Old habits die hard: The City Council votes to keep its luxury box at Qualcomm Stadium, including free tickets, food and drink. Mayor Golding joins two other council members in opposition, deriding "a certain amount of self-interest here."
• Joan Kroc donates $25 million to the University of San Diego to create the Mohandas K. Gandhi Institute for Peace and Justice.
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25
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• Lidak board members avoid a clash with dissident shareholders headed by the ousted David Katz by agreeing to add five new board members, including two from jilted suitor HealthMed.
•Robert Sarver, San Diego’s largest office landlord and chairman of $1 billion Grossmont Bank, discloses intention to acquire $5.1 billion Sumitomo Bank of San Francisco, the state's sixth largest bank, and merge it with Grossmont and Escondido-based First Pacific National Bank. The acquisition is valued at $546 million. Union Bank objects to Sarver's intention to rename Sumitomo as the Bank of California. By year-end, Sarver settles on California Bank & Trust as the name, appoints Al Severson to head Southern California operations. Zions Bancorporation of Salt Lake City bankrolls the deal. Sarver maintains his office in Downtown San Diego and Severson in the Golden Triangle, but several much-smaller San Diego banks claim some version of being San Diego’s largest bank.
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26
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• The state Public Utilities Commission endorses the proposed $6.6 billion merger of San Diego’s Enova Corp. and Los Angeles-based Pacific Enterprises. But the PUC rules that consumer savings from the deal must be paid back in five years rather than 10.
• Amylin Pharmaceuticals names Joseph C. Cook Jr. as its new chairman and CEO, replacing the founder, Howard "Ted" Greene.
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27
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• City Council candidate Bruce Henderson's ballot listing will bear no occupation after a judge rules his proposed title, "president of the Association of Concerned Taxpayers," for which he is the only paying dues member, is unacceptable.
• After finding the PUC-mandated terms of the deal beneficial to shareholders, Enova Corp. and Pacific Enterprises decide to move ahead with merger plans.
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31
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• With almost everyone else focused on Centre City East as the future home for a Padres ballpark, Mayor Golding
launches a knuckleball by unveiling a proposal to build a waterfront stadium on a 30-foot-high platform above the port's 10th Avenue Marine Terminal. "I think it’s kind of bizarre," says Councilman Byron Wear.
• San Diego discount brokerage Jack White & Co. announces it will be purchased by Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank for about $100 million. The bank calls itself the "Charles Schwab of Canada."
• Port commissioners agree to negotiate with Lewis-Webb & Associates LLC to build a world-class, 392-room Ritz Carlton Hotel on east Harbor Island.
• Claiming the project would impinge on its safe-flying zone, the U.S. Marine Corps raises objections to expansion plans for the Lodge at Torrey Pines next to the city's Torrey Pines Golf Course.
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APRIL
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1
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• The Taxpayers Association impishly proposes building a new Padres ballpark on the flight deck of the soon-to-be-mothballed aircraft carrier U.S.S. Midway. Note the date.
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2
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• With bookkeeping methods under review, Jay Tanna resigns as chairman and CEO of Altris Software, a San Diego-based producer of document-managing programs.
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6
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• TrizecHahn Ð owner of four major county shopping malls, including Horton Plaza, Parkway Plaza, North County Fair and UTC Ð says it is selling off most of its real estate holding for $2.55 billion to the Maryland-based Rouse Co. and Westfield America, a Los Angeles REIT whose holdings already include Mission Valley Center, Plaza Bonita and Carlsbad's Plaza Camino Real.
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7
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• A Fortune 500 comes to San Diego: Gateway 2000, one of the country's top PC makers, announces that its administrative headquarters will move to the University City area during the summer. Local high-tech boosters hail the news as proof of San Diego’s importance in the industry. Billionaire founder Ted Waitt likes his view from his expansive mansion atop Mount Soledad.
• Stock prices for Advanced Tissue Sciences tumble 20 percent after an FDA letter about the La Jolla company’s manufacturing practices goes public.
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8
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• Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis unveils plans for a $250 million genetic-research center to be built in San Diego for the study of genes that are linked to human diseases, a process known as genomics. About a quarter of the 100 people employed there will be scientists.
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15
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• The city of San Diego rakes in the raspberries during the Taxpayers Association's annual awards banquet. City Hall receives a fleece award for a public safety ordinance that cost $100 million to put 145 new police officers on the street and a "Titanic" award Ð for quickest sinking government proposal Ð for floundering plans for a new Downtown library. "They finally hit the fiscal iceberg," says Scott Barnett.
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16
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• Alleging he was scammed out of $2 million in stock, fired Lidak CEO David Katz files suit against his latest partner, L.A.-based HealthMed, which had offered Ð and then withdrew Ð a loan of up to $130 million to the cash-strapped Lidak. Katz, who had teamed up with HealthMed after being canned for blaming Lidak's board for blowing the deal, claims HealthMed's attorney duped him into turning over his personal stash of Lidak stock.
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17
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• Residents of a Downtown condominium complex receive a state-record settlement for construction defects. The WaterMark Homeowners Association is awarded more than $11 million in damages for the 96-unit Marina district project Ð nearly $121,000 per unit. The main complaint, appropriately or not, was water-stained walls.
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21
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• Bouncing a proposed waterfront platform ballpark for the Padres into the drink, the San Diego City Council reconfirms its preference for a Centre City East location.
• Ron "Hey, Beer Man!" Fowler is tapped to run the ball for the city in its effort to host the Super Bowl in 2002. As chairman of the city's Super Bowl Host Committee, Fowler can’t be chicken in his new role Ð his opposition comes from perennial contender New Orleans.
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23
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• Gateway 2000 is now just Gateway. With a spiffed-up logo that retains the cow spots, the PC direct-marketer is taking aim at the business sector.
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24
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• With Alan Bersin just a few months from starting his new job as city schools superintendent, U.S. Attorney Janet Reno names George G. La Bella as interim U.S. Attorney for San Diego. The new assignment means a new head will be needed for the Justice Department's Campaign Finance Task Force, which is investigating charges that China illegally contributed to President Clinton's 1996 campaign.
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28
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• As negotiations with Gov. Wilson go nowhere fast, the state's Indian gaming tribes turn over petitions with more than 1 million signatures backing an initiative to decriminalize video slot machines. The $10 million spent to collect the signatures is said to be the most ever spent on the process.
• County supervisors approve, in concept, construction of a new Downtown courthouse. Any bets that it'll be built before a new library?
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29
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• Lawyers run amok! The State Bar of California, facing a budget crisis, shuts down its hotline for attorney complaints. San Diego attorney Marc Adelman, State Bar president, retreats to Loma Portal.
• Imaging Technologies Corp. unveils plans to move its Costa Mesa manufacturing to San Diego, where executives already are based. Yet another plum from the high-tech pie.
• Port District officials pander their objection to a proposed state law that could subject airline companies to criminal action for exceeding legal noise levels. Ocean Beach residents say, "Throw the book at 'em."
• TriTeal Corp., the Carlsbad software maker facing angered shareholders and a federal investigation over financial matters, cuts its workforce by 40 percent.
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MAY
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1
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• Yahoo's Japan-based parent company offers $6 million to buy financially troubled First Virtual Holding, a local business with proprietary technology for interactive Web and e-mail marketing.
• Stephen Cushman takes over public policy reins at the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, a week after Richard Ledford leaves the post and transforms into Ð tada! Ð government-relations man for the Chargers.
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4
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• Cox Communications says it will begin rolling out its newest digital television service in December, giving cable customers access to 200 channels and, some day, video-on-demand.
• The City Council approves a $26 million expansion plan for Balboa Park's Natural History Museum.
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5
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• Hot off its success with Viracept, Agouron Pharmaceuticals begins clinical trials of a new anti-cancer drug. Wall Street smiles.
• Plant-seed specialists Mycogen Corp. is sued by shareholders over a proposed buyout by Dow Chemical they claim underestimates the biotech's value.
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6
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• Hard Rock Cafe says it will open one of its happenin' restaurants at the corner of Fourth Avenue and F Street this summer.
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7
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• The Port's executive director, Lawrence Killeen, announces his retirement after less than three years at the helm. He says he's pooped: "I'd rather smell the roses than push up roses."
• New state figures confirm that cramped feeling: 2.8 million people now live in San Diego County.
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8
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• Shares of Advanced Tissue Sciences increase 23 percent on word that the FDA will soon give its nod to commercial use of the live tissues it helps to grow.
• After a decade below the surface, Bumble Bee Seafoods embarks on an $8 million ad campaign designed by local agency Phillips-Ramsey.
• In defiance of a defiant governor, the county's Sycuan Tribe, one of three tribes that operate casinos in the county, says it will refuse to shut down its video slot machines and reject Gov. Wilson's gaming compact.
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12
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• Despite concerns by the Marines, the City Council approves expansion plans for the Lodge at Torrey Pines.
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13
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• The ribbon is cut at the new San Diego Central Jail on Downtown’s Front Street. It is not to be confused with a new hotel.
• Claiming his oral-herpes drug was over-hyped, fired Lidak CEO David Katz is sued by HealthMed.
• First Virtual Holdings, the local e-commerce firm, announces plans to cut staffing by 25 percent.
• U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin files suit against the local Barona and Sycuan tribes, seeking to force them to shut down more than 1,200 video slot machines they operate, he says, in violation of state law. Federal magistrates had refused to intervene in the matter. Viejas, which said it would talk to Gov. Wilson about a deal, avoids being part of the lawsuit.
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18
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• The city's redevelopment arm, CCDC, says it will fight a proposed $5 million transfer from its budget to City Hall because it would bring Downtown redevelopment to a screeching halt.
• Shareholders warmly approve Bank of Commerce's acquisition of Rancho Vista National Bank in a two-for-one stock swap.
• The Barona gaming tribe backtracks, saying it will negotiate with Gov. Wilson on a gaming compact.
• The City Council votes to eliminate the Coronado Bay Bridge toll. When exactly is anybody's guess.
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19
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• San Diego’s FPA Medical Management, bloated by acquisitions and short on cash, is hit with more lawsuits over its business practices. In recent days, the country's largest operator of physician practice networks has seen its stock drop 63 percent.
• It may be just a fantasy, but county supervisors approve a proposal to build a UC campus on Chula Vista's Otay Ranch property.
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20
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• Some say the deal is all wet, but the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California offers $1 billion to bring 200,000 acre-feet of water from Imperial Valley to San Diego.
• General Instrument Corp., pioneers in the development of digital high-definition TV, christens its sparkling new $47 million headquarters for its Satellite Data Network Systems unit in Sorrento Mesa.
• South Coast Surf Shop of Ocean Beach is chosen best Business Improvement District business for 1997. Heh, and some people still think oB is just full of hippies.
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22
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• In an effort to diversify, the Viejas Tribe opens its $30 million Viejas Outlet Center, an Indian-village-themed shopping/entertainment mall.
• The county's Equal Opportunity Management Office is shuttered, three months after a federal judge strikes down the practice of hiring goals.
• The operators of the San Diego Convention Center say they will need nearly $3.4 million in city subsidies to function in 1999.
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26
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• Former Mayor Golding chief of staff and business newbie Ben Haddad is pegged to head up the San Diego Chamber. He most recently has served as Gov. Wilson's cabinet secretary. Noting Haddad's lack of business experience, a council staffer says, "It’s a political job."
• Port commissioners give their blessing to expansion plans for Seaport Village and the Hyatt Regency San Diego. The proposals must still pass state Coastal Commission muster.
• More musical chairs in the radio business Ð Jacor Communications agrees to sell for more than $65 million two San Diego stations, KJQY-FM and KKLQ-FM, to Dallas-based Heftel Broadcasting Corp.
• Utah-based Zions Bancorporation completes its purchase of Escondido's First Pacific National Bank, which it intends to consolidate with its other holding, Grossmont Bank, and its pending acquisition of Sumitomo Bank.
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27
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• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gives its nod to the Enova/Pacific Enterprises merger.
• Callaway Golf takes out full-page ads in several national newspapers opposing a proposal by the U.S. Golf Association to use new measurements of club head "springiness," which could cut into Callaway's position as the industry's leader in metal woods technology.
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28
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• Former Padres pitcher John D'Acquisto strikes out. Federal officials announce a 39-count indictment against the ex-hurler, accusing him of wire fraud and money laundering.
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30
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• The newly expanded Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater & Science Center officially opens.
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JUNE
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1
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• William A. Owens, president and COO of Science Applications International Corp., resigns. The former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says he decided to leave after SAIC's chairman and CEO Robert Beyster, whom he hoped to replace as CEO, chose to remain.
• The man knows how the game is played, all right. Father Joe Carroll endorses Prop. A, the convention center expansion ballot measure.
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2
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• Mayor Golding pats herself on the back Ð but grumbles a bit about her aborted Senate bid Ð while nearly two-thirds of local voters approve the $216 million convention center expansion. Golding can’t help herself: "If I had known Darrell (Issa) would run such a stupid campaign, I would have stayed in." Darn.
• Mission Bay's 462-room San Diego Princess Resort is sold to New York-based LaSalle Hotel Properties for $73 million. The new owners plan an $8 million upgrade and a new name: the San Diego Paradise Point Resort.
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4
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• A determined Larry Lucchino says the Padres will spend at least $1 million to woo voters into supporting a new Downtown ballpark.
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8
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• Sea World gets its new lease Ð this one for 50 years Ð that includes a 16-acre expansion. The City Council is unanimous.
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9
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• John Mabee, former owner of Golden Eagle Insurance Co., settles a long-running battle with state regulators by agreeing to set aside $80 million in offshore money he controls to cover policies. Mabee had been accused of using the Cayman Island reinsurance firm, Mesa Re., to divert Golden Eagle funds.
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11
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• Two local biotechs, Agouron Pharmaceuticals and Immune Response Corp., join forces in a $77 million deal intended to bring to market a new AIDS drug by next year.
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12
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• Shares of Advanced Tissue Sciences plummet 40 percent after the FDA demands more clinical trials of its main product.
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15
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• Frederick Williamson, head of Andrew & Williamson Sales Co., receives a five-month prison sentence and five months home detention as punishment for his firm's role in selling to schools contaminated foreign strawberries as USDA-certified.
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16
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• Microsoft and Compaq say they will invest more than $212 million apiece in Road Runner, the cable-modem provider used by San Diego’s Southwestern Cable.
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17
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• To sighs of relief among local golf-club makers, the U.S. Golf Association says it will not ban new metal drivers that use a new spring-like technology. Fore!
• Assured that the school district will take care of its buildings, the Taxpayers Association throws its support to Prop. MM, the $1.5 billion local school bond measure up for a public vote in November.
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23
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• Pacific Bell announces plans to split the 619 area code into three segments by June 2000.
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26
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• Local information-technology provider Daou Systems Inc. agrees to merge with an Indianapolis counterpart, Resources in Healthcare Innovations, in a $54 million deal. It’s Daou's fourth merger this year that is really an acquisition.
• After two years of legal hurdles, the $6.2 billion Enova/Pacific Enterprises merger gets final U.S. approval. The resulting entity, Sempra Energy, will be one of San Diego’s two Fortune 500 companies, including Gateway. Sempra also winks at the idea of naming rights for the new Padres ballpark.
• DepoTech Corp. says it will lay off 35 percent of its local workforce after it fails to gain federal approval for its cancer-fighting drug.
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30
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• Steven Brezzo, fearless leader of the San Diego Museum of Art, says he will resign in a couple of years, or as soon as a replacement is found.
• The City Council unanimously approves plans to convert the present eyesore that is the old El Cortez Hotel into a high-end apartment building.
• FBI agents bust a former Callaway Golf supervisor for allegedly stealing golf equipment and selling it on the black market. So, crime doesn’t swing either, apparently.
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JULY
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1
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• One of San Diego’s surviving defense contractors, Titan Corp., unveils plans to buy two companies, including local software maker VisiCom Laboratories Inc., in stock deals totaling $47 million. Titanic revenue increases are anticipated.
• Make room. The U.S. Navy offers the decommissioned USS Midway aircraft carrier to the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum.
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6
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• Centre City East no more. The city now recognizes the area as East Village.
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7
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• To stem the flow of red ink, FPA Medical Management says it will close medical centers in Phoenix and Tucson.
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8
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• Sea World makes the November ballot when its petition to exempt the theme park from a 30-foot height limit is found sufficiently signed.
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13
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• Qualcomm says si to Mexico, announcing a commitment of $650 million over three years to build out the country's wireless network.
• The bleeding continues: FPA shuts down 50 of its facilities in California, Arizona, Texas, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia.
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15
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• Sensitive to claims that they're being cheap, Padres officials haul out the comparison charts to show that their $115 million ante in the ballpark deal puts it among the three best stadium deals in the country.
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16
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• Mayor Golding, with a tip of the cap to buddy Gov. Wilson, is appointed to the California Commission on Local Governance for the 21st Century.
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20
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• FPA Medical Management files bankruptcy and says it will close its local facilities. A workforce of 450 shudders.
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21
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• An industry study finds San Diego the nation's leader in biotech research grants.
• Novartis ups its interest in San Diego. The Swiss biotech giant says it plans to invest $600 million in the next decade to construct its genomics research center in San Diego.
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23
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• Callaway Golf stock tailspins again on word of long-term earnings damage from the financial crisis in Asia and tough competition.
• Columnist George Will, a Padres board member, trades in his objectivity for a chance to play ballpark cheerleader. "What baseball has rediscovered is the tremendous participatory measure of the ballpark in energizing the community," Will says, i.e., "Baseball parks are fun!"
• Soon to be a ghost town no more: A Miami company coughs up nearly $80 million for the former General Dynamics site in Kearny Mesa. LNR Property plans to develop something called New Century Center, a mixed-use, 4.5-million-square-footer built over 10 years. It'll include high-tech development, an urban park, and oodles of mall space, enough to keep Downtown San Diego underutilized and publicly subsidized for decades to come.
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28
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• Port commissioners vote to spend $100 million more on newly renovated Lindbergh Field, this time for safety and operational construction work.
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29
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• Move over "America's Finest City," hello new slogan: "Technology's Perfect Climate." Industry boosters plan to sell the image heavily.
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30
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• Southwest Marine announces plans to acquire Virginia-based Norfolk Shipbuilding
& Drydock Corp., creating the country's largest ship-repair company in the non-nuclear category.
• The Taxpayers Association chimes in on the ballpark proposal, calling it risky business.
• For the first time in six years, shovels hit the dirt for a new Downtown hotel. Ground breaking is held for a Residence Inn by Marriott on Pacific Highway. It’s also the initial project since the North Embarcadero Alliance began planning the area.
• A federal judge in Texas tosses out a trademark-infringement case against Ted Giannoulas, otherwise known as the San Diego Chicken, who had been sued for beating up a likeness of Barney the dinosaur in his act.
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AUGUST
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4
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• Calling it "the most significant redevelopment project in San Diego’s history," the City Council unanimously votes to put the $411 million Padres ballpark before voters in November.
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6
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• The California Supreme Court says issuing bonds under the jurisdiction of a special district does not require city-voter approval because they're not the bonds of the city. City Hall rejoices. Richard Rider licks his wounds.
• Dow Video/Stereo in Clairemont has the world's eyes on it when it unveils the country's first high-definition TV for sale. The 56-inch Panasonic doozie, with a price tag of $5,499 and no local signals to pick up, gets the oohs and aahs of a crowd. Japan's NHK TV station broadcasts the event live back home.
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10
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• Lidak Pharmaceuticals will keep commercial rights to an oral-herpes treatment after settling with ex-CEO David Katz, who will receive a $500,000 loan for his nonprofit company.
• The Metropolitan Water District and San Diego County Water Authority make history by agreeing on a plan to bring water here from Imperial Valley.
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11
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• To the surprise of some, and after extracting agreements to not develop some key already-permitted property, the Sierra Club endorses two major housing projects destined for the North City Future Urbanizing Area. Calling it responsible development, the Pacific Highlands Ranch and Black Mountain Ranch projects Ð totaling almost 10,000 homes Ð will face voters in November.
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12
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• San Diego’s Barona and Sycuan gaming tribes sign compacts with Gov. Wilson, hoping to avoid a federal shutdown.
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14
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• Work is completed on the $20 million, 20,000-seat Coors Amphitheatre in Chula Vista.
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17
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• President Clinton admits he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky. Meanwhile, Callaway Golf introduces its new "Baby Bertha" golf-club line.
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20
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• Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical says it will lay off 245 workers beginning in October after Boeing terminates a contract for Apache helicopter air frames, a Teledyne Ryan project for 26 years.
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21
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• U.S. News & World Report ranks UCSD No. 6 on its annual list of top public universities nationwide.
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24
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• Ground is broken for the $27 million conversion of the historic San Diego Trust & Savings Bank building Downtown into a Marriott Courtyard Hotel.
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27
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• Sempra Energy wins a $1 billion deal to supply natural gas to parts of Baja California, including Tijuana, during the next 10 years.
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SEPTEMBER
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1
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• Dow Chemical agrees to buy out Mycogen Corp. in a deal worth nearly $325 million.
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4
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• New research shows that San Diego this year has been the No. 1 tourist destination in Southern California Ð despite a slight dip during El Niño.
• Cox Communications officially kicks off its local phone service to San Diego cable customers.
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10
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• Plans are unveiled for a massive $60 million renovation of North Embarcadero, featuring a large park at the foot of Broadway and winding pedestrian paths lined with palm trees stretching along the bayfront.
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11
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• Qualcomm completes its spinoff of Leap Wireless International Inc., a new $260 million company that targets terrestrial-based wireless networks in Mexico, Chile, Australia and Russia. Qualcomm Vice Chairman Harvey P. White resigns to head the new venture as president, CEO and chairman.
• The semiconductor business just ain't what it used to be, and Cymer Inc. feels it. The San Diego company lays off 98 employees and cuts executive salaries.
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16
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• Tiernan Communications beats out local rival and digital HDTV pioneer General Instrument in snagging the NBC network as a client for its digital compression equipment, needed to meet its Nov. 1 deadline to begin transmitting HDTV signals. ABC soon follows suit, but CBS goes with GI.
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17
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• Bring on prettier bayside development. SDG&E agrees to sell its Chula Vista power plant to the Port District for $112 million and kicks in 200 acres to boot. "This is a historic day for the Port District and for the South Bay region," proclaims port Chairman David Malcolm, a Chula Vistan who has long sought the sale and eventual plant dismantling.
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18
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• The Taxpayers Association announces its backing of the ballpark ballot measure, Prop. C.
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23
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• Joan Kroc, the Energizer Bunny of philanthropists, keeps on giving and giving and ... This time, a record $80 million to establish the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center in East San Diego.
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24
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• In the "bad record" department, San Diego County begins spraying for fruit flies, which are infesting the county in record numbers.
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30
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• With agreeable interest rates below 7 percent, records are shattered in the local real-estate industry for the first nine months of 1998. Median prices for house resales in the county break $203,000, up $21,000 from the previous year. The number of homes sold, new and old, jumps 31 percent in the same period.
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OCTOBER
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6
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• Washington Mutual Inc. announces plans to shut 22 former Great Western branches in San Diego.
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8
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• San Diego’s dominant radio-station gobbler, Jacor Communications, gets gobbled up itself when Texas-based Clear Channel Communications pays $4.4 billion in stock.
• Kicking off a new era without John Mabee, Golden Eagle Insurance Co. Ð now the property of Liberty Mutual of Boston Ð christens its shiny, remodeled Downtown high rise at 525 B Street, the former Union Bank Building, as Golden Eagle Plaza. As executives quote themselves from the Metropolitan's "San Diego 92101" special edition, it’s just three blocks from Horton Plaza's Nordstrom and a long way from the old days of Navajo Road strip malls and converted failed health clubs.
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13
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• Going nowhere fast, the Chargers fire head coach Kevin Gilbride and name offensive coordinator June Jones interim coach. As further "punishment," Gilbride must take his million-dollar salary for the remaining three years of his five-year contract without lifting a finger.
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14
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• The Padres win the National League pennant for the first time in 14 years, defeating the Atlanta Braves, most likely winning over voters and heading to the World Series against the daunting New York Yankees.
• More port history in the making, says David Malcolm. The Port District closes a $20.5 million deal to purchase the Western Salt Co.'s South Bay wetlands property. The port plans to convert the area into a wildlife refuge that even the antagonistic Environmental Health Coalition likes. It’s "the most important environmental initiative in the history of San Diego Bay," Malcolm says. (And it will allow more intense development father north.)
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15
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• The ol' man returneth. Ely Callaway, chairman and founder of Callaway Golf, takes back the reins as president and CEO.
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19
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• Financially troubled local biotech DepoTech Corp. is acquired by Britain's SkyePharma PLC in a stock deal worth $51 million.
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20
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• As expected, the Port District agrees to fill the $21 million funding gap in the Padres ballpark redevelopment proposal. City Hall takes a deep breath.
• The City Council approves a multi-use redevelopment plan for the old Naval Training Center near Point Loma.
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21
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• Wall Street begins funeral arrangements for Amylin Pharmaceuticals after new trials for its diabetes drug fall short of expectations and layoffs commence. Three-quarters of its workforce are targeted.
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30
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• When market tremors send its suitor's shares downward, Peninsula Bank of San Diego backs out of its planned stock-swap acquisition by Newport Beach's Western Bancorp, to the relief of those who remember how Monarch Bank disappeared from Orange County.
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NOVEMBER
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1
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• In a San Diego Metropolitan cover story, the San Diego Telecom Council announces its formation. It’s the first-pure telecommunications trade group for an industry with more than 11,000 local employees and average salaries in excess of $48,000.
• San Diego Metropolitan announces its purchase of the Uptown Examiner Group and Uptown San Diego Examiner, a newspaper of general circulation since 1937 and adjudicated to publish legal advertising in and for the city and county of San Diego.
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3
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• Voters are busy today approving a new ballpark district Downtown, a slew of school bond measures worth about $2 billion, self-determination for Indian gaming tribes and 10,000 new North City homes. Community leaders are beyond giddy. Gray Davis is elected the first Democratic governor in 16 years while making Pete Wilson look charismatic.
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5
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• In a serious setback to the local biotech, Dura Pharmaceuticals says the FDA will require further testing of its Spiros asthma inhaler, delaying its launch by at least a year.
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6
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• The Pentagon says A-OK to General Dynamics' merger with National steel & Shipbuilding Co.
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9
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• Maxwell Technologies announces plans to acquire satellite computer-chip maker Space Electronics Inc. in an all-stock deal.
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11
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• Facing a sharp drop in global demand for its products, Callaway Golf Ð Carlsbad's biggest employer Ð lays off 788 employees. Plans call for a return to what the company does best Ð RD&M of new clubs and balls.
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12
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• High demand for service prompts Pacific Bell to announce it will hire 800 employees to staff a new customer service center in gridlocked Sorrento Valley, despite easier commuting and lower occupancy costs in the Central Business District.
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13
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• Port commissioners meet their new leader, Dennis Bouey, Philadelphia's aviation director who takes over as port executive director in January.
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14
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• Kobey's opens its second swap meet in the county, this one at the new Coors Amphitheatre in Chula Vista.
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17
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• In a first for a San Diego company, Solar Turbines wins the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige Award for its successful quality-improvement program.
• Fast-growing Downtown Web-hosting provider Simple Network Communications Inc. agrees to be purchased by one of the Internet's leading broadcasters, broadcast.com, for nearly $21 million in stock. Users of the combined companies' Web service will be able to broadcast their own programming, including TV and radio shows.
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18
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• Hailed as confirmation of San Diego’s coming of high-tech age, Qualcomm and Seattle-based Microsoft announce a locally based new venture, WirelessKnowledge, that will build the next generation of Internet-friendly mobile communicators. Some new products will be available next year, executives say. Nine wireless carriers have already signed on.
• With sales far behind projections, Molecular Biosystems Inc. plans to fire 48 employees from its workforce of 148 and outsource its manufacturing operations. The staff reduction is expected to save the local biotech $5 million annually.
• General Dynamics closes its deal to acquire NASSCO Holdings, operator of the National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. The Virginia defense contractor coughs up $415 million in cash and debt for the San Diego shipyard.
• Qualcomm technician Richard Bliss sues his employer for $1 million, claiming his detention in Russia last year on espionage charges Ð and Qualcomm's failure to resolve those charges Ð has ruined his career by making him a virtual prisoner in his own country. Surprised Qualcomm executives, noting Bliss' $100,000 in salary and 20-hour work week, call the suit meritless.
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19
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• German drug maker Merck agrees to pay $150 million to acquire local drug-research supplier CN Biosciences.
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20
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• Lidak Pharmaceuticals, hoping for less embattled times, changes its name to Avanir Pharmaceuticals. Avanir, in French, means future.
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21
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• Departing Gov. Wilson hails the news that Nevada casinos, card rooms and organized labor have teamed up to challenge Prop. 5, the Indian gaming initiative passed overwhelmingly by state voters. If there's anything worse than poor winners, it’s gotta be poor losers.
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