The fledgling 30,000-square-foot San Diego VenturePlex has added its first key service tenant, Arthur Andersen. "If you are in today’s fast track e-world of ours, not having to go back and rework the wheel is important, says Paul Bouchard, chairman of the high-tech incubator. "To the extent that people like Arthur Andersen can come in and set people up on the right track from the beginning, so you don’t start with QuickBooks and six months later have to switch to something more robust, is very important."

With up to 15 employees, Andersen will serve two types of tenants: The rent-paying entrepreneurs that VenturePlex, by its existence, is essentially subsidizing in exchange for the rights to participate later in an offering, and those with good ideas but no money who turn over equity in exchange for the services. Bouchard expects it to take 180 days to validate a tenant's concept.

"The whole idea is to create an enabling environment," says Don Dahl, Andersen's partner in charge of business process outsourcing. "Since we are working, and have worked, with fast-growth companies, we can sit down and walk them through what will be their road map and what they will encounter before getting there. .... Our job is to make them happy enough with our services that they continue to use us when the they leave the incubator."

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Departing California Bank & Trust is Allan W. Severson, 53. He's been managing director of Southern California for the bank and former president and CEO of Grossmont Bank, he's the guy who engineered its sale from Bancomer to CB&T Chairman Robert Sarver before there was a CB&T. Severson's departure means both guys who ran the two predecessor banks of CB&T, Grossmont and Sumitomo, are out. Tom Kato left months ago as Severson's counterpart in Northern California. Severson has been in the San Diego banking since 1978. His résumé includes serving with Union Bank and Torrey Pines Bank before joining Grossmont in 1993. He’ll remain in San Diego and continue to serve on CB&T's board.

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Steve Pelzer is leaving ConVis to run a new real estate venture fund as its president and CEO. Pelzer joined ConVis three and a half years ago. He did so when Hyatt, which had brought him to town to open the Hyatt Regency La Jolla in 1989, decided it was time for him to rotate to another property. Instead Pelzer chose to stay in San Diego, like his boss at ConVis, Reint Reinders, who opened the La Jolla Marriott. Pelzer's new company is based here but he expects to spend much of his time on the road, as he has for ConVis. He declines to name the company or its "niche" at this point. "I am 51 years old," he says. "I have been in the industry my entire life. From the time I could first walk, I literally was following my aunt and uncle around in the summer at their Catskills resort..." His final day in the office is April 14 and last day on the ConVis payroll is April 30, the day before the start of National Tourism Month. That makes him chuckle.

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The Congress of History of San Diego and Imperial Counties has presented its Media Award to Fred Lewis "for significant contributions to the preservation and development of the history of this region." Lewis, creator and moderator of "The Heart of San Diego" series of television interviews, is the Metropolitan's director of broadcast services.

This month on ITV, Lewis airs new interviews with Paul Ecke Jr., Les Land, Bill Mitchell, Charlie Ross and Skip Starkey. Oldies but goodies airing in April include Ron Hahn, Susan Lew, Bill Walton, Bernard Lansky, Don Nay, Anne Evans, Paul Dobson, Sally Thornton, Jerry Ringer, Jim Schmidt and Tom Shepard. The complete schedule is on Page 21.

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Contrary to federal mandates that governments should use central business districts whenever possible, the California Department of Justice is abandoning its Downtown offices at 555 W. Beech St. at the end of the month. Taking its 75 employees far from public transit and the justice system remaining downtown, it’s going to Kearny Mesa into a building that will cost $800,000 to remodel, including installation of a new elevator and seismic retrofitting of its mezzanine. Jossy Carrier Design Group redesigned the 26,561 square feet of space in the building at 9425 Chesapeake Drive. Bycor General Contractors Inc. is doing the construction work. The department will lease the space from Trammel Crow Co. The move catches the Downtown Partnership by surprise. "I am totally unaware of it," says a frustrated Laurie Black. Her organization had just convinced the IRS to move 40 employees from Kearny Mesa into Downtown, a move that’s due to a federal executive order mandating support of urban cores. California, despite a huge state investment in redevelopment, makes no such demands on its departments, though it did promulgate California Redevelopment Law, which encourages cities and counties to urbanize rather than sprawl.

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Friends of former Assistant City Attorney Curtis M. Fitzpatrick were dismayed that an AA sponsor went on for 25 minutes about the virtues of AA, limiting a real eulogy at Fitzpatrick's memorial service March 28. Fitzpatrick was the municipal legal mind behind the development of the original San Diego (Qualcomm) Stadium and its expansions, the rebuff of Southern California Edison's takeover of SDG&E, and the city's point man for dealings with sports franchises over three decades. "He was the most brilliant lawyer I ever knew," says former City Attorney John Witt.

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Led by Steve Cushman, who arranged for a second consultant's study costing more than $50,000 and then ignored it, Port Commissioners unanimously called for a 55 percent reduction of the 100,000-square-foot Kettenburg Marine yard run by Chuck Driscoll at the foot of Carleton Street in Point Loma. The port's own consultants recommended the yard be retained or grown. Operating for more than 70 years, Kettenburg is the only yard in the North Bay that allows boat owners to work on their own vessels. Port commissioners instead sided with Dan Larsen and Hal Sadler, who formed an ad hoc committee yet represented no formal group, recommending that the yard be turned over to tourists. Tom Driscoll intends to appeal to the state Coastal Commission, which as a matter of policy tries to retain a dwindling supply of yards.

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Kilroy Realty Corp. has positioned itself as a leading player in developing suburban commercial projects for high-tech tenants. The company has just spent $11 million to acquire 15 acres along the extension of SR-56 where it will develop a 300,000-square-foot corporate campus. Based in El Segundo, Kilroy has about 700,000 square feet of commercial development under construction or committed in San Diego, and another 1.8 million square feet in the pipeline. Clients include Applied Micro Circuits, Intel, Pacific Bell, Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison, Diversa and Peregrine Systems, which is getting a 550,000-square-foot corporate HQ.

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Maybe it’s early, but the "First Semi-Serious Debate of the 2000 Mayoral Runoff" may shape the campaign for the remainder of the year. It’s April 11, 11:30 a.m. at the La Jolla Marriott. The $40 tab includes lunch. Call (619) 460-5641 for reservations. Sponsors are the San Diego Building Owners & Managers Assn. and the San Diego Metropolitan. Ron Roberts and Dick Murphy will be there. Gary Shaw will moderate.

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The Greater San Diego Business Development Council will introduce itself to corporate San Diego on April 7. The local offices of national corporations that have a presence in San Diego are organizing the council. Participants include AT&T, Bank of America, Boise Cascade, Hewlett-Packard, Kaiser Permanente, Kelly Services, Motorola, NCR, SBC Pacific Bell, SAIC, Disney, TRW, Union Bank and Sempra Energy. Among the goals is to assist minority businesses with training, education, technical assistance and other support services. Shawn Farrar, director of diverse business enterprises at Sempra, is chairing the GDBDC. The group is being incubated by the Southern California Regional Purchasing Councils, a nonprofit benefit corporation whose 265 major corporate members accounted for nearly $4 billion in procurement expenditures from minority businesses in 1998. For more information, call (877) 447-3232.

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The top management team at one of San Diego’s largest home builders, Pardee Construction Co., is about to change. After 16 years at the helm, and after having succeeded Douglas Pardee as president, David E. Landon leaves the Los Angeles-based builder in late May as chairman, president and CEO. In July Vance Meyer, executive v.p. and COO, steps down. In May, senior v.p.s Michael McGee and Hal Struck move up, with McGee becoming president and Struck executive v.p.

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Working from a nondescript building in Sorrento Valley, Dennis Clark says his Air-trak.com is offering the perfect wireless device for the mobile workforce. The most visible part of his Air-Track AVL + Messaging system is what looks like an overgrown pager with a keyboard and screen. Using the Mobitex two-way wireless radio system for an always-on connection, the device lets users easily exchange data with the home office computers. And because it has GPS receiver — a link to a government-funded fleet of satellites — the boss can always check on the Internet to learn the employee's exact location. The monitoring technology, which starts at $995 per vehicle, can be invaluable in large operations, for instance in a situation where trucks are using all of a company’s loading docks. By using the GPS, the company can determine how close the truck is — from 1,000 miles to two blocks — and be prepared to free up docking space when the vehicle arrives. By the end of May, Clark expects his technology to work with all the personal digital assistants, like the Palm, on the market. Click on www.air-trak.com for more.

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Combining radio, television and the Internet, KPBS debuts a multimedia news program at 9 p.m., April 26. "'Full Focus' is the only program of its type, employing a broad range of media to cover one subject," says Michael Flaster, executive producer for the series. KPBS Radio's news staff will create the television program, radio reports and Web content. The series kicks off with a look at police shootings in San Diego during the past decade. Other programs will examine subjects ranging from ballot measures and the mayoral election in November to the condition of the city's crumbling infrastructure.

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Buyers already are showing interest in Discovery at Cortez Hill condominiums, even though the development is far from completion and won’t be ready for occupants until september 2001. Sales representative Sandra Melville says about half the units in the 199-unit, 22-story residential tower have been reserved. BOSA Development of Vancouver is building the project at a site on Beech Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues, a block from the El Cortez Hotel. Condo prices range from $199,000 to $1.03 million. Mesa Realty is handling sales. For more information, call (619) 235-6003 or visit the Web site at www.bosadev.com.

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In a deal likely to develop one of the last remaining parcels in Downtown’s Marina District, Crown Bay LLC has closed escrow on its purchase of a half-block at Fourth Avenue and K Street. On the site, a six-story, mid-rise building with 86 luxury condos and 9,000 square feet of retail space is planned. It will be the second in a series of Downtown mid-rise condominium projects due for construction during the next few years, says Keith Fernandez, president of Intracorp San Diego, the broker for Crown Bay.

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Jazzercise is on the move. After 19 years in downtown Carlsbad, the dance fitness company is relocating to a business park near the intersection of Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real. Judi Sheppard Missett, Jazzercise founder and CEO, says the new quarters — a two story, 25,000-square-foot office building also in Carlsbad — is large enough to consolidate all the company’s divisions under one roof. It will serve as home base for Jazzertogs, the Jazzercise retail catalog division formerly in Vista, and for JM DigitalWorks, its video services division.

***

Three days after Pacific Bell's advertising campaign began in the San Diego Metropolitan last month, DSL installations were backed up 27 days. Twenty-seven days into the campaign, installers were backed up 45 days. PacBell employs 25 installers in San Diego; each installs about four DSL connections a day.

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As the Pepsi machines move in, things change in city buildings. For example, the 12-ounce cans of soda in the machine at the World Trade Center were 65 cents. The 20-ounce bottles of Pepsi are a buck. The same machines in front of the Food 4 Less in Mission Valley sell the sodas for 75 cents.

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The San Diego Urban League will sponsor the 11th annual "Bridge to a Brighter Future" Career Fair at Golden Hall April 28, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Organizers are hoping to surpass last year’s turnout, when more than 100 employers and 5,000 job hunters participated. Co-chairs are Barbara Webb of the San Diego Urban League, Callie Rennie of Manpower and Mary Kaliff of Internet Strategy Inc.

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San Diego Dialogue presents a free public forum on "Excellence in Teaching" April 8. Kati Haycock, director of The Education Trust in Washington, D.C., and a panel of local educators will discuss how quality teaching is the foundation of education reform and improved learning, how it is often missing in low-income and high-minority schools, and what might be done to remedy the situation. The 8-11 a.m. session is at the Old Globe Theatre.

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San Diego developer Will Newbern premiered in Las Vegas last month a four story 320-unit affordable housing concept called SRO+. Located three blocks from City Hall, "Campaige Place" is designed for hourly wage earners who work in nearby hotels, restaurants and retail stores. "We’re changing the way people think about SROs," says Newbern. "Growing cities face a critical need for worker housing. That's what we build. Safe, affordable, convenient places for people to live within walking distance to work."

Newbern is president of the Tom Hom Group, a company that helped pioneer SRO development. With move-in costs of $250 and monthly rents starting at $495, tenants at the $12 million project live in furnished efficiencies with kitchen, full bath, phone, cable TV, housekeeping service and weekly linen change. Campaige Place was designed by San Diego’s Rob Wellington Quigley.

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The San Diego region's oldest community leadership development program, LEAD San Diego, bestows April 8 its highest honor — The Morgan Award — upon Deborah Szekely, the founder and chairman of Eureka Communities.

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Once again, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Small Business Administration are joining forces to honor area small businesses with an award luncheon that serves as the local kickoff for National Small Business Week. The May 25 event at the Town and Country Resort is the region's longest standing small business recognition event and is considered the premier Small Business Week kickoff event in the nation. Awards will be presented in 12 categories to successful small business owners and to community members who support small business.

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Jay Kerr, division president of D.R. Horton's San Diego County division, will be the guest speaker at the monthly breakfast meeting of the Building Industry Association's North County Division, 7:30-9 a.m., April 9, at the Lomas Santa Fe Country Club. His topic is "Life as a publicly traded homebuilder."

Sales for Horton's San Diego County division are projected to exceed $100 million this fiscal year. The division owns or controls a lot inventory of about 1,500 units throughout San Diego County. Kerr started his construction career nearly 25 years ago as a carpenter and later joined the Baldwin Co. in 1983 as a job site superintendent. At Baldwin, he met and married his salesperson wife, Vivian.

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Prism Communications has signed a $1.2 million, 60-month lease agreement for 8,570 square feet of space in the Murphy Canyon area. The company, which specializes in telecommunications and Internet access, moves in this month. Burnham Real Estate Services represented the lessor, M & S California Fund. The Staubach Co. represented Prism.

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Those sweet sounds rising over Carlsbad these days may be coming from The Museum of Making Music, which is dedicated to the musical instruments of the past century. The museum is "the only museum in the world to focus on the music products industry and the instruments it manufactured and sold over the years," says Shari West, the museum's executive director. The museum has five major exhibits, including 450 vintage instruments, popular music from each era, historic photographs and paintings, trends in music products and a museum store. It also has a sound stage where visitors play a digital keyboard, guitar and drums. The museum is at the corporate headquarters of International Music Products Association, 5790 Armada Drive, Carlsbad. For information, call toll-free (877) 551-9976.

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L. Brook Fellows may have been disappointed when Gaslamp Popcorn, which does business in the Gaslamp Quarter, changed the corporate identity his advertising and design studio had done for the company. But the abandoned work went on to win plaudits from his colleagues. LBFD (L. Brook Fellows Design), a Downtown business, was a silver winner in the 2000 Summit Creative Awards competition for its outstanding creative work for Gaslamp Popcorn. The international competition drew 3,000 entries this year from ad agencies and similar creative groups with annual billings of under $15 million.

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Sun Microsystems has signed a $3.8 million, 84-month lease for 16,970 square feet of space in UTC Executive Plaza at 4570 Executive Drive. Burnham Real Estate Services represented the lessor, LMC-Shoreham Inc. Jones Lang LaSalle represented the lessee.

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The 15th annual Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair will be held April 29, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Highlights of the one-day festival include a World Arts Village, an ethnic food court, international folk art and two performance stages. A parade will begin at 11 a.m. and feature more than 60 marching bands, horses and international pageantry. The fair will take place on Linda Vista Road between Comstock and Ulrich streets.

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San Diego County Credit Union has opened its EastLake branch at 2280 Otay Lakes Road in the EastLake Village Shopping Center. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. With $1.2 billion in assets and 17 branches in San Diego and Temecula, the credit union now bills itself as the largest financial institution based in San Diego.

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Regular San Diego Metropolitan contributor Bradley J. Fikes is leaving his staff writer position at the North County Times to join DoubleTwist Inc., an online biotech portal for life scientists. The Oakland-based company rents software to life scientists for use over the Web, so they don’t have to buy expensive computers to do, for example, genomic analysis. The site has chat and other community-based resources so biotechies can talk amongst themselves. And it offers wire service news and original articles. The private company recently raised $36 million. Fikes is now a virtual reporter, which means he stays in San Diego and will continue to cover technology for San Diego Metropolitan.

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The county has chosen Carrier Johnson to help design the proposed 200,000 square foot, 288-bed George F. Bailey detention center for juvenile offenders in East Mesa. Carrier Johnson will work with Vitetta, an architectural and engineering firm with a California office in Sacramento. The county's new juvenile facility will go up next to the existing adult detention center and is expected to be finished in the fall of 2002.

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Foster Wheeler Environmental Corp. signed an $800,000, 60-month lease for 9,085 square feet of space in the San Diego Tech Center. The company, which specializes in environmental consulting, engineering and remediation, moved into its new offices at 9645 Scranton Road March 1. Burnham Real Estate Services * ONCOR International represented Foster Wheeler; Sentre Partners represented the lessor.

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When it comes to residential development, China is going all out to cut bureaucratic red tape and forge ahead with high-rise, high-density housing projects. That's the word from Schmidt Design Group Inc. and Joseph Wong Design Associates, local firms that are working on conceptual plans for two new Chinese communities. One project near the city of Guangzhou will house about 90,000 residents on 800 acres. The other, near Zhongshan, will provide housing for 30,000 residents on 300 acres. Glen Schmidt notes that one of the communities designed by the San Diego firms is so dense that it will fit a population the size of El Cajon into a fourteenth of the land area. Still, the projects aren’t exactly clones of Cabrini Green. Both communities are slated to get an array of public services and amenities — open space, town centers, schools, man-made lakes and even a golf course for one of them. And plans are on the fast track. "There are so many less constraints on projects in China than here in the U.S.," says Joseph Wong, who, along with Schmidt, went to China recently for a one-week design charrette. "The larger community we designed is just now starting with our preliminary ideas yet it will begin construction in less than a year."

San Diego developer Pardee Homes is partnering with Norwest Mortgage Inc. to make it easier for customers to buy its houses. The joint venture, Pardee Mortgage Co. LLP, co-owned by the two companies, will originate, process and fund mortgage loans for Pardee's home buyers. "We have had a strong business relationship with Norwest Mortgage for the past 10 years, and this partnership further strengthens our ability to offer the best quality product and service to our home buyers," says James Wisda, Pardee's v.p. for administration.

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Seltzer Caplan Wilkins & McMahon, a 52-year-old Downtown law firm with more than 180 lawyers and staff members, is changing its name to Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek. The change reflects the inclusion of Reginald A. Vitek, a trial attorney and a principal in the firm since 1970. Floyd Wilkins Jr., whose name was deleted, retired from the firm in 1992. In addition to the name change, the firm has adopted a new logo, stationery, Web site and brochure as part of an effort to revamp its corporate identity.

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Joining the Internet Age, the San Diego Repertory Theatre has begun to sell its tickets online. Purchases can be made through SeatAdvisor.com, a San Diego-based Internet company that allows customers to buy tickets directly from an interactive, real-time seating map. "There's no waiting. You'll know exactly what’s available for sale while you’re online," says Kathy Swank, new marketing director of San Diego Rep, resident theater company at the Lyceum in Horton Plaza. SeatAdvisor.com will practically be a neighbor of the theater, having recently decided to move from the North County to the Gaslamp Quarter. The company has leased 5,000 square feet of space in the Horton Court Building at 919 Fourth Ave. and plans to triple the size of its staff during the next year.

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Where were the planning gods when the city of Coronado decided to park and maintain its heavy equipment on prime property across from the touristy Ferry Landing and some million-dollar bayfront condos? Still, the city has tried to blend its recently constructed Public Works Service Center with its scenic surroundings. Trucks and equipment are tucked behind the facade of a clean white building that, for the most part, conceals the grubbiness of repair bays and machine shops. McGraw/Baldwin Architects did the comprehensive programming, master planning and architectural design services for the center, which was dedicated last month.

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Youth violence will be the focus when the Desert Coast Region of Soroptimist International gathers for a three-day conference in San Diego April 28-30. The international service club will hold a legislative forum April 28, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the La Jolla Marriott on the topic, "Children in a Violent Society: Solutions for a Safe Tomorrow." The luncheon speaker will be Rep. Duncan Hunter. Open to the public, the forum has a registration fee of $50, which includes lunch. For reservations, call forum chairwoman Victoria Hobbs at (858) 453-5979 before April 21.

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Jason Associates Corp. is installing 3,368 square feet of new offices in the Sorrento Hills area at Corporate Plaza Torrey Hills. Jillone Augustine of Augustine Miller Design Group was principal designer of the $81,839 project, and Bycor General Contractors' tenant improvement division did the work.

William Lyon Homes has paid $11.5 million for a 178-acre parcel of land at 3420 Reed Road in Escondido. The developer plans a 291-unit residential development on the land, once part of a 500-acre avocado grove. The project will be called Hidden Trails. The seller, East Grove Joint Venture, was represented by Burnham Real Estate Services * ONCOR International and the purchaser by Switzerland Co.

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The Cystic Fibrosis Guild of San Diego is hosting a black tie dinner and dance May 6 at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. Proceeds go to advanced research being done by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Tickets are $175 each, of which $100 will be tax-deductible. They can be purchased by calling (858) 277-5880.

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Sempra Energy has sold a 3.28-acre parcel on the corner of Azuaga and Rancho Penasquitos streets to the Taiwanese Lutheran Church of San Diego. The price was $900,000. Burnham Real Estate Services represented Sempra. Great Real Estate represented the church.

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After a dramatic comeback from near financial death, the San Diego Symphony is getting a standing ovation — and a $10,000 grant — from Radisson Hotels & Resorts. Under its "Partners with the Arts" program, the hotel chain selected the symphony as its fourth-quarter grant recipient. The chain chose the symphony because of its effective partnership with Downtown’s Radisson Hotel Harbor View. The relationship proved mutually beneficial. The hotel generated more than $25,000 in room revenue and 150 room nights by hosting the symphony's featured performers in 1999.

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Ninteman Construction Co. has completed a $13.5 million, six-story office building and four-level parking structure at Seaview Corporate Center in the Sorrento Mesa area. Amenities include a swimming pool, tennis court, an exercise room with showers and lockers and sweeping ocean and canyon views. Ninteman built the project for its owner, Lennar Partners, and its Laguna Hills developer, the Muller Co. The 127,000-square-foot Class A office building at 10182 Telesis Court is leased to WebSideStory and Paraxel. Colliers International handled the lease.

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The 14th annual SDG&E Over the Bay Bridge Four-Mile Run/Walk will start in the Gaslamp Quarter at 8 a.m., May 21. It will end at Coronado's Tidelands Park. Entry fees are $20 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under until May 7. After that, fees increase to $26 for adults and $18 for children and on race day, $26 for adults and $21 for children. All proceeds go to quality of life programs at San Diego Navy bases. For information, call the event hotline at (760) 736-3548 or e-mail bridgerun00@hotmail.com.

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Students Actively Volunteering for You and SDG&E are sponsoring service projects for the National Youth Service Day April 14-15. SAVY is urging young people to develop their own projects and apply for $250 mini-grants to help fund them. For information, call Doug Thompson at (858) 636-4137.

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San Diego’s Children's Museum/ Museo de los Niños is extending its hours, remaining open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Toddler Tuesdays, with special activities for kids ages 2 to 4, will be expanded to include Thursdays.

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Small business owners looking for a competitive edge can get free skills training through a program offered at USD. The university is teaming up with the California Employment Training Panel, the city of San Diego and Sempra Energy to offer the 52-hour program, which runs from April 18 to June 3. To qualify, a business must have one to nine employees, excluding the owner, and have contributed to the California Unemployment Insurance Fund for at least six months. For more information, call Jodi Waterhouse at (619) 260-4231.

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A survey of 50,000 Southern California members of managed care plans gave the top rating for patient satisfaction to Sharp Community Medical Group. The survey was conducted by the Pacific Business Group on Health, a consortium of 33 large employer groups, and asked members to rate their plans on areas of care, quality, access and physician communications.

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Carlsbad-based National Manufacturing Technologies Inc. has a $1.2 million contract to make a family of printed circuit board assemblies and precision machine parts for a San Diego manufacturer of high performance motion control products and systems. NMT says a confidentiality agreement prevents it from identifying the company. The work starts this month at the company’s Carlsbad plant, with precision machining to be done at NMT's metals manufacturing in Oceanside.

Jacquie Evans, v.p. and director of visions and attitudes for the Peninsula Athletic Club, has been elected to the Peninsula Planning Board and to the board of Peninsula Chamber.

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RHI Management Resources, a consulting firm that places senior-level accounting and finance professionals on a project basis, has opened a branch in Carlsbad at 5900 La Place Court, Suite 120. The company has offices in cities through the United States, Canada and Europe and offers online job search services at www.rhimr.com.

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Oliva, Sahmel & Goddard, an accounting firm, has signed a 96-month, $777,436 lease for 3,521 square feet of office space at 4510 Executive Drive in the Sorrento Valley area. The firm will move in June 1. Burnham Real Estate Services represented the lessor; Crescal Properties LP. Sande Co. represented the lessee.

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The Ryland Group's San Diego division has moved into larger office space at the recently completed Ocean Terrace Corporate Center in Carlsbad. The regional office occupies 15,619 square feet, 12 percent more than the former offices in Carmel Mountain Ranch. Using the Ocean Terrace office will be Ryland Homes, Ryland Mortgage, Premier Escrow, Ryland ReSource Realty and Ryland Interiors. Ryland, a major builder listed on the NYSE, uses its local office for residential developments in San Diego, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

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MC Direct, a direct marketing company, has moved into its new $5.5 million corporate building in Poway. Designed by Pacific Cornerstone Architects and built by R.G. Petty Construction, the company’s West Coast headquarters building is a 77,000-square-foot, two-story structure on a 3.5-acre site in the Poway Business Park. Another 6,600 square feet of space will be subleased through San Diego Commercial Real Estate Services.
"The new corporate headquarters building enables us to consolidate all of our West Coast operations under one roof, while providing room for future expansion," says Ray Ellis, MC Direct's president and CEO. The company’s East Coast headquarters is in Virginia Beach.

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PinnacleOne in San Diego has been chosen to provide specialist international contracts for a proposed $200 million hydroelectric project near the Himalayas in Nepal. PinnacleOne staff will help in the preparation of international construction pre-qualification documents, bid documents, bid review and analysis and project management services. Project executive for PinnacleOne is Allan G. Christer, g.m. of operations in San Diego.

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Attorney Paul R. Kennerson was the winner but it was the nonprofit McAlister Institute that came away with nearly $35,000 when the fourth annual Silver Tongue Competition presented by Barney & Barney wrapped up at the Westin Hotel Horton Plaza.

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Health care design specialist Jain Malkin Inc. turned to a comfortable living room style to help make visitors more at ease in the recently completed 3,400-square-foot Smotrich Center for Reproductive Enhancement.

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After 47 years of being known as Professional secretaries Day, and later expanded into Professional secretaries Week, the national celebration set for April 23-29 will be renamed this year Administrative Professionals Week. Training, seminars and professional study materials, not flowers and lunch, are the gifts suggested by the International Association of Administrative Professionals.

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Folks have until May 3 to submit writing, photography or art works that depict "Why I Love San Diego Bay." Sponsored by the Port District and Port Tenants Association, the contest is split into age categories — 6-12, 13-17, 18-and-up — and has some great prizes, like a Holland America Line Cruise. For more, click on www.portofsandiego.org.

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Finding books, newspapers and magazines at the San Diego Public Library is getting a lot easier thanks to the library's new online catalog. Readers can use the Web catalog at the library or at home through the Internet at www.ci.san-diego.ca.us/public-library. The switch from text catalog to the TAOS Web2 display was phased in over two years. The new catalog system is available on the 172 catalog terminals at the Central Library and its 33 branches.

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Travel University International of San Diego is offering a two-year Associate of Applied Science Degree in either hospitality management or international trade. As a result the university estimates that enrollment will double in a year. University president Nancy Chappie says the degree program requires students to take an Internet research class and provides internships in the hospitality industry.

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Jim W. Hughes has been named director of leasing for the San Diego office of Insignia/ESG, a major provider of commercial real estate services operating in 48 of the country's top markets. Previously, Hughes was an office properties broker for Grubb & Ellis in the Los Angeles and San Diego offices from 1989 to 1997.

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The Stevens Cancer Center Tennis Tournament and Spinoff Auction is expected to raise more than $300,000 this month for cancer education, early detection and prevention. The annual tennis tournament takes place April 15-16 at the San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club. The auction will be April 13 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla. San Diego Charger legend Rolf Benirschke will be honored for his contributions to the cancer center and community. For information, call (858) 678-6298.

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In a $6 million deal, New York-based Vantas Inc. has purchased San Diego’s Western Business Centers Inc., an executive suite company. The transaction gave Vantas control of business centers in Emerald Plaza Downtown, Rio Vista Tower in Mission Valley and Carlsbad Pacific Center as well as three others in Los Angeles, Woodland Hills and Las Vegas. Tom Lang, who founded Western Business Centers in 1992, says his company succeeded because "we had highly dedicated employees and enough landlords that believed in our concept." The company offers clients full executive office space, with support and telecommunications services. Lang will not remain with Western Business Centers. He's chairman of La Jolla-based Digenetics, a start-up company specializing in digital virtual-reality entertainment.

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Digitec Business Systems, a smartly growing local document imaging company, has merged with Imagine Technology Group of Chicago but doesn’t expect to lose its control. Michael Sherman, Digitec's president and CEO since he acquired it in 1993, says decision-making will remain in San Diego. "Merging our senior management team means Digitec now has an increased responsibility extending throughout Southern California," says Sherman. Digitec estimates that its revenues will top $12 million this year.

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WCB Properties, a Newport Beach developer, has broken ground for Sorrento Corporate Center in Sorrento Mesa. The 273,337-square-foot Class A office project will go up on a 14-acre site at the intersection of Interstate 805 and Mira Mesa Boulevard. Carrier Johnson designed the project, Swinterton & Walberg Co. is general contractor and Burnham Real Estate Services is handling the marketing.

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Steven M. Lash has been named the new president and CEO of DermTech International, formerly known as California Skin Research Institute. The company tests skin care products. Lash will put a new, more diversified growth strategy into effect. Lawrence A. Rheins, who founded the company in 1996, will remain its executive vice president and oversee its proprietary technology and the business development of its divisions.

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After years of persistence, architect Wayne Buss transformed the crumbling old Carnation Factory in the East Village into the aptly named ReinCarnation Project. But now he thinks it needs a new moniker — dotComplex — in memory of the ArtPlex building torn down nearby to make way for the ballpark. DotComplex, he says, reflects the change in his neighborhood from artists' haven to an area attracting dot.com companies.

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Douglas Gerhart, 41, becomes the new executive director of the San Diego Symphony May 1. He's currently the executive director of the Alabama Symphony. Gerhart will be the San Diego Symphony's first permanent executive director since the organization resumed operations in 1998. In the interim, Richard Ledford was executive consultant to the organization.

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With construction under way, S. D. Bridgeworks LLC has decided to upgrade the hotel in its Gaslamp Quarter project from a Hilton Garden to a regular Hilton. Under the change of plans, the developer would increase the number of hotel rooms from 253 to 282, and 4,200 gross square feet would be added for hotel meeting space and rest rooms.

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Seeking to spur residential development in East Village, the board of the Centre City Development Corp. approved a plan to issue a request for qualifications and proposals this month for housing construction on a 52,600-square-foot site. The property is bounded by 11th and 12th avenues and Market and G streets.

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The San Diego chapter of the National Speakers Association will conduct a one-day seminar, "Speak Like A Pro," at the Quality Resort-Mission Valley, April 15, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. For information, call (858) 279-9496.

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The new Chollas View Work First Center, which helps welfare recipients become economically independent, was dedicated last month. It was created through a $5 million San Diego Workforce Partnership Inc. welfare-to-work grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

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The city of Chula Vista has entered into a cooperative agreement with San Diego-based CDC Small Business Finance Corp. in order to give local businesses more access to financial services. The agreement is one of the first actions of the city's new Local Employer Assistance Program.

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Cathy Sang has been named senior v.p. of the Townsend Agency, a San Diego public relations and advertising firm specializing in rapid growth companies. Prior to joining the agency, Sang was director of executive communications for EDS, a global information technologies services corporation.

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More than a thousand CEOs, business people and community leaders are expected to attend the annual dinner of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. It will be at the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina May 24, 5:30-10 p.m. The speaker will be George Gilder, well-known economic adviser and Forbes ASAP founder. He's credited with being one of the first market analysts to recognize the importance of Qualcomm's CDMA technology to the future of communication networks. For information, call (619) 234-8484.

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The Gaslamp Quarter gets a visit from the Easter Bunny on April 22 during the fifth annual Village Hat Show Easter Bonnet Parade and Hat Contest. Festivities begin at 9:30 a.m. with a hat-making workshop for children on Island Avenue between Fourth and Fifth avenues. Nationally renowned hat designer, milliner and Gaslamp resident Diana Cavagnaro will lead the workshop. A parade follows, along with an Easter egg hunt for children sponsored by the Horton Grand Hotel in the courtyard of the William Heath Davis House. Admission event day is $6 for children and $12 for adults.