That’s Mauricio Monroy who picks up the Spirit of the Border Award from the Otay Mesa Chamber at its annual installation dinner. Monroy is managing partner of Deloitte’s Baja California practice. And where does the Otay Chamber holds its annual meeting? Holiday Inn on the Bay, 20 miles from Otay.

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John Hawkins, the recently relieved chair of the San Diego Regional Chamber, says he loves the new San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Directory, published in all 45,000 copies of last month’s Metropolitan, compared with his own Chamber’s 3,000-copy distribution. His admiration earned Hawkins a lunch date with Paola Hernandez and Linda Merritt.

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John Wadas is out as executive director of the Historical Society of San Diego. David Watson is interim chief.

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Reggie Parks, food and beverage manager at the San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter hotel, and fellow employee Claudia Crespin celebrated the hotel’s grand opening last month. A 15-liter bottle of champagne was uncorked to mark the occasion. The 306-room hotel is one block from Petco Park.

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San Diego city officials “will go to prison” over the pension underfunding scandal, says a municipal officer who should know. But who?

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Labor boss Jerry Butkiewicz is reportedly incensed at some of his municipal colleagues for their part in underfunding the pension and over-lining their own pockets.

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On his most recent trip to Washington, D.C., to pitch the value of San Diego’s base network, Mayor Murphy met with top military brass, including Rear Adm. Thomas J. Kilcline Jr., director of air warfare; Rear Adm. Jay M. Cohen, chief of naval research and director of the Office of Naval Research; Vice Adm. James McArthur Jr., commander of the Naval Network Warfare Command; Lt. Gen. Jan C. Huly, deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for plans, policies and operations; Philip W. Grone, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment (a big player in making the ultimate base-closure recommendations); and Rear Adm. William R. Klemm, deputy commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command for Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations.

While he provided updates, clarifications and answered questions about San Diego’s bases, Murphy acknowledges that the group already is expert on the subject.

What was accomplished by the 45-60 minute sessions? “First and foremost that they feel wanted and loved (by San Diego),” says the mayor. “Don’t underestimate the importance to the military of being in communities that appreciate them. The subtle message here is we understand why your military mission is important to the country and the city of San Diego supports that mission. We are not going to have protesters at North Island protesting nuclear aircraft carriers.”

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Roel Construction Co. has begun erecting structural steel for Qualcomm Inc.’s 475,000-square-foot, 10-story office and laboratory building on Morehouse Drive in San Diego. Completion is scheduled for mid-2006. Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker is the architect. Wayne Hickey is project executive for Roel.

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Mayor Murphy and Rep. Duncan Hunter are talking about replacing the aging low-rise Navy buildings that sit on 16 acres on Harbor Drive across the street from the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier museum. “It would make sense to tear it down, build two office high rises that could be built in a public private partnership, one for the Navy and one for the private sector,” Murphy says. The new construction would fund replacement space for the Navy. “I think it is a good idea,” Murphy says. “The Navy gets a new building and an equal amount of space, but doesn’t have to pay a dime for it.”

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Britt Scripps Inn, a luxury nine-room hotel, opens Feb. 14 at 406 Maple St., near Balboa Park. The Victorian-style Britt Residence that dates to 1887 at a cost of $3,000 was then San Diego’s most expensive home. Owner Gordon Hattersley III has selected as g.m. Randy Gantenein, whose 28-year hospitality career includes overseeing the construction, development, marketing and operations of the Loews Coronado Bay Resort. When the $6 million renovation opens it will feature an 1883 Steinway & Sons piano signed by Henry Steinway, great grandson of founder Henry E. Steinway. Michael Greene Jr., owner of Greene Music, personally delivered the 85-key, 800-pound instrument. For more information on Britt Scripps, call (888) 881-1991.

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Visitors to Legoland from Feb. 17-21 can help assemble more than 500,000 Lego bricks into what the park hopes will qualify for Guinness World Records consideration as the tallest Lego tower built. In 1998, an 82-foot tower was built in Tallinn, Estonia.

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When suburban development veteran Scot Sandstrom is installed this month as president of the Building Industry Association, he will have no qualms about the event being held Downtown and highlighting the urban experience. It was Sandstrom who, while at Western Pacific, helped convince the company to build a full-block project between City College and the police station. “We saw these guys from Canada coming in and building (Downtown),” Sandstrom recalls. “I was (upset) about these guys being in our back yard.” The project sold quickly and was a success for buyers, with resale prices zooming. At 39, Sandstrom is the BIA’s youngest president. He also is one of the youngest top executives in housing, now serving as division president for Trimark Pacific Homes. Along with traditional suburban projects with names like Valley View Ranch and Ventana, Sandstrom is developing The Quorum, a collection of lofts and live/work units among 10,000 square feet of retail adjacent to Cal State San Marcos. Those types of projects, he says, are housing’s future in San Diego. “We are confined geographically, and by the choices we make,” he says. “We need to look at the blighted strip mall that was built in 1965 and tear that down and build condos over retail. Or are we just going to keep pushing out, into Temecula, Murrieta and Imperial Valley? Density can be fun, can be creative and can be done well.”

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A new grove of Urban Trees is about to take root along the North Embarcadero. The second planting of the Port of San Diego public art project (including Sean Newsome’s 17-foot artificial arbor sprouting at his Mission Hills back yard, above) takes place through February with dedication set for noon March 13 at the Broadway Pier. Of the original 30 tree sculptures, the city of Chula Vista has claimed two, Scripps Hospitals have taken three and many of the rest are being sold by the individual artists at prices up to $40,000, says Allan Tait, public art project manager. For more on the trees or to bid, log on thebigbay.com/urbantrees.

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Billed as a “celebration of those who make history everyday,” the Heart of San Diego History Makers banquet at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Feb. 11 also may turn into a tribute to Fred Lewis, the longtime broadcast journalist and host of the Heart of San Diego TV interview program. Jack White and Cathy Clark will emcee. Big sponsor donors are Sempra and Cubic. The San Diego Historical Society and San Diego Foundation are beneficiaries. Tickets are $65 and up.

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Fifty years after opening as Strep’s Warehouse, Jerome’s Furniture Warehouse has begun divesting its six blocks of holdings centered at 14th and E streets in East Village. A 60,000-square-foot building is for sale. An eclectic 120,000-square-foot structure with basement and mezzanine is for lease as office space at a rate that hearkens back five decades — 60 cents per square foot. “It’s so low because we want to sign two- to three-year leases and then go month by month after that,” says Louie Poloni, Jerome’s controller. Four lots are also for lease. Poloni says Jerome’s remaining Downtown properties could become mixed-use developments in the future. Jerome’s will conclude moving its Downtown distribution operation by June to the nearly 400,000-square-foot warehouse space in 4S Ranch in Rancho Bernardo the company bought for $28.5 million in November.

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Residents start moving in this month to Portico, a five-story, 84-unit Little Italy condominium project at the corner of India and Ash streets.

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The Escondido Chamber is preparing for its May move into new offices that will include spacious board and conference rooms available to chamber members. President Harvey Mitchell — (760) 745-2125 — also has four suites to lease, starting at $350 a month, in the new building at 720 N. Broadway.

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Construction is complete on the $22 million Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research at the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. McGraw/Baldwin Architects designed the two-story, 50,000-square-foot center including offices, library, conference room and lab space for the Zoo’s department of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species. Turner Construction Co. was the general contractor.

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Michael Galasso’s Barone Galasso & Associates has completed its 500 West, a 260-room European-style (shared bathrooms) hotel located at 500 W. Broadway. The former home of the Armed Services YMCA, the landmark building underwent an extensive one-year, $9 million rehabilitation that included a complete renovation and redesign of its guestrooms and public spaces, updating plumbing and electrical systems, adding state-of-the-art technology and restoring its original courtyard dining patio and exterior façade. Rooms, starting at $69 a night, feature imported platform beds with pillow-top mattresses and flat-screen televisions. Free wireless- Internet access is available throughout all public spaces. “Unlike Chicago, New York and Seattle, Downtown San Diego doesn’t have an inventory of older buildings that can be renovated to accommodate a hotel-type environment,” says Galasso. “Most of the hotels developed in San Diego over the past 20 years are new structures that cater to business travelers offering room rates between $150 and $250 a night. With our tag line of ‘Sleep Small, Dream Big,’ 500 West was designed specifically to fill a niche, appealing to younger more budget-conscious travelers.”

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The real estate program at SDSU’s College of Business has received a $50,000 pledge from Barratt American Inc. to help fund a faculty professorship in real estate. “California’s population of 36 million people is expected to grow to nearly 48 million by the year 2020 and we need to have a newly trained work force ready to meet the demands of this growth,” says Mick Pattinson, Barratt American president. “I will double my pledge to $100,000 if other real estate developers, planners and builders will step up and make contributions. It is vital that the largest and oldest university in San Diego have the tools necessary to educate the work force of tomorrow.”

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Mill Valley-based Venture Corp. will break ground by April on a $15 million, 104,000-square-foot commercial development in Ocean Ranch off Oceanside Boulevard and Rancho del Oro Drive. The center will include seven one-story buildings of varied sizes with suites for sale between 1,500 and 3,000 square feet to be built over two four-month phases. A project name and contractor have yet to be selected. The exclusive sales agent is Mike Erwin with Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial. “This area has been a hotbed over the last few years,” says Erwin. “A lot of firms are moving here.”

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The inauguration of Marye Anne Fox as UCSD’s seventh chancellor is set for 10 a.m. March 3 in the RIMAC Arena on campus. The ceremony is open to the public, as is the 2005 Kyoto Laureate Symposium at 4:30 p.m. the same day in the Price Center ballroom. Featured will be geneticist Alfred G. Knudson, the 2005 Kyoto Prize recipient. To learn more, call (858) 534-6386.

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Work has begun on the third of four phased segments of the $3.7 million, 16.5-acre walking promenade through Liberty Station by the Corky McMillin Cos. The new section will connect the office district with the coming Marketplace project in the historic core of the old Naval Training Center in Point Loma. The promenade includes landscaped lawns, lights and benches as well as 10-foot-wide decomposed granite walkways. ONA Inc. is the landscape architect.

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Andrea Skorepa, CEO and president of Casa Familiar Inc., a developer of low-income affordable housing, has been named to the Community Advisory Board for Union Bank of California.

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SDSU’s College of Extended Studies launches a professional certificate program in maritime careers March 1 with its first introductory course. A second course will be held in April. Multiple classes, one night a week for four weeks, will be offered in succeeding months on campus, on vessels and at shipyards, says Wendy Evers, director of certificate programs. The seven-course program allows for a shoreside or ocean-going specialty. Fees, which include campus parking, are $249 per class. For more information, call (619) 594-5152 or visit neverstoplearning.net.

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The Port of San Diego’s new Convention Center parking structure at Eighth Avenue and Harbor Drive opens this month, offering 2,000 spaces in its seven stories. Design work is under way on a pedestrian bridge that will end outside Petco Park.

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Veteran San Diego marketing man Roger Conlee is author of the new “Every Shape, Every Shadow.” The book deals with the Guadalcanal campaign of World War II. Copies are available at amazon.com and the old fashioned way at Bay Books in Coronado, Borders Downtown, the Book Works/Pannikin at Flower Hill Mall and L & L Books in Rancho San Diego. The price is $13.95. More info is at rogerconlee.com.

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Barnhart Inc. has completed construction on the $20 million Education Village at Eighth Street and Roosevelt Avenue in National City. The 3.4-acre complex includes Southwestern College’s Higher Education Center, the San Diego County Office of Education’s South County Regional Education Center, retail and commercial space and garage. NTD/Stichler was the architect.

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The Ryness Co. has launched a new advisory division, Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors, to provide market research and analysis to developers, home builders, lenders and public agencies. Industry veteran Tim Sullivan leads the division. “By providing important economic perspective, demographic analysis, competitive assessment and product recommendations, we will enable our expanding roster of clients to make more informed and market-driven decisions,” says Gary Ryness, company president.

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In a feature last month about the Jewish Latino dialogue, Rabbi David Rosen was incorrectly identified as affiliated with the Jerusalem office of the American Jewish Congress. In fact, he is director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, a completely separate organization. San Diego Metropolitan regrets the error.

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A new arthritis-related Web site — arthritis-sandiego.org — and companion e-newsletter have been launched by the local chapter of the Arthritis Foundation.

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Brothers Richard and Martin Vainer have donated a 336-carat collection of fancy color rough and partially worked diamonds, including this nearly 24-carat, 70-piece set, to the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad. The donation is in the name of their father, Milos Vainer of London, who has more than 50 years in the worldwide diamond market and was the industry’s first government valuer to Botswana.

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The Art Store at 1844 India St. has become Blick Art Materials. With 33 stores in 16 states, Blick is among the nation’s largest art supply sellers. “The biggest change is that we have more products for the customer and we now have a catalog,” says Jamie Addison, g.m. of the Little Italy store. Addison, who spent nearly three years with the former Art Store, welcomes the new ownership and says she has been receiving positive feedback since the name change.

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Ira Glass, host and founder of NPR’s “This American Life,” will appear Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. at Spreckels Theatre Downtown. His weekly radio program, heard by more than 1.7 million listeners, features monologues, tapes, short fiction and interviews in documentary journalism style. The event will be sponsored by UCSD’s ArtPower! in partnership with KPBS. Ticket prices range from $32 to $36 and may be obtained through the UCSD box office, (858) 534-8497 or at artpower.ucsd.edu.

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Sponsorships remain available for the LEAD San Diego visionary awards April 12, and nominations are being submitted. Award categories are regional stewardship, diversity, quality of life, economic opportunity, community collaboration, the Nathanson award for cross-border region building, graduate of the year and the Morgan award for lifetime visionary leadership. For information, call (619) 232-3918.

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Construction crews and bulldozer claws break ground at the site of Element, Centex Homes’ East Village condominium community. The lot at the southwest corner of 15th and Market streets will hold an eight-story, 65-unit building. Centex Construction Inc. has begun excavation on the underground garage levels, which will accommodate 71 vehicles. Centex expects to finish Element in early 2006, moving in the first homeowners in February.

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Homeless and battered women will learn of services that can help them at the Feb. 19 Women’s Resource Fair in Golden Hall at the Civic Center, 202 C St., Downtown. Between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., women may have free mammograms and Pap smears, and children may have pediatric and dental exams. Information in English and Spanish will be distributed to inform women of food, health, education, legal and employment programs. Sponsors are the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, the Lawyers Club of San Diego and the San Diego County Bar Association. The Women’s Resource Fair hotline is (619) 338-6620.

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San Diego Hall of Champions Honorary Trustee Dick Enberg will be master of ceremonies for the Feb. 22 Salute To The Champions in the Atlas Ballroom of the Town and Country. Honored will be hall inductees Joe Jessop, sailing; Ernie Ladd and Doug Wilkerson, football; and Scott Simpson, golf. The 2004 professional stars of the year are Drew Brees, football; Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR; Meb Keflezighi, marathon; Mark Loretta, baseball; Phil Mickelson, golf; and Felix Sanchez, track and field. The 2004 amateur stars are Reggie Bush, football; Amber Lu, tennis; Kirk Morrison, football; Alex Smith, football; and Moriah Van Norman, water polo. Sarah Reinertsen, Ironman triathlete, is 2004 disabled athlete, and Rolf Benirschke is 2004 Community Champion of the year. RSVP by Feb. 4. For more information, call (619) 234-2544.

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The local chapter of the American Institute of Architects is accepting entries until March 25 for its 2005 Design Awards in 10 categories, including urban solutions, the divine detail and energy efficiency integration. The awards gala will be May 7 at the Salk Institute. Entry forms are at aiasandiego.com.

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T.B. Penick & Sons has begun construction on the $5.4 million George L. Stevens Senior Center at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Park on South 65th Street. The 11,300-square-foot, single-story center, designed by Jeff Katz Architects and conceived by Westberg + White Architects, includes multipurpose room with stage, exercise room, library, classrooms and full kitchen. Completion is expected in October. The center is named for the former councilman.

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Case Revolution Inc., a San Diego company founded by attorney Steve Pratt, is using a $250,000 loan from a city technology fund to launch an online software program that helps lawyers, insurance adjusters and vendors track and manage insurance claims and litigation. The first installment of the 12-month, interest-only loan was made last month. Pratt, who formed his company in 2002, says the loan and angel investors gave him the capital to launch his CaseRev software. “Case Revolution is the newest success story in our growing portfolio,” says Hank Cunningham, director of the city’s Community and Economic Development Department. “We are excited to be able to provide additional funding to aspiring entrepreneurs to allow them the opportunity to develop their great ideas and create jobs that benefit the local economy.” Pratt’s Web site is caserev.com. Information on the city’s business assistance programs is available at sandiego.gov/ced.

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The Microsoft Windows on Wheels Experience rolls into San Diego Feb. 8 at the Mardis Gras party in the Gaslamp Quarter, Feb. 10 at USD and Feb. 12-13 at Third Avenue and J Street for the Chinese New Year party. With transparent Plexiglas walls and a 360-degree view, the bus is a traveling exhibition and interactive showcase featuring the latest technology from Microsoft and its industry partners.