John Moores wasn’t present to pick up his ConVisionary Award, but his videotaped remarks from a suite in the ballpark were the edgiest delivered during the 52nd annual meeting of the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau. Moores thanked ConVis for recognizing his work to build the ballpark, joking that sometimes bureaucrats and elected officials are right as he originally opposed the East Village site. On a more serious note, he warned that forces were working against spreading redevelopment south along the bayfront. “The waterfront from East Village to National City is getting away from us,” Moores said, perhaps foreshadowing a future clash with the Working Waterfront group and some neighborhood activists who fear the consequences — rising housing prices and pressure on industrial activities — of some redevelopment. (Picking up Moores’ award was JMI CEO John Kratzer, with a jacket but, of course, without a tie.)
The ConVis meeting was packed (nearly 1,000) — high-tech and slickly paced with a round stage in the middle of the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina’s largest room and large flat-screen television monitors on each wall. The oft-honored and self-made destination management queen Patti Roscoe became the seventh entrant into the ConVis Hall of Fame. Client of the Year honors went to AVID and Mark Travel Corp. AVID is the home-grown in-school academic support program that fills 6,600 room nights with its twice-yearly conferences. Milwaukee-based Mark Travel is one of the nation’s leading providers of leisure vacation packages. SeaWorld San Diego received the Industry Partner of the Year award. Wearing a wireless mike, Old Town Trolley’s Lorin Stewart, who also is ConVis chair, emceed the event like a comfortable pro, moving around as he spoke to face everyone in the room, displaying his stage actor roots.
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   Williams Jones
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“Sometimes a project is not meant to happen; maybe this is one of them,” muses Williams Jones, CEO of CityLink Investment Corp., developer of The Village at Morena Vista, a mixed-use residential and retail project at the trolley station where Linda Vista Road meets Morena Boulevard. Jones was recalling darker days when the project was bottled up at the City Council level, courtesy of Donna Frye, although he didn’t mention her. Approvals took eight years. Ultimately, a council majority prevailed, allowing Jones to host about 100 neighbors and VIPs at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Mayor Sanders said the project “has become a model for other products in the city… that bring down the cost of housing.” Sharing the glow, among others, were Harry Mathis, Paul Jablonski, Leon Williams, Nancy Johnston, Jim Bartell, Toni Atkins, Jerry Rindone, Jim Dawe, Gary London, Neal Arthur, Rob Schupp, Reggie Smith, Doug Beckman, Don Ballantyne, Mary Lyons and Siad Swan, managing director of UBS Global Asset Management, which lent $44.5 million into the project.
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The headline on last month’s cover — “Bob Noble Leaves Tucker Sadler To Plant Solar Trees With Envision And Kyocera” — was not accurate. As the story correctly states, Noble is leaving the CEO job, but remains on the board of Tucker Sadler and will continue managing projects in which he serves as principal architect. Most of his time will be devoted to Envision, the solar carport company launched by Tucker Sadler. Noble is now CEO of Envision. The Metropolitan.
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Homegrown Leap Wireless makes a big digital splash in San Diego this month as it introduces into this market Cricket, a wireless service with no annual contracts, no credit checks and unlimited talk and text for a flat monthly rate. The service will be available from five Cricket-branded retail stores and at more than 50 Cricket-exclusive wireless retailers. To promote its unlimited text messaging offer, Cricket is holding a 10-day contest, starting Dec. 6, to find San Diego’s fastest text messager. The prize is a year of service, a new phone and $1,000.
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San Diegans Luis Maizel and Gary Acosta are among 15 Latinos from around the nation featured in “The Risk of Making a Statement,” a special section in the October/November issue of Latino Leaders magazine. Among the questions addressed was their expectation for the state of immigration policy 10 years from now. “I think that most rational people understand that our borders are broken and that is a real problem,” says Acosta, CEO and chair of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals and a third generation Mexican-American. “Econ-omics is the most powerful influence in a civilized culture, so as long as people need work and the U.S. needs workers, immigration policy will always be a major issue in America.” Maizel, the senior managing director of LM Capital Group and a first generation American, is of similar mind. “The program will probably be watered down and no matter what changes are made there will still be illegal immigration due to the differences in wages here in the U.S.”
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 George Damoose
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George L. Damoose, partner with Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, came home with the Joanne M. Garvey Award for Lifetime Achievement from the 2006 annual meeting of the California Tax Bar and the California Tax Policy Conference. “George has touched the lives of so many tax lawyers in California and particularly in San Diego, where he has practiced for more than 30 years,” says Patrick W. Martin, head of Procopio’s tax team and a member of the taxation section’s executive committee. “He, as a mentor at Procopio, has reached legendary status for all of the tax lawyers he has trained and mentored over the years.” Damoose is certified as a specialist in taxation by the State Bar and has served as chairman of the executive committee of the State Bar’s taxation section. He was selected by his peers to be listed in the upcoming 2007 edition of “The Best Lawyers in America.”
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The National City redevelopment agency has approved a proposal by Australian developer Constellation Property Group to build the city’s first high-rise residential tower. The project is called Revolution and the developer says the “international design” will give it an appearance not seen elsewhere in the United States. The project is being managed by Eugene Marchese, the principal of Marchese + Partners, one of Australia’s leading architects in the designer condominium development industry. With a 22-story containing 225-condos, and a low-rise development featuring 60 luxury units, the project is scheduled to break ground early next year and be completed two years later.
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Founded in 1986 by Lorna York in Boston and named after her daughter, Madison Gallery on Dec. 14 holds an opening reception for its new gallery at 1020 Prospect in La Jolla. Madison says it represents a diverse group of artists from modern masters such as Picasso and Chagall to contemporary artists such as Luc Leestemaker and Jamali. Lorna York has been in the arts business for more than 20 years while Alejandro Rojas Salazar, executive director, holds degrees in theological studies from Harvard and in sociology from Boston College.
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 Construction has started on the Sheraton Carlsbad Resort, a project of Grand Pacific Resorts and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, in Carlsbad. The first phase, scheduled to open in late 2007, will include 250 guest rooms, including 13 suites, and 25,000 square feet of meeting and conference rooms. Another 100 guest rooms will be added in later phases. The resort is adjacent to Legoland California.
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Once again, the Building Industry Association is preparing this holiday season to donate custom bicycles and helmets to underprivileged children in the county. Last year, the industry’s charitable arm, BIA Cares, donated more than 600 bicycles worth in excess of $45,000 to 23 charitable organizations, including Children’s Hospital, San Pas-qual Academy, Family Justice Center, Voices for Children, Monarch School, and the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation. The bike drive runs through the end of December. A contribution of $75 will buy a new bike and helmet. To contribute, visit biasandiego.org.
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PCL Construction Services Inc., a general contractor, has started construction on Aria, a 24-story condominium tower that will house 137 one-, two- and three-bedroom units in Downtown San Diego at Ninth Avenue and Ash Street. The developer, Anka, is an Australian-based property group. Anka currently has projects in San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. The building will contain large outdoor terraces and views of the Downtown skyline and Balboa Park. Perkins & Co. Architecture & Urban Design Inc. designed the complex. PCL’s construction manager is Jamie Sipes. The project manager is Dan Cichasky and the superintendent is Bud Moody.
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Downtown has its share of concrete, but the jungle is of a more traditional variety. A tree census by the Downtown Clean and Safe Program counts 4,533 trees of 44 distinct species in the urban core. The most numerous tree is the Liquidambar Styraciflua or Sweetgum. Six species have one specimen each. The street with the most trees is Harbor Drive.
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Fowler Property Acquisitions is under construction on Spectrum Corporate Plaza located on Lightwave Avenue in Kearny Mesa. Built on a 6.4-acre site, the project is a 130,000-square-foot office campus. It has one three-story, 82,000-square-foot building and one two-story, 48,000-square-foot building. Work should be completed in November 2007. Headquartered in San Francisco, Fowler Property is a privately capitalized real estate investment firm owning more than 4.5 million square feet of commercial properties nationwide with a combined market value of $400 million.
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 Gina Lupian’s bright idea is going to the dogs. The Bonita resident has put together a flashlight, leash and storage compartment for you know what all in one gizmo - the Doggie Leash Light. The one-handle, rectangular, plastic unit even has a thumb-operated, locking slide release for the leash. Her new invention is represented by Advent Product Development.
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Stingaree (and Side Bar and Witherby and Ciro’s) owner James Brennan becomes the Spirit of Christmas Present at 9 p.m. Dec. 14 when his hot new Downtown club hosts the Gentlemen’s Alliance annual toy drive party. Stingaree admission is free with donation of a new toy or gift for a child; they’ll be delivered locally by fire truck Christmas Eve. Party proceeds go to Toys for Tots. Southland Title is sponsor. Stingaree is at 454 Sixth Ave.
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As Downtown’s residential population continues to grow, move-ins began last month at Nexus, a 68-unit condo building at Ninth Avenue and G Street, while this month renters will start occupying the 148-unit The Lofts apartment project at 677 Seventh Ave.
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After a career in the printing industry that included owning three pre-print companies, Fred Dick began to wind it down a few years ago, moving into being a print broker and, more recently, not accepting new clients as old ones went away, improving his hours on the golf course. Always a gizmo and gadget geek, the president of Frederick Dick & Associates never was shy about spending on technology. His first cell phone could serve as a formidable weapon and his original digital camera saved to a floppy disk. Long an e-mail aficionado and able deftly to manipulate digital images in all manner of silly ways, Dick is now cutting the strings to what was once one of his most prized tech possessions: the fax machine. “Faxes started falling off a couple of years ago,” he says. “I used to get a faxed quote request then send the info out to several printers, who in return would fax me back the quotes for my review. Now everything is done the same, but using the e-mail instead.” At the end, about a quarter of the faxes were just junk. If someone insists on faxing, however, he’s ready: “If it turns out that I need it, I’ll just run it through the computer.”
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Skiers and snowboarding enthusiasts here should get frequent reports about weather conditions and accommodations at Snow Summit Mountain Resort and Bear Mountain Resort, thanks to Oster and Associates, which landed a public relations contract with Big Bear Mountain Resorts. San Diego-based Oster will provide planning, publicity and media relations services throughout Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties for the two resorts, which have $6 million worth of new snowmaking equipment and will benefit from improvements just made to Highway 330.
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Whale watching time is approaching and Hornblower Cruises & Events is expecting to host more than 45,000 people seeking an up-close view of the 45-foot whales that travel past San Diego on their 5,000-mile migration. Cruises start Dec. 16 and Hornblower is partnering with the San Diego Natural History Museum to offer expert commentary. Tickets start at $35. More is at hornblower.com.
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San Diego’s most comfortable golf tournament, the Buick Invitational, is set for Jan. 23-28 at The Torrey Pines Golf Course, the prettiest and most valuable piece of real estate in the city of San Diego’s inventory. Discounted tickets and season (six-day) passes, $15 and $90 respectively, are being sold by The Arc Of San Diego, one of the region’s largest human services agencies. The best part is that The Century Club, which runs the tournament, is allowing The Arc to keep the ticket money it collects. More is online at arc-sd.com.
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