With 1,000 new employees expected to swell its ranks this year, Qualcomm is on a building binge, and for the first time going tall. The Q is adding 900,000 square feet of space in a pair of high rises — a 10-story and a 12-story — in Sorrento Mesa. As of July the company had 7,500 employees with the majority working in San Diego.
***
Speedy pedestrian border crossings get a test this month when the Department of Homeland Security starts trials at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Running from Aug. 16 to Dec. 16, the program will operate weekdays during the peak hours of 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and possibly on weekends. It is free but limited to 5,000 frequent crossers. An INS Form I-823, with supporting documents, is required. Call (619) 428-5200 for details. Once the documents are complete, call (619) 690-7600 for an appointment at the old customs house entered from the Mexico side at the pedestrian crossing.
***
Airport-wide WiFi Internet access is coming to Lindbergh Field. The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is preparing to issue an RFP seeking WiFi service providers, with service to begin early next year. “It’s something many airports around the country are still reviewing to incorporate into their service,” says Steve Shultz, authority spokesman. Until then, WiFi can be tapped at HMS Host service locations at Lindbergh. The New York Times reports WiFi hotspots available to the public at U.S. airports will double from 178 last year to 379 in 2004.
***
   Concordia Homes’ newest Mission Valley community, The Lido, is taking shape above ground. With nearly a year of construction remaining and more than half of its units sold, Lido is targeted for its summer 2005 opening. Located along the banks of the San Diego River, the development features 220 luxury condominiums and townhomes ranging from the mid- $500,000s.
|
***
Buildings in the 150,000-square-foot first phase of the Burke Sycamore Business Center in Vista are proving hot commodities, with Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services reporting 13 recent sales worth more than $17.6 million. The second phase by Burke Development of Santa Ana will include 42 buildings totaling 300,000 square feet. The $40 million project breaks ground in late September and should be complete in about a year. Half the buildings are already reserved.
***
Red Door Interactive has built a new Web site for the San Diego Convention Center — sdcc.org — as part of the center’s assumption of convention booking responsibilities from ConVis.
***
Graham Downes Architecture has concept design under way for FIX, a new 6,000-square-foot restaurant located in an existing warehouse building at 410 J St., on the 10th Avenue corner and directly opposite Petco Park. The company was retained by FIX San Diego, represented by Jon Mangini, for the $500,000 project The property owner is Steven Barry. Taylor Frager is the general contractor. Construction begins in the fall with completion scheduled in time for the pre-season baseball action.
The concept behind FIX typifies a classy adaptive re-use of the former industrial building character, creating a mix of casual, upscale lounge and upbeat dining atmosphere. Design elements incorporate both old and new materials and finishes, as a traditional neighborhood pizza joint is fused into the hip new lifestyle vibe of the East Village community. The structure is an old 5,000-square-foot single-story, stand-alone unreinforced masonry building featuring clay tile walls, wood bow-string trusses and an existing mezzanine.
***
 ‘People tell us it’s the brightest parking garage they’ve ever driven through,’ says Paul Chacon, Five Star Parking’s general partner, of the company’s new nine-level, 600-space garage at C and Columbia streets. The $10.7 million project is Downtown’s first privately owned, developed and financed garage in 12 years. Next for Chacon is filling the structure’s 11,000 square feet of street-level retail. Tucker Sadler Noble Castro was the architect. Morley Construction was general contractor.
|
***
While CB Richard Ellis in San Diego forecasts about 8,000 condo conversions this year, Mark Read, its senior managing director, says the day is dawning for similar conversions of commercial buildings “I think we are going to see more office condos because people want to own,” Read says.
***
A 3,900-foot-long scenic bike path is being proposed to link Mission Valley to the beaches. The 10-foot-wide path would run west from North Hotel Circle and end at an existing bike path near Pacific Highway. It would parallel I-8 and include a few scenic vistas overlooking the San Diego River. The city’s engineering and capital projects department has finished about 30 percent of the design, says project manager Mike Handal, with completion expected in August 2005. A construction timetable for the $2 million effort has not yet been drafted. “This path will provide linkage for bikers between businesses in Mission Valley, Fashion Valley and the beaches,” says Handal. “It will also give them access to Old Town.”
***
H.G. Fenton this fall will begin construction on a $10 million expansion of its Carlsbad Corporate Center. The work will add more than 105,000 square feet of industrial and office space in four new buildings. When complete, the project will total 255,000 square feet. The three new multi-tenant industrial buildings and two-story office building should be completed in the third quarter of 2005.
***
Almost exactly two years after construction started, McMillin Cos. is nearing a sellout of its 349 homes at Liberty Station, its 361-acre redevelopment of the former Naval Training Center. Along with the housing, the plans call for 125 acres of parks and open space including an existing boat channel, the 9-hole Sail Ho golf course, shopping villages and restaurants, a 28-acre civic, arts and cultural district — to be developed by the NTC Foundation — two hotels, a seven-building office district and a 22-acre educational campus anchored by High Tech High.
***
 Roel Construction Co. topped off the 43-foot clock tower in the town square at San Elijo Hills, where Greystone Homes is building 121 row homes and live/work units. A 12-acre retail component begins construction later this year and San Elijo Middle School opens this month across from the square.
|
***
Sales are sizzling as the region’s largest housing project, Otay Ranch, celebrates its fifth anniversary. In the second quarter the development sold a record 297 homes. The 678 sold in the first six months also was a record. “We sold more homes in the first six months of the year than we sold altogether in 2003,” says Kent Aden, executive v.p. of The Otay Ranch Co. Selling since 1999, the project features 10 neighborhoods with 24 model homes. With the first villages nearly all built out, the developer is turning its attention to the new village of Hillsborough, where eight neighborhoods are distinguished by French Country architectural styling. Prices range from the low $300,000s to the $700,000s.
***
Gov. Schwarzenegger has appointed H.P. “Sandy” Purdon to the Boating and Waterways Commission. Purdon, a Republican, is president of H.P. Purdon & Co. Inc., a management firm handling San Diego tidelands marinas. He is a member and past president of the California Marina Recreation Association and member and past chair of the San Diego Port Tenants Association. The post requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem.
***
TierraNet Inc., a Web hosting and domain name registration company, is looking to expand its services by launching a new company called Freeload.com that will provide free wireless “WiFi” hotspots to qualified locations throughout San Diego County. Users already signed up with Freeload get free access, others pay a fee. “If we can get enough hotspots, then it will be worthwhile for customers so sign up with us,” says Dan Rundio, the firm’s business development manager. “Our society is becoming increasingly mobile and soon people might be able to work while getting their oil changed.”
***
 ‘We’re changing the world one link at a time - accelerating renewables and linking nations,’ says Peter Meisen, president of the Global Energy Network Institute Downtown. The goal would have pleased American inventor Buckminster Fuller, whose U.S. commemorative stamp was unveiled at Horton Plaza by (from left) Meisen; Jim Olsen, acting San Diego postmaster; Carl Herrman, the stamp’s designer; and Doug Jacobs, founder of San Diego Repertory Theatre. GENI premiered the one-man play ‘Buckminster Fuller: History and Mystery of the Universe,’ written and directed by Jacobs, at the Rep’s Lyceum Theatre four years ago.
|
***
Gen-Probe has broken ground on a $43 million building the size of five football fields that will double its space for molecular diagnostics. The 292,000-square-foot expansion is going up next to the existing 262,000-square-foot headquarters at 10210 Genetic Center Drive. Completion is expected in early 2006. The structure will house up to 800 employees and bring onto one campus about 200 employees now working in leased quarters at three locations in San Diego.
“This new building results from 21 years of continuous growth at Gen-Probe and reflects how optimistically we view our future in San Diego,” says Henry L. Nordhoff, chair, president and CEO. “Given the growth of our business, we can foresee local employment in San Diego doubling over the next decade from our current base.” Gen-Probe is involved in the R&D and manufacturing of clinical diagnostic tests for sexually transmitted diseases and cancer, blood screening tests for HIV, hepatitis C and B and the West Nile virus.
***
Nathan Christian is incoming board chair for United Way of San Diego County fiscal year 2004-2005. His 22 years of experience working with the United Way in other communities spans his professional career in the banking industry. Before moving to San Diego three years ago, he and his wife, Margy, were active in United Way in El Paso. “El Paso has a great sense of community, and people don’t think twice about contributing to the United Way,” says Christian, who is Southern California region and border banking president for Wells Fargo. “We want to build that same sense of community with the United Way here in San Diego.”
***
Independent treasury manager Capital Advisors Group has opened an office in San Diego, bringing Senior V.P. Kathleen Borie down from San Jose to run it. The company manages the short-term assets of emerging growth, VC-backed and post-IPO clients, including more than 100 in the life science sector. Its San Diego clients include Metabasis Therapeutics and Acadia Pharmaceuticals.
***
 A year and a half after opening as a luxury apartment building, Laurel Bay in Bankers Hill, has been bought for $56.6 million and will go condo. Jon Hammer’s Hammer Ventures purchased the 150-unit building, with 18,000 square feet of ground-floor retail (including Starbucks and Postal Annex) and three levels of underground parking from Simpson Property Group of Denver. Laurel Bay occupies the full block at Fourth and Fifth avenues and Kalmia and Laurel streets. Lehman Brothers financed with a $59 million loan. Hendricks & Partners assisted Hammer in the sale. Conversion remodeling and upgrading begins next month. Prices and layouts are not yet set. Sales begin in December.
|
***
Former broadcast journalist Gina Lew will head the city of San Diego’s Public and Media Affairs Office effective Aug. 16, filling a vacancy created by the promotion of Carl Nettleton to deputy director in the General Services Department. Lew has taught journalism at USD and SDSU for the past five years and is host and producer for the KPBS program “Work In Progress.” She has worked as a broadcast reporter for NBC 7/39, KFMB-TV in San Diego and KTTV in Los Angeles.
***
Margy Rice, vice president of Financial 21 Credit Union, clarifying a statement attributed to her last month in “The Best of Latino Enterprise,” says any person, not just Anglos, who seek a loan from the institution, is first required to open a regular savings account.
***
U.S. Bank will open a branch at The Shops at Las Americas outdoor retail center, 4249 Camino de la Paz, San Ysidro, in December. Construction began in July. “Our arrival at Las Americas is just the latest step in an ongoing move to be of greater service and more convenient to Hispanic businesses and consumers,” says Lilia Mojica, South Bay market president and manager of U.S. Bank at Las Americas. “A lot of Mexican residents don’t have trust in banking and they don’t keep their money in the bank, but the name U.S. Bank means a lot.” She says she will be hiring all bilingual employees.
***
|
***
The San Diego Venture Group holds its “Summer Social” Aug. 25 aboard the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum at Navy Pier. The 8:30 p.m. affair will include music and dancing, drinks and hors d’oeuvres, docent tours of the ship and exhibit booths from local tech companies. The cost is $35 per person. Paid registration is required by Aug. 18. Register online at sdvg.org. For information, call (619) 308-9423 or send an e-mail to info@sdvg.org.
***
The arrival here of the USS Reagan means more than a patriotic boost. It also will boost the economy, says Kelly Cunningham, director of the San Diego Regional Chamber’s Economic Research Bureau. Although it has a war-footing capacity of 6,000 crewmembers, the aircraft carrier sailed into town with a complement of 3,600. Cunningham expects the Reagan to add $248.6 million annually to the local economy.
***
KMA Architecture & Engineering has landed a contract with CityMark Development to design an 11-story, 89-unit condo with three levels of underground parking in Little Italy. Construction will begin in fall at the southwest corner of Beech and Union streets. The KMA team includes Don Blair, Jim Belmont, Joe Godlewski, B. Moon Hajjar and Robb Walker.
***
|
***
Concordia Homes, in partnership with Bitterlin Development, has broken ground on Spotlight on Broadway, a new mixed-use residential project at 760 Broadway in Chula Vista. The development will include 40 residential row homes, nine two-story loft units and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. With prices expected to start in the low-$400,000s, the tri-level row homes will range in size from 1,584 to 1,660 square feet and include two to three bedrooms, two to three-and-a-half baths and two-car garages. An interest list is now forming and sales are expected to begin this fall for the residential units that are slated for completion early next year.
***
You can exercise your taste buds at the annual “Taste of Downtown” from 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 14. More than 30 restaurants, from Gaslamp to Little Italy, are included in the self-guided walk from aioli to zuppa. You can even forego the walk and use the complimentary shuttle service. Tickets are $20. Call (619) 233-5008.
***
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Street Scene will expand in size, shrink in dates and happen earlier than usual while moving from the Gaslamp Quarter to a new site adjacent to Petco Park. The new venue just east of the ballpark will offer nearly 600,000 square feet or roughly double last year’s space, easier parking and better access to public transportation. Instead of running for three days in mid-September, the event has been reduced to Friday and Saturday, Aug. 27-28, to distinguish it as “the pinnacle event to celebrate the end of summer,” says Joe Callahan of Rob Hagey Productions Inc. There won’t be any conflict with baseball fans. The Padres are in Montreal that weekend. The elimination of Sunday performances, the only day previously open to all ages, means everyone is invited to the condensed version. Single-day tickets are $39.50.
No comments on record for this story.
This is a public form for the free exchange of comments. Foul language, threats and anything overtly mean or nasty will be removed.