September 2003
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*** The National City Community Development Commission has entered into a 90-day exclusive negotiating agreement with Sycuan Tribal Development Corp., Latino Builders and MRW Group for the Marina Gateway project. The $30 million project will include a 170-room hotel, conference center and restaurant. No casino. *** Carlsbad’s Chamber is gearing up for one of North County’s largest business events of the year — its Sept. 17 Business-to-Business Expo. Displays, networking opportunities, free food and prizes will fill the parking lot of the Carlsbad Company Stores from 1 to 7 p.m. More than 1,500 professionals are expected at this showcase of more than 120 businesses. The cost is $5 for general admission and $3 for chamber members. The major sponsors are SDG&E and Poseidon Resources. *** When the Chargers presented the media the draft of three possibilities for redeveloping Qualcomm Stadium, the team did so at two press conferences. The first, for the television and radio folks who had time to get back for their early afternoon broadcasts. The second for those peskier print reporters. *** “Everything Ralph does is for Ralph,” said a long-time City Hall insider, long before the FBI even raided City Council offices. *** The capital campaign started Aug. 13, “and we were told by everyone that summertime is the worst time” to raise funds, says organizing San Diego Trust Bank CEO Michael E. Perry. “The average time (for a full subscription) is 84 days.” But Perry has the perfect bank name with the perfect board, chaired by Larry Willette. After two weeks, they were sitting on $7.8 million toward an offering of $9 million to $11 million. That means the offering may be fully subscribed by the time directors hold their third presentation to prospective investors Sept. 10 at the Hall of Champions. *** With the Metropolitan Transit Development Board and North San Diego County Transit Development Board now fully consolidated under the Sandag umbrella, Gary Gallegos, Sandag’s executive director, has named his regional planning management team. The two chief deputy executive directors are Eric Pahlke, who was promoted to head operations and Tom Larwin who moves from running MTDB to transition and policy. Department director positions went to Jeff Tayman, promoted to technical services; Bob Leiter comes over from the city of Chula Vista to direct land use and transportation planning; Jack Boda from Caltrans to a director position in mobility management and project implementation; Renee Wasmund from MTDB to finance director; and Leslie Campbell, who was promoted to director of administration. *** The Business Improvement District Council is sponsoring a health care plan called City Care Benefits that is available to licensed city of San Diego businesses with 12 or fewer employees. The plan allows small firms to purchase group medical, dental and vision coverage at rates comparable to those offered to large groups by major health care providers. “Many small business owners forgo health insurance due to cost, quality or administrative obstacles,” says Scott Kessler, CEO of the council. Applicants can expect office visit co-pays between $10 and $20, and prescription drug coverage co-pays for generic and brand medications also between $10 and $20. For information, contact the plan administrator, Seaman & Co. Inc. at (619) 741-4146. ***
*** Only about 400 American Gem Society members in North America have earned its highest level of accreditation as a certified gemologist appraiser, and George Carter Jessop Jeweler employs four of them: President Jim Jessop, g.m. Phyllis Weeks-Daniel, jeweler Nancy Seelert and now Sharon Axelson, who just passed. To earn the CGA title, Axelson had to be accredited already as a certified gemologist, then successfully pass additional requirements, including a rigorous two-part exam including theory and practical appraisal assignments. Weeks-Daniel and Seelert are two of only nine nationwide ever to have received perfect scores on the exams.•Jessop operates an accredited gemological lab on site at 401 W. C St., doing insurance replacement appraisals and appraisals for estates, individuals, attorneys and trusts. *** Bob Shiller, the author of “Irrational Exuberance,” which forecast the 2001 stock market crash, is out with a new book, “The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century.” The Yale economics professor talks on the topic 7:30-9 a.m. Oct. 10 at the UCSD Faculty Club. The $50 ticket includes parking and breakfast. Call (858) 822-0510 for more, or e-mail Edie Munk at emunk@ucsd.edu. *** Cisterra Partners has topped out the construction of the first phase of Idec’s new West Coast research and corporate campus at the northwest corner of Nobel Drive at Interstate 805 in University Towne Centre. Cisterra is Idec’s development partner. HOK is the architect and Turner Construction the general contractor. *** Already ticked, the local Republican establishment has new reason to be crabby with Scott Barnett, a founder of RepublicansAgainstTheRecall.com. Barnett, former head of the Taxpayers Association and Lincoln Club, has taken the message to local, state and national media, earning clips and appearances in outlets ranging from the Washington Post to CNN. Quick with the quip and sound bite, he hasn’t gone liberal. “Unfortunately, our predictions of the nightmare scenarios of the Republicans splitting the vote and attacking each other and a new Democrat winning might become reality,” he says. He also says a recall for non-criminal reasons is bad form with long-term consequences. “The broader issue is the impact of recalls in California across the nation,” he says. “As you know, everything starts in California, from Proposition 13 to the pet rock.” In late August, nearly certain Gov. Davis was history, Barnett joined attorney and Democrat Mike Boyle in forming “Independent Californians for (Peter) Ueberroth.” Barnett calls the former baseball commissioner, Olympic organizer and urban renewal czar the “adult in the race.” He hopes to raise $2 million of independent expenditures for Ueberroth, whom he had not met before planning the effort. Back at home, Barnett works to keep his fledgling government consulting business alive. His e-mail has brought messages calling him Judas, Benedict Arnold, traitor and “things you can’t print in a family magazine.” Some have threatened he would lose clients, and indeed one did drop him, although he declined to identify who. Most Republican business leaders he has spoken to, Barnett says, are unhappy with the recall. “They think we should focus instead on getting President Bush a win in the state,” Barnett says. “But for the most part, most of them are unwilling to say this publicly. They don’t want the grief.” ***
*** Barone Galasso Associates has started construction on the $4.5 million conversion of the 85,000-square-foot Armed Forces YMCA on Broadway into a 260-room European-style hotel. All of the rooms will be singles and the existing restaurant will be expanded, with the adjoining meeting rooms converted to a patio, says Michael Galasso, company president. “Virtually nothing will be done to the exterior of the building," says Barbara Flammang, principal of Santa Monica-based Killefer Flammang Architects, which is designing the interior renovation. The six-story structure, built in 1924, sits on a rusticated stone base with terra cotta detailing at cornice lines. The historic sign on the top of the building will remain. *** Five San Diego commercial projects are set for the Sept. 20 self-guided Commercial Design Tour, an activity created by the local chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers. On the route are the Meritage Wine Market and Tasting Room in Encinitas, Los Cabos Cantina in Carmel Valley, the law office of Morrison & Foerster in Carmel Valley, the Admiral Baker Golf Course Clubhouse in Mission Valley and the Coronado Bay Club’s Resident’s Lounge, Great Room and Leasing Office. Tickets are $12 in advance. Call (858) 646-9896 for information, or visit www.asidsandiego.com. *** San Diego, along with Chicago and Los Angeles, has been chosen for the rollout of a money transfer program run by U.S. Bank and Mexico’s L@Red de la Gente. Transfers from one account to another cost as little as $6. The primary form of ID used in the transfers is the Matricula Consular, a card issued by the Mexican Consular to Mexican citizens living in this country. *** The USD Real Estate Institute will host a Work Force Housing Conference on Sept. 19 to address housing issues in San Diego. Conference participants include state Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny; John Russo, president of the California League of Cities; Sherm Harmer, president of Urban Housing Partners and president-elect of the California Building Industry Association; Marney Cox, chief economist of Sandag; Jack McGrory, v.p. of The Price Group; and Councilman Scott Peters. For information, visit www.usdreal-estate.com. *** Street Scene, California’s largest music festival, takes over the Gaslamp Quarter Sept. 5-7. More than 60 acts are scheduled to take place on nine stages. Headliners include REM, Sex Pistols, The Allman Brothers Band, 311, Bad Religion, Goo Goo Dolls and Macy Gray. Details can be found at www.street-scene.com. *** Susan Sarko’s RealtyConnex has opened an office at 12865 Pointe Del Mar Way in Del Mar. Sarko, who founded the company in 1999, offers in her office goodies such as a plasma screen for virtual home tours. *** The Timken Museum of Art outreach event, Paris circa 1800: An Evening of Panache, is set for 6-8 p.m. Oct. 18 at the museum in Balboa Park. Tickets are $50 and include hors d’oeuvres, hosted bar and valet parking. Call (619) 239-5548, Ext. 12 for tickets. JP Morgan Private Bank is the lead sponsor. *** During the Saks Fifth Avenue “Key to the Cure” event Sept. 17 to 20, a percentage of sales at the La Jolla and Mission Valley stores and the Off 5th outlet store will be donated to the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center. The partnership between Saks and the center during the past four years has raised almost $400,000 through sales and sponsorships. For information, call the Cancer Center Foundation Office at (858) 822-0023. *** San Diegan Sheryl L. Rowling has been asked by the California Association of Certified Public Accountants to speak at the 2003 Personal Financial Planning Conference in Universal City on Sept. 8 and in San Francisco on Sept. 9. The conference is for CPAs, attorneys and financial advisers. Rowling will speak on women’s issues in financial planning for single, divorced and widowed women and the relationship between financial advisers and women. Rowling, a CPA, personal financial specialist and managing partner of Rowling, Dold & Associates, has been providing fee-only tax and financial planning advice since 1979. ***
*** A unique and atypical guidebook about San Diego by Frank Sabatini Jr., San Diego writer and publicist, has been released by ECW Press, a Canadian publishing company based in Montreal. The 260-page “Secret San Diego” is scheduled for major distribution throughout the U.S. and Canada. But it’s not your regular travel book with straightforward listings about a city’s main attractions. “Secret San Diego” encourages visitors to glide off the beaten track into restaurants, parks and stores that don’t often make the cut in mainstream travel articles. For information, call (619) 543-9544. *** The names of Sofia’s Italian Table’s chef, Damaso Lee, and the restaurant, were misspelled in the photo caption for an August review of the restaurant. San Diego Metropolitan regrets the error. *** Ivor Royston has been selected by the American Jewish Committee, San Diego Chapter, to receive the David and Dorothea Garfield Human Relations Award on Oct. 16 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine. Co-founder and managing member of Forward Ventures, the principal Southern California venture fund focused exclusively on the life sciences, Royston helps create companies that work to prolong the length and quality of human life. He also was a San Diego Metropolitan cover boy in 2002. *** As many as 8,000 Realtors from throughout the state are expected to attend “Realtor Expo 2003.” It opens Sept. 30 at the San Diego Convention Center and run through Oct. 2. For information on the show, visit www.realtorexpo.org. *** Work of photographer Alex Webb, who has spent more than 25 years covering the humor, pathos, paradox and tragedy of life in the U.S.-Mexico borderland, is compiled in “Alex Webb: Crossings” on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Downtown on Sept. 21 through Dec. 7. Forty photographs offer a portrait of the complex, culturally rich land of the border. A book documenting the entire Crossings series accompanies the exhibition. Webb will be on hand for a talk and book signing at the 7 p.m. Oct. 2 Thursday Night Thing, at the gallery, 1001 Kettner Blvd. *** TiE San Diego, which is part of a global nonprofit networking organization that nurtures entrepreneurship, has a new president: Harish Babla, the president and CEO of Copy Club West. Babla assumes the post from Suren Dutia, who founded the San Diego chapter more than three years ago. Babla wants to broaden the chapter’s focus, which has largely catered to the IT community, to be more inclusive of other business sectors, such as franchising and hospitality. *** Reint Reinders will be presented Sept. 12 with the 2003 City of Hope Spirit of Life Award. The president and CEO of ConVis picks up the honor during a City of Hope fund-raising dinner at the Hotel del Coronado. *** The ninth annual Little Italy Festa, sponsored by Precious Cheese and San Diego’s Little Italy Association, is set Oct. 12 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. KNSD is the media partner. This year’s event, themed, “New Village,” celebrates Little Italy’s growing Italian community. The event features live entertainment, Italian cuisine and specialty arts and crafts. Also included for the fifth year is “Chalk La Strada,” Italian street chalk painting. Little Italy Festa has become the West Coast’s largest Italian American festival in the fall months, with more than 60,000 attendees in 2002.
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A major renovation of the 38-year-old San Diego Civic Theatre will be unveiled Sept. 16. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates architects has prepared a design that includes a new exterior facade, front entrance, lobby, terraces and balconies. The acoustics will be improved, and a new restaurant and upscale donors’ reception room will be added.
With more than 80 percent of the 2,590-acre San Miguel Ranch to remain open space with parks, trails and paseos, Trimark Pacific Homes is reporting strong interest in the new homes. ‘San Miguel Ranch is becoming widely known for the great care that has been taken to provide an environment where nature and residents can live side by side,’ says Steve Hester, a partner with Trimark, which is partnering with Newland Communities on the development.
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