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Finally, Bridgeworks Breaks Ground
If it seems like it took Jeremy Cohen a few lifetimes to break ground on Bridgeworks in the Gaslamp Quarter — he managed it last month — well, that’s pretty accurate.
"I came here (to San Diego) with a 2-year-old baby," says the developer of his arrival in San Diego more than nine years ago. "Today I have a family of four children."
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Cohen presided over a well-attended ceremony on a Fifth Avenue dirt lot where an old lumber yard once stood. Appropriately, his words, and those of some of the speakers who followed, were at times drowned out by the hammering of pilings for the San Diego Convention Center expansion on the other side of Harbor Drive.
Bridgeworks, when completed, will incorporate a 253-room Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, 32,000 square feet of retail space, 21,400 square feet of loft-style office space and a 137-car underground garage. It will be the first building conventioneers encounter when crossing Harbor Drive at Fifth Avenue to play in the Gaslamp. Until now, the dilapidated, boarded-up T.M. Cobb building marked that spot. Earlier attempts by Cohen to build a city-approved project were beaten back by complaints about height and its failure to incorporate the old Cobb facade.
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At the ceremony, San Diego National Bank was disclosed as the construction lender, providing a $33.1 million loan to S.D. Bridgeworks, a joint venture of S.D. Malkin Properties Inc., Apollo Real Estate Advisors/Pelham Partners and Meristar Hospitality Corp. S.D. Malkin is the manager of the venture. Robert Horsman, president of SDNB, was one of the speakers. Turning to developer Cohen, he said, "Jeremy, we like to get involved with projects that take a decade to open."
Horsman also noted the absence of Pete Davis, chairman of the Centre City Development Corp. and the Bank of Commerce. "I’m glad Peter Q. Davis isn’t here today," Horsman said. "He and I have this ongoing debate about which is the biggest bank based in San Diego. Let me go on record today as saying San Diego National Bank is the largest."
Also, Robert Sarver was not there.
Gordon Carrier heads Carrier Johnson, the architecture firm that designed Bridgeworks. He recalled the design history, noting that the first version, a 350-foot tower shot down by Gaslamp preservationists, was designed by Frank Wolden. Carrier voted on that project while a member of the CCDC board. He also merged his firm with Wolden's and now employs the person (Wolden) who remains the design principal on the new version of Bridgeworks. "I think this project is the genesis of a new view about Downtown San Diego," Carrier said, noting how the various parts each had their own identity yet pulled together to make it all work.
Roel Construction Co., the general contractor, has hired Kip Howard's Allegis Development to manage the project.
Deputy Mayor Byron Wear, who represents Downtown, was on hand to lend official praise. When presenting Cohen with a proclamation, Wear said he was embarrassed it was unframed, unlike those presented by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. But the county, he said, has a budget surplus, while at the city, "we are still waiting for the tobacco money." Taking another cue from the city's very visible struggle to site and fund a Downtown library, Wear noted that while Mayor Golding could not be present, "she did want me to ask Jeremy if he would consider stopping the project so we could consider this for a library site." Cohen smiled. Big. This time he knew it was just a joke.
— Tim McClain
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Showing Off For 'Main Street'
San Diego will highlight its commercial revitalization successes when the National Town Meeting on Main Street is held here March 21-24. More than 2,500 people involved in revitalization projects from around the country will gather for this event.
The sessions will take place at both the U.S. Grant and the Westin Horton Plaza hotels. Neighborhood business districts to be showcased include the Gaslamp Quarter, Old Town, Mission Beach, La Jolla, Hillcrest, North Park, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, Coronado, Little Italy and the College Area.
The city of San Diego’s Office of Small Business and the Main Street National Trust for Historic Preservation are hosts, and sponsors include SBC Communications, Pacific Bell Directory, Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Downtown San Diego Partnership and the Metropolitan Transit Development Board.
Keynote speaker, Hattie Bryant, co-producer of the television series "Small Businesses 2000," will discuss "The New American Heroes" at the March 22 opening session. Also slated are a "Basics of Main Street Revitalization" workshop, exhibitors' auction, food and beverage expo and a Main Street Awards ceremony.
More than 100 educational sessions will cover such topics as fund-raising tactics, volunteer program success stories, urban neighborhood revitalization and building small businesses, developing professional skills, preservation and development, transportation innovations and marketing strategies.
For more information, call the Office of Small Business at (619) 685-1390.
— Kat Chambers
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The County Bar Turns 100
Activities marking the centennial celebration of the San Diego County Bar Association are continuing through the year. Among these is a special session of the California Supreme Court April 6 at California Western School of Law. Throughout April, the month the bar was founded, banners commemorating the 100-year milestone will hang on Broadway.
In September, the "Trial of the Century" unfolds at USD, and in November the bar will host the Presidents' Centennial Dinner Gala at Sea World. This extravaganza will welcome representatives of all past bar presidents, including the daughter of Eugene Daney, the first bar president in 1899.
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Walking the MS Way
More walkers will raise more money for Multiple Sclerosis March 20 and 21 than ever before in the 11-year history of the annual 5K and 10K Walk. PinnFund USA, based in Carlsbad, returns as title sponsor, with another dozen companies as major sponsors and nearly 20, including San Diego Metropolitan, with sponsoring roles.
With that kind of corporate support, and participation by several media personalities, MS marathoner Zoe Koplowitz, and "Sesame Street'"s Ernie and Bert, race organizers expect company teams and individual participants to raise more than $620,000. Those funds support local research, educational programs and MS patients' needs.
Title sponsor PinnFund USA, a full-service mortgage bank, originates, purchases and sells residential loans with an emphasis on non-conforming first and second mortgages. A private company formed in 1992 with headquarters now in Carlsbad, PinnFund has 47 offices nationwide. Company policy reflects the views of Michael Fanghella, the chairman and CEO, who endorses hearty participation in and support of community events. Last year, PinnFund's MS Walk team raised more than $10,000 as part of its return-to-the-community efforts.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. It usually strikes people between ages 20 and 40.
This year’s MS Walk will begin in Cannon Park in Carlsbad March 20 and at Embarcadero Marina Park North in San Diego March 21. Starting time both days is 8:30 a.m. As walkers finish either the 5K or 10K route, they will find lunch, bags of sponsor goodies and live entertainment. Prizes will be awarded on the basis of funds raised, and they range from T-shirts to Nordstrom gift certificates and Legoland tickets. For information, call the San Diego Chapter of the MS Society at (619) 467-9255.
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High Techs Need Capital;
Biotechs Need A Break
There's nothing like a UCSD Connect conference to convince some very busy people to give up a day or two to learn what’s shaking in technology, and so it was proved at last month's Technology Financial Forum at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. The high-tech side presented first. Two creative new companies showed that old technology can indeed perform new tricks.
SupplyPro, a San Diego company founded 18 months ago, takes the technology of Pyxis Corp. into the office market. The company licensed technology from Pyxis, a maker of automated supply systems used in hospitals that was snapped up by Cardinal Health Systems for nearly $1 billion. SupplyPro Chief Executive William Holmes predicts the corporate market for automated product dispensers is even larger than for hospitals.
PointPoint.com Inc. distinguished itself from the Internet-heavy roster with a twist on the basic technology used by the Internet itself. The company’s software does away with the traditional client-server model, says CEO Steven Flagg. Instead, data are sent using Internet Protocol on a peer-to-peer basis from one point such as a desktop computer, to the next.
As anyone familiar with the Internet knows, it’s the servers that are most frequently attacked by hackers, because servers store and transmit the data sent by clients, such as desktop computers. By cutting out the middleman, PointPoint promises increased security from intruders. Uses include direct Internet communication by voice, fax, video, data and chat. The company is seeking $7 million to $10 million.
The presentation impressed several swedish attendees, such as Ulf Gustavsson, manager of engineering at Teknikbro Stiftelsen, a company in Goteborg. A chapter of Connect has been established in Sweden. "We are here in order to get new ideas, and we are very impressed with the way you are handling this," Gustavsson says. "Part of this delegation was here in 1997. They took many initiatives back to our home country, and now there is a new group here in order to catch up more precisely how to do it."
A lunchtime venture capital panel reported San Diego has a healthy community of young technology companies, but that the area lacks infrastructure such as a good airport and a port to compete with Long Beach. Robert Kibble, managing partner of Mission Ventures in San Diego, says San Diego also suffers from the lack of a "world-class" MBA program. "It’s just a real shame," he says.
Biotech's Turn
The next day, the biotechs and biomedicals hit the stage. The investors weren’t interested in wizardry. "We don’t care about fancy technology," was the message. "Just show us how you'll make money."
But amid the gloom about product failures and low market valuations was some cause for hope. Low values may be a sign the sector is ripe for a rally. The bioscience companies took heed to stress their business models — at least one of which looks extremely promising if the product works.
The company that appears best positioned is CFY Biomedicals Inc., which is seeking $4 million. Its product is a reputed cure for the common cold. Inflated claims in biotech are as common as colds, but CFY has scientific backing that’s hard to overlook. Its advisers include Richard Lerner, president of The Scripps Research Institute. And its chief executive, Mang Yu, was co-founder of another local biotech company, Immusol, along with renowned AIDS researcher Flossie Wong-Staal of UCSD.
Colds are caused by a large number of viruses, so many that making a vaccine against them was abandoned as impractical. But Yu says CFY has found a common weak link in how all these so-called rhinoviruses behave. That soft spot is the mechanism by which they invade cells. The company is planning to test special recombinant proteins that block the rhinoviruses from entering nasal epithelial cells, their avenue of attack. The proteins would be administered in a nasal spray, called ColdSol.
Also at the Forum, two other companies presented plans for medical devices to noninvasively perform diagnostics. One, San Diego-based KeenSense, described a glucose test contained on a silicon chip. The solid-state device does not need blood to measure glucose levels, relying on other body fluids. It’s targeted at the large diabetic market. The company is seeking $2 million to $3 million.
The second, Venice-based American Biotechnology Workgroup Inc., is developing a more comprehensive noninvasive diagnostic system using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. It’s also aimed at the diabetic market, but also can measure levels of many other substances, such as lithium, cholesterol and ethanol. The company is seeking $3.5 million.
But ABW isn’t betting the farm on an unproven technology, says Chief Executive Steve Burns. "We are downsizing an existing, working technology and specializing its use," Burns says.
The hardy souls who attended the bio forum were far less numerous than those at the previous day's sessions. The presenting companies were fewer too — 13 compared to 23.
Standish M. Fleming, a partner in San Diego-based Forward Ventures, says his firm looks first for a sound business model, not for technology. Fleming says companies need to show investors how they can get a return in three to five years at the most — preferably in three. Fleming and other venture capitalists discussed the industry's plight at a luncheon panel. Robert Robb, president of a new biotech fund in Carlsbad, says he is confident it is still possible for investors to make money in the sector, and San Diego is a good place to do it.
"If we weren’t, we wouldn't be here," Robb says. However, he admitted, "our criteria for investment has tightened."
Fleming says the industry also is suffering from having too many companies, many of which are just hanging on, consuming capital and giving the rest a bad name. "If we continue to nurse the living dead, then that’s a tremendous drag on the industry."
— Bradley J. Fikes
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Corrections And Clarifications
In "The Banking Merger That Wasn’t" feature last month, the last name of John Rebelo, CEO of Peninsula Bank, was spelled wrong in a photo caption but correctly in the article.
In the San Diego Scene item "John Moores Steps To The Plate," the names of Stath Karras, Jon Walz and Ken Satterlee had mistakes. Also in the feature, Dennis Cruzan's name was placed both beneath his own photograph and a photo of Malin Burnham.
Also, in a January San Diego Scene item a partnership between the marketing firms of Woodend, Nessel and Friends Inc. and Blue Moon Communications Inc. of Las Vegas was incorrectly termed a merger. In fact, while the two companies have combined to form a third entity called Woodend, Nessel & Rubenstein LLC that will tackle new areas of business, both Woodend, Nessel and Friends and Blue Moon continue operating as separate agencies.
Finally, while the CCDC board last month did turn control of the long-stalled 900 F Street apartment project to Atlanta developer Celia Watson, as forecast in the San Diego Scene February column, its actions did not cut Henri Lagatella out of an ownership position, as incorrectly forecast. Lagatella, who was serving with Watson as developer of the 114 units, remains as an equity partner, owning 30 percent. Along with Watson, new members of the controlling general partnership are Archie Crenshaw, Jeffrey Esakow and Yuhudi Gaffen.
San Diego Metropolitan regrets the errors.
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