Edition: August 2005



 Downtown Relocations

 By Manny Cruz



An Adult Version Of Chuck E. Cheese
Phillip Paccione feeds his midlife
crisis; ConVisia has a solution






Phillip Paccione, owner of Jolt’n Joe’s, calls the contraption he’s standing on the ‘widowmaker.’ It’s a wrought iron and metal fixture that he brought from a nightclub that went out of business. It now holds two 60-inch plasma televisions.

This is my midlife crisis,” says Phillip Paccione. “I’m an entrepreneur by nature. I need to have an outlet for my entrepreneurial side.”

Paccione, 52, is talking about Jolt’n Joe’s, the combination pool hall, art gallery, sports bar and restaurant he opened earlier this year at Fourth Avenue and J Street Downtown, and the billiard halls he owns in La Mesa and Escondido. The native New Yorker (“I was born in Brooklyn; that’s why I have an affinity for pizza”), works days as senior vice president at Merrill Lynch’s Downtown office at 701 B St. He’s been with Merrill Lynch since 1982, but found an outlet for his creative side with these entertainment venues.

“I love putting things together — creating things,” says Paccione. “The great entrepreneurs aren’t the best at running things. That’s why it’s essential that they have great people behind them to put their ideas into action.” This, he says, is why he hired Steve Zipfel, former general manager of Dick’s Last Resort, as COO of Jolt’n Joe’s, and Manolo Tourne as its executive chef. They take his creative ideas, he says, and make them work.





Jolt’n Joe’s racks up 25 pool table, as the former Gaslamp Billiard Palace.

Jolt’n Joe’s is named after Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio. Paccione says there was no specific reason for choosing that name; he just thought it was “catchy.” The new business offers dining, sports viewing on 35 plasma televisions, including two that are 60 inches wide, 25 pool tables, interactive games, darts, pinball machines, table tennis and a fine arts gallery.

What I’m trying to create is a very upscale Chuck E. Cheese for adults,” says Paccione.

***

San Diego is home to a new software company, ConVisia Inc., a firm specializing in instant wireless applications of complex documents. The company, which has opened offices at 111 Elm St., Suite 204, is the brainchild of local engineering executive JohnJoshRoach. Roach has held v.p. engineering positions at Intuit, Accelrys and HNC Software.

“There is deep talent in San Diego, especially in the wireless and Java-centric arena,” says Roach. “Our technology is 100 percent portable and scalable to all devices over wireless, from handhelds, PDAs, laptops and graph pads as well as workstations in the office. We’ve been recruiting a top executive team, as well as an engineering team that knows how to build industrial-strength, distributed systems.”

Julie Walker was named v.p. of marketing and business development for the new company. She has more than 15 years’ experience in high-technology marketing and product development. She most recently led marketing and e-business initiatives for a division within the communications segments of Agilent Technologies and Hewlett-Packard.

For more information, visit convisia.com or call (619) 233-4166.

***

DODJEE Inc., a company doing business as Spa Vita, has signed an 84-month lease with DLFNBC LP for 2,889 square feet of retail space in First National Bank Center at 401 West A St., Suite 180. Lease value is $511,350. Corrinna Gattasso and Bill Shrader of Burnham Real Estate * Oncor International represented lessor and lessee.

***

A three-story, 18,000-square-foot warehouse building located on a 7,000- square-foot parcel at 1445 Market St. has been sold for $2.05 million. The buyer was AB California LLC, in care of Alan Jaffe. The seller was Renee Cokin. Victor Krebs of Colliers International brokered the transaction. The buyer plans to renovate the structure and relocate his real estate company to the refurbished building. The project architect is Studio E Architects.

***

TSA Contracting has completed construction of a new Postal Annex+ in the Gaslamp Quarter. Less than a block west of Petco Park, the 1,100-square-foot new shop is located in the Sixth & K Parkade. Tenant improvements on the existing shell amounted to $71,000.

The clients were Anh Tuy Tu and Homer Wong. The building owner’s representatives were Gregory Clay and Jim Chatfield of JMI Realty. Design was provided by ARCAD Architectural Design Studio. TSA representatives include Aaron Kurka as superintendent, Matt Hendry as project manager and Olga Munoz as project coordinator. Subcontractors included CPE Construction, Equity Cabinets, DCR Construction Services, Inc., JSP Construction Co., CJ’s Interiors, Inc., Commercial Air, Harborside Plumbing and CGE.

***





Coast Hotel undergoes renovation.

TSA Contracting has completed the two-phase renovation of the historic Coast Hotel, a combination motel and single room occupancy hotel originally built in 1895. Located at 501 Seventh Ave., the hotel encompasses 11,600 square feet. The first phase of the renovation on the 57-room three-story hotel involved $320,000 of work including new windows, heating and air conditioning, lighting, framing, drywall and ADA upgrades. The second phase included new paint, new stucco and removal of exposed wiring on the exterior.

The owner of the facility is ALS Investment Group, LLC. Design was provided by Heritage Architecture and Planning. TSA representatives included Sean Meyers as superintendent, Randall LaRocco as senior project manager and Delores Dorman as project coordinator. Subcontractors included Cement Cutting, CPE Construction, Precision Interiors, Brady Company, Pella Architectural Products, Green Building Technologies, LaRussa-Ghianni, Zephyr Painting Inc., JSP Construction Co. and Rowan Electric.

***

Caster Storage II LP has purchased a 10,000-square-foot retail building on a .23-acre site at 1001 W. Juniper St. for $615,000 and plans to develop a mixed use project consisting of a self-storage facility on upper floors and 18,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. The sellers were Michael D. and Sandra Trammell, who represented themselves in the transaction. Bill Shrader of Burnham Real Estate * Oncor International represented the buyer.

***

Adidas Promotional Retail Operations Inc., also known as adidas, has signed a 10-year, $1.5 million lease for 5,075 square feet of retail space at 926 Fifth Ave. Adidas will move to the new location in August. Bill Shrader and Corinna Gattasso of Burnham Real Estate * Oncor International represented the lessor, J/N Devco LLC. The lessee was represented by Victor Fandel of Fandel Retail Group.

***





Portico at 1435 India St. sells for $4 million.

Portico Retail Condominiums at 1435 India St., part of a five-story, 84-unit condominium project at the northeast corner of Ash and India streets, has sold for $4 million. The buyer was India One Investments. The seller was Portico LLC, a wholly owned company of Sandcor, a joint venture between Ledcor, the general contractor, and Intracorp, the developer. Linville Martin and Danny Fitzgerald of Grubb & Ellis|BRE Commercial assisted Portico LLC on the initial leasing and represented both the buyer and seller in the sale transaction.

The mixed-use condominium project is now completely sold out. The retail space had been leased by three tenants: Washington Mutual, Global Village Marketplace and Underground Furniture.

Portico was initially built as an apartment project, but the developer recorded a condominium map while under construction in 2004. This is the second project in Little Italy for Sandcor, whose first project, Porta D’ Italia, a 184-unit mixed-use residential/retail project recently sold for $52 million.

***

So Good Jewelry Soho Inc., dba So Good Jewelry, has signed a 10-year, $1,014,534 lease for 2,031 square feet of retail space located in Gaslamp City Square, which occupies the Downtown city block bounded by Fourth, Fifth and Island avenues and J Street.

Corinna Gattasso and Bill Shrader of Burnham Real Estate * Oncor International represented the lessor, Gaslamp Phase One LLC. Miki Lee of Nelson Shelton & Associates represented the lessee.

***

Two retail units at Diamond Terrace in Downtown San Diego have been sold for a total of $4.6 million. The mixed use development at 427 Ninth Ave. has 113 condominiums and 8,519 square feet of retail space. Construction of Diamond Terrace is scheduled for completion Diamond Terrace was completed in June.

D.T. San Diego Development LLC, owner of Diamond Terrace, sold the 6,250-square-foot Commercial Unit A for $3.4 million to Liang Investments LLC. The investment group plans to lease the space to retailers moving into the ballpark neighborhood. Linville Martin and Danny Fitzgerald of Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial represented the owner. KC Hung of USA Investments represented the buyer.

Commercial Unit B, covering 2,269 square feet, was sold for $1.2 million to Jason Whitehead and Ra Jaddou. These investors will occupy the entire space as a real estate sales and mortgage office. Martin and Fitzgerald represented both sides on the transaction.

“The high price and successful sale of the Diamond Terrace commercial units demonstrated the tremendous retailer demand for space in the ballpark neighborhood,” says Martin.

D.T. San Diego Development LLC began construction on the project in September 2003. Fehlman/LeBarre and Perkins and Co. are the architects.

The Downtown Relocations column features news on firms that are abandoning, moving into or expanding in the 92101 ZIP code. Send submissions to Manny Cruz, manny@sandiegometro.com.


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