Cigar Stores Survive Prop. 10
A Few Good Books, And Authors
It’s Good To Be An IT
The Ninth Annual Binational Economic Summit
C. Spa, C. Spa Grow(s)
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Set to bring a little bit of Rockefeller Center to San Diego, KUSI-TV owner Mike McKinnon is teaming with development manager Kipland Howard on a 28-story project Downtown that will feature KUSI's offices and studio on the lower floors and 192 high-end apartments above. "We’re hoping to cater to the executive stay-type occupant (with the apartments)," says Howard, president of Allegis Development. "The thing I am most excited about is having the (TV) studios located on the ground level." The public can peek in and watch the activity from either the street or a restaurant in the building separated by a glass wall from the studio. Entitlement work starts this month with a groundbreaking possibly 18 months off. The tower, on the block bounded by First and Second avenues and Island and J streets, will take about two years to build. *** The Courtyard by Marriott hotel in the historic San Diego Trust & Savings Bank Building at Sixth Avenue and Broadway opens its doors for its first guests on Oct. 19. A job fair conducted by Sage Hospitality Resources, the hotel manager and the developer of the project on behalf of the building's owner, Amstar Group, drew more than 500 applicants. Fifty were hired. The hotel is sold out for Nov. 13 to former employees of San Diego Trust returning to the flagship for an "alumni" overnight. *** Sitting as the Redevelopment Agency, the San Diego City Council at 10 a.m. Oct. 5 holds its first public hearing on the Ballpark District's EIR at City Hall. The vote is set for 10 a.m. Oct. 26. *** The September issue of San Diego Dialogue Report features an extensive airport growth Q&A with Steve Peace. In it, the state senator argues strongly that a large multimodal transportation hub should be built immediately on the Pacific Highway side of Lindbergh Field, one that would include the ability to use water transit to get to Mission Bay hotels. Right. On Oct. 22, Peace will speak about his airport strategy when Dialogue hosts its Forum Fronterizo Program at the Westin Horton Plaza. *** The seven leading candidates for San Diego mayor (one leading and six losing?) indeed gathered stiffly for a forum at the monthly BOMA luncheon last month, moderated by one acerbic publisher. A complete transcript of how Byron Wear, Barbara Warden, Ron Roberts, Dick Murphy, Pete Davis, George Stevens and Jim Bell responded is available at www.sandiegometro.com. While there, also check out the Metropolitan editor's review of Legoland, read about the Newschool of Architecture and learn what other educational options are available Downtown. And, of course, the Daily Business Report is available. *** Lime green signs are replacing their forest green counterparts on San Diego’s freeways. Costing from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars each, the signs are so easy to see they require no lighting. "Our electric costs are pretty high where we are lighting up signs," says Tom Nipper, a Caltrans spokesman. The new signs are so reflective of headlights, "you can see them better than the old signs with the lights on." *** Bruce MacKenzie, owner of A Catered Affair with his wife Kimberly, says the holiday party planning business is reserving early this year. "There's going to be such a shortage of labor for catered parties, we’ve put together menus that can be dropped off at clients' homes New Year’s Eve, already prepared, with instructions for warming and serving. For servers, we’re looking at paying triple time. That can really put a little dent in your party budget." *** The San Diego Port District is becoming increasingly adamant that if private developers can’t move the Campbell Shipyard hotel forward, the port will step in and build the project itself. The expanded San Diego Convention Center needs the 1,800 hotel rooms; the city needs the hotel taxes to offset Ballpark District expenses. But the possibility of a government agency acting as developer has the Port Tenants Association chagrined. *** The Editors' Roundtable portion of the "These Days" radio program on KPBS, 89.5 FM, has settled into a new time slot: Fridays at 9 a.m. Hosted by Gloria Penner, the show typically features Robert Kittle, editor of the editorial page of the U-T; John Warren, editor of Voice & Viewpoint; and Tim McClain, editor of the Metropolitan. Also contributing regularly from the KPBS studio in North County is Kent Davy, editor of the North County Times. The Roundtable's slot was shifting while "These Days" was revamped for Tom Fudge, who now is the primary host of the 10 hours of weekly programing. *** For the last 14 years, the annual Lego Design Competition at Horton Plaza has been a weekend sellout, attracting thousands of parents and kids who enjoyed the opportunity to take two giant shopping bags of Legos and build with the bricks, win great raffle prizes and then take home their creations. This year, the Oct. 16 fund-raiser for the YMCA and YWCA has a twist: Participants not only get to keep what they build, they also can keep the shopping bags of unused bricks. The entry fee is $20. For more information, call (619) 645-8005. *** A group project for some students attending SDSU's Community Economic Development program more than two years ago has turned into a first-of-its-kind micro-loan program. Sponsored by Uptown Partnership in cooperation with the Service Corps of Retired Executives, Pacific Life Insurance, California Bank & Trust and California Organized Investment Network, the program is available for small business located in the Uptown community including Hillcrest, Mission Hills, Bankers Hill and Middletown. The specifics will be unveiled Oct. 6, 12:30 p.m., during a one-hour program at Garden Cabaret, 4040 Goldfinch St. ***
*** Late this month, or perhaps in early November, the San Diego City Council will consider a proposal to trim thousands of dollars from the hookup fees home builders pay to tap into the water and sewer systems. The reductions would go to builders who pre-plumb houses with greywater systems, essentially taking the water that normally flows down the shower and washer drains into the sewer, and using it for underground drip irrigation. Builders now pay about $3,000 per home to tap into each system. Steve Bilson, the CEO of ReWater Systems Inc., sells the systems and is pushing hard for the council to overrule its reluctant water staff. Bilson says his system removes 50 percent of the water that a typical home dumps into the sewer system. It cuts water usage by about 36 percent via using greywater for irrigation. He'd like builders to get a discount in the $1,895 range, which is the hard cost of the filter system that keeps hair and such from the underground irrigation and also acts as a fail-safe, piping the greywater into the sewer system in the event of a failure. *** Michael Bertolino was promoted the first of this month to partner in the San Diego office of Ernst & Young. A member of the agency's Entrepreneurial Services group, Bertolino has 14 years of experience in public accounting. The SDSU grad is panel committee chairman for the M.I.T. Enterprise Forum, director of Travelers Aid and a member of the Association for Corporate Growth. *** Set to celebrate its first anniversary next month, the San Diego Telecom Council has its first executive director, Eileen Lyle. The council spirited Lyle away from the San Diego Software Industry Council, where she ran the show from 1994 to 1999, during that time more than doubling corporate sponsorships and tripling membership. *** Robert Latko, president of the San Diego-based Global Board of Trade, was in New Zealand last month to present his company’s vision of "E-Commerce in the New Millennium" during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. Latko's company’s leading product is GBOT, Internet software that simplifies the global buying and selling of goods. "Mr. Latko was selected to speak at this forum due to his company’s leadership in the area of e-commerce solutions for smaller companies," says Tracey Evington, event manager. "We had tested several trade related sites and our research concluded that GBOT was the market leader." For more information, click on www.gbot.net. *** After 18 years on Avenida Encinas, CB Richard Ellis has moved its Carlsbad office to the first floor of the Ocean Terrace Corporate Center at 5740 Fleet St. *** The International Franchise Association has chosen San Diego as the site to hold its 40th birthday bash. The group will congregate here Feb. 20-22, headquartering at the Sheraton San Diego. *** Caltrans has a lot of clever folks. When Sherman Heights residents complained about the impacts of drug dealing and prostitution from transients who were living on flat property that hugged the bases of certain overpasses, Caltrans engineers devised metal cages that anchor to the concrete. Some of their handiwork is visible near the ramp meter where G Street becomes SR-94. The $5,000, inch-steel cages have gates to allow access to maintenance personnel, who in the past required police escorts when visiting the locations. *** Extending its reach into the nerve center of the San Diego technology industry, CSU San Marcos in January starts offering an MBA program from classroom space in Sorrento Valley. Classes will be held Tuesday and Thursday nights, and occasionally Saturdays. Geared toward working professionals, the program can be completed in 19 months. *** Larry Brown, the v.p. for student services at San Diego City College, will deliver the fall commencement address on Nov. 20 for United States International University grads. *** Metabolife, the astoundingly successful diet supplement firm, has acquired for $9.18 million the 90,000 square foot office building at 8925 and 8945 Rehco Road. Metabolife was represented by David Marino of the Irving Hughes Group. The seller, Foster Wheeler Environ-mental Corp., was represented by Jed Stirnkorb, Phil Monroe and Ken Satterlee of Burnham Real Estate Services. *** If you’re looking to save on gasoline, Oceanside's David Nick's has built a Website www.pumpthis.com that tracks local stations' prices. *** A 10-year, $4 million lease has been signed by Triad Biotechnology for 14,781 square feet of industrial space in the Nexus Center at 5820 Nancy Ridge Drive. Doug Lozier of CB Richard Ellis' central office represented the landlord, Nexus Equity VIII. Neal Fox, of the same CB Richard Ellis office, represented Triad. In the same building, Epicyte Pharmaceuticals signed a six-year, $3.9 million lease for 18,470 square feet. Lozier represented the landlord; Fox the tenant. ***
*** Demonstrating a growing interest in San Diego, Pacific Starr Group, a Pasadena-based investment company, has acquired its fourth property, a 126,720-square-foot building at 14100 Danielson St. in Poway. The company bought the $11.6 million building from the McMillin Cos. *** The San Diego Regional Energy Office is working to convince 20,000 San Diegans to install solar energy systems by the year 2010. The California Energy Commission is offering rebates of up to $3,000 per kilowatt and consumers have the chance to sell excess electricity. Already about 800 solar systems are installed in San Diego annually. The national goal is one million systems by 2010. For more information, dial up www.sdenergy.org. *** Jon Epsten, CEO of Epsten & Grinnell in San Diego, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Association of Community Managers. *** With enrollment in accounting programs down in California, Calderon, Jaham & Osborn has decided over the next five years to fund $10,000 in scholarships to high school seniors seeking to pursue college studies in public accounting. *** Named to a second one-year term as state chairman for the American Bankers Association is James A. Boyce, president of Rancho Santa Fe National Bank. *** San Diego is the 25th least affordable metro area in the nation, says the California Building Industry Association. The association estimates that 41.7 percent of the county's homes are affordable to a San Diego family earning the median income of $52,500. Nationally, homes are affordable to 67 percent of the families who earn the national median income of $47,800. San Francisco is the most unaffordable area in the country, with only 15.7 percent of its families earning the $72,400 it takes to buy a home. *** Just eight months after launching its first store in Fashion Valley Center, San Diego-based Complexions Rx has opened its second store, this one at The Shops at Mission Viejo. Complexions Rx bills itself as the first retailer to combine prescription care and medical treatments with other skin care products and services in a single location. *** As the fall quarter gets under way at UCSD, the school is educating a record 19,900 students. That's up 3 percent, or about 530 students, from fall of 1998 figures. The 3,300 freshmen were culled from a record pool of 32,500 freshman applications. *** Among those capitalizing on the boom in Downtown real estate are David and Cecila Conover. From a brick and glass office in Little Italy, the couple's firm, Conover, provides graphic design and architectural color consulting to firms ranging from the Morgan Group to SAS Development. *** In the residential real estate industry, Pam and Phil Reed are a true power couple. In the first 35 weeks of 1999, the Willis Allen Co. agents closed escrow on 41 transactions valued at more than $26 million. Since the couple began working together in 1993, they've closed 253 transactions totaling more than $137 million. *** Artists and entrepreneurs Ric and Marie Orisak have opened an online art site called Rico Gallery that features local artists. Clicking on www.ricogallery.com provides images of the works and order information. *** The San Diego Opera has added a secure online subscription ordering system to its Website Ð www.sdopera.com. Opera aficionados seem to approve: Within two weeks of the system going live last month, it had paid for itself with new subscription sales. *** Veteran p.r. man Dick Daniels is looking for new clients, having officially parted ways Oct. 1 with San Diego City Schools, where he had served Alan Bersin as executive director of communications and community relations. *** The first Wednesday of each month is now Disabled Businesspersons Association Day at the San Diego office of the U.S. Small Business Administration. On those days, the San Diego-based Disabled Businesspersons Association will have a representative at the SBA's offices to discuss SBA programs. Under George Chandler's leadership, the local SBA office is the first in the nation with such a program. *** Looking to grow, the Scripps Research Institute has bought for $10.8 million the 53,000 square foot shelled lab building at 3528 General Atomics Court. Developed by Slough Estates USA, the building will house the Institute of Childhood and Neglected Diseases. In the sale, Burnham's John Hucko and Jed Stirnkorb represented Slough. Scripps was represented by Kevin Craven and Tom Mercer of Colliers International. *** The 5,300-acre Otay Ranch in eastern Chula Vista is the only planned community selected for a site tour during the national Partners for Smart Growth conference that’s coming to San Diego Nov. 17-19. The event at the Hotel del Coronado is sponsored by the Urban Land Institute and the Environmental Protection Agency's Smart Growth Network. About 1,000 elected leaders, urban planners, environmentalists and developers are expected to attend. Otay Ranch is based on a "village planning" model that incorporates urban cores, integrates public transit alternatives and emphasizes pedestrian corridors connecting residential areas with future schools, parks, retailers, community services and a vast trail system. *** Hundreds of local nonprofit organizations are set to benefit on Nov. 21 when San Diego’s Westfield Shoppingtowns hosts its second annual Westfield Works Wonders pre-holiday, after-hours shopping and entertainment event. Starting at 6 p.m. when the centers normally close, a $5 donation to a participating nonprofit gains access to one of Westfield's centers - Horton Plaza, Mission Valley, North County Fair, Parkway Plaza, Plaza Bonita, Plaza Camino Real or UTC. Participating nonprofits sell tickets to the event, keeping 100 percent of the proceeds. *** On Oct. 25, Biocom kicks off its 8th annual CalBioSummit '99, a two-day summit and trade show boasting life sciences industry panels on financing and partnerships, life sciences public policy presentations, workshops focusing on business strategies and tactics, "Meet the Companies" presentations, life sciences vendors, opportunities for networking and more. More than 1,500 CEOs, senior managers, purchasing agents and facility mangers attended last year’s event. The theme this year is "Bioconvergence: Finance, Technologies, Markets." *** At the 1999 AGC Build San Diego Awards, six contractors won honors for excellence in nonresidential construction. Soltek Pacific took home a Build San Diego Award for its five-story expansion of the North County Regional Center Courthouse in Vista. Nielsen Dillingham received its honor for building Sea World's Shipwreck Rapids. The Erreca's/Sim J. Harris Joint Venture team won for its alterations of the Vista Village Drive interchange at the Melrose Drive undercrossing in Vista. The Kenai Construction Co. won for its improvements to the Santa Fe Depot in Downtown, where the team had to renovate and upgrade platforms the length of two city blocks between four operating railroad tracks and two trolley tracks Ð all while satisfying the needs of seven public agencies. Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. won for constructing the Robert A. Fergusson Special Care & Research Facility at the San Diego Center for Children, a project abandoned by its original developer. And the Marathon Construction Corp. was honored for its partial replacement of the Pacific Beach/Mission Beach ocean-front walk. *** Scott Heffner has been named director of marketing for the Children's Museum/Museo de Los Niños in Downtown San Diego. Previously, he served as director of sales for X-BACH Classical 540 Stereo. *** Partnering in a virtual project management course are UCSD Extension and the University of California, Irvine. The new course, "Virtual Project Teams: Managing at a Distance," will be held Tuesday evenings from Nov. 9 through Dec. 14 in the Distance Learning Lab at the UCSD Geisel Library. The fee is $250. The instructor is Mahmoud Mostafa of Hewlett Packard, a distance project manager with 14 years of experience. Call (858) 534-3434 for more. *** From the Sept. 26 Los Angeles Times sports page: "The Padres' Tony Gwynn, who on Aug. 6 became the 22nd player to achieve 3,000 career hits, did it sooner (in 2,284 games) than 19 others on the list. Only Ty Cobb (2,135) in 1921 and Napoleon Lajoie (2,224) in 1914 did it in fewer games." *** Presto Studios in San Diego is managing F13, horror meister Stephen King's first effort to bring his particular sense of the macabre to the computer. Presto, which was founded in 1991 and has worked on projects such as Star Trek: Hidden Evil, will create the menus, graphics and audio for F13, as well as assemble the final project. Presto got the work under contract with Blue Byte Software of London. Blue Byte signed a worldwide deal with King. The title, F13, refers to a key on the top row of a computer keyboard. Usually, the key has no function, except to print a screen. King's premise is what if pressing the key brought about something menacing. The title should be released this Thanksgiving. |
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Lindsey Burroughs is going to have to start traveling more. The San Diego area president of GTE Wireless has been doing such a good job here, her bosses named her president of a second area: Hawaii. Poor Burroughs.
After a year-long national search, the YWCA of San Diego County has named Judy DiPasquale Case as its new executive director. Case was recruited from the YWCA in Bradford, Pa., where she served as executive director. The YW is San Diego’s most prominent women's organization. Among its major events are In The Company of Women and Tribute to Women And Industry.