The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. is joining Mayor Sanders in declining a leadership role in the effort to build a new airport on military land. Tom Wornham, EDC’s incoming president and a Wells Fargo v.p., has recently returned from a trip to Denver that included a tour of its new airport. Wornham talks expertly on the economic value and opportunities of a new airport, but says given EDC’s leading role in helping spare San Diego from serious BRAC cuts last year, he wouldn’t be comfortable in now advocating the use of base property.
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An office building on Horton Plaza’s old Robinson’s and Planet Hollywood site is among the options Westfield is considering as part of a makeover for Downtown’s iconic shopping center. No official word is out on when plans will be unveiled, but it likely will be sooner rather than later as running a shopping center with thousands of square feet of vacant space is no one’s long-term business strategy.
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In another of its “As The Board Turns” celebrations, CCDC on June 28 will hold an evening reception for three former directors, Gil Johnson, whose last meeting was May 24, along with Gina Champion-Cain and Hal Sadler, who left the board earlier. Those attending also will get to meet the newest CCDC member, Kim Kilkenny, and congratulate Jennifer LeSar on being reappointed. The seven-person board is still short two positions, so the honor roll for the celebration at the Downtown Information Center may grow.
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Patagonia — the outdoor culture retailer, not the South American region — has landed in Cardiff. The $250 million Ventura-based company has 22 clothing stores but this will be its first surf shop, says Jon Peck, who is managing the shop with Devon Howard. They’re both Cardiff surfers. Surf goods and goodies sold at the new Patagonia include extruded polystyrene and epoxy resin boards and board shorts made from recycled plastic bottles. Patagonia is hitting the local waves in a new environmental initiative with the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy to restore the watershed from the lagoon to Cardiff Reef, a legendary surf spot just steps from the shop at 2185 San Elijo Ave. (760-634-9886).
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After interviewing five reputable real estate companies, the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System staff and real estate committee recommended Irving Hughes to represent SDCERS in its search for office space. It currently occupies about 25,000 square feet at 401 B St
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Tango Wine Co. is applying for a city permit to open a specialty wine retail shop at 2161 India St. in Little Italy.
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Enron By The Sea is an overblown comparison to San Diego’s serious pension problems, as was revealed in the successful prosecution of former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. In Enron’s case, 5,600 jobs were lost, $2.1 billion in pension obligations abandoned and the market value lost would have fueled San Diego’s overall budget for decades.
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The Local, a Downtown restaurant and bar on Fourth Avenue near C Street, is seeking city permission to add a sidewalk café.
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Operating on the premise that working a digital music player, like an iPod, is easy, while copying CDs to a format that will work on the devices is hard or time- consuming, Sean Manzanares has founded Ripping Revolution. Using custom-designed software, Manzanares’ San Marcos-based firm can process hundreds of CDs an hour. The cost of converting CDs to digital files is about $1.30 per disc. More information is at rippingrevolution.com.
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 Representatives of Centurion Partners and Avion Development, developers of the 32-story Sapphire Tower mixed-use project at Kettner Boulevard and A Street Downtown, present a $10,000 check to Harborside School. The school will be a neighbor to the development when it is finished in 2008. Pictured from left are Reese Jarrett, Harborside board chair; Mike Lutton, managing partner, Sapphire Tower, Centurion Development; Greg Henderson, Avion Development; Mike Smith, partner, Centurion Partners; students Seth Lawrence and Victoria Valdes; and architects Doug Austin and Eduardo Savigliano.
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Pedalers from ViaSat and Illumina will be among the nearly 200 cyclists embarking from the Oceanside Pier at noon June 11 (for solo riders) and at 5 p.m. June 13 (for teams) on a true cross-country ride — to Lake Henshaw, Salton City and on east to Atlantic City, arriving between June 19 and 23. The 25-year-old Race Across America attracts both world-class racers and amateurs who have beaten illness; together they will raise money for a variety of charities. To get in gear, visit raceacrossamerica.org.
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From a record total of 498 home sales in calendar 2005, its first year of corporate independence, Barratt American is aiming to increase its sales to about 625 homes this year. To keep the expansion rolling, the firm has promoted Robert Laing, a key Barratt executive since 1998, to president of the company’s new land acquisition division. Mick Pattinson, Barratt’s CEO, says Laing’s division also will serve as a vehicle to open up new markets outside of Barratt’s traditional base in Southern California.
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The Tijuana Potros and Mexico City Red Devils (Diablos Rojos) will be the second half of a June 11 doubleheader at Petco Park. The first game (1:05 p.m.) will feature the Padres and the Florida Marlins with the regular-season Mexican Baseball League game starting about 90 minutes after it ends. One ticket secures both games.
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 Estancia La Jolla Hotel & Spa is one local hotel really revving up its marketing to attract summer visitors. The Destination Hotels & Resorts property near UCSD has an online sweepstakes whose prize is three nights in a luxury suite with three days on the loose in a red Ferrari Spider Modena. To ease out the twists and turns from those spins around town, you also get three spa treatments. Total value: $10,000. Log on to estancialajolla.com/ferrari.
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Applications are due July 14 for Leadership North County, a comprehensive community-involvement program designed to give current and aspiring local leaders a greater appreciation for the complexities of policy issues and the skills toward effective coalition building and community planning. Run by Cal State San Marcos Extended Studies, the first session is set for Sept. 14. Suzanne Lingold is the program director. The application fee is $150 and the cost $1,250. For more information, call (760) 750-4003 or visit csusm-es.org/LNC.
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Pardee Homes won Production Home Builder of the Year honors in the 2006 National Green Building Awards program sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders. Its Santa Rosa neighborhood in San Diego was cited as a representative example of the company’s green building programs. Santa Rosa includes integrated and trellis-mounted solar power systems as standard or optional. Pardee’s solar initiatives will equate to the planting of 67,337 trees or not drilling for 60,112 barrels of oil over the systems’ 30-year lifetimes, says Joyce Mason, marketing v.p. Assuming 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, the company’s solar powered homes will also save about $100,000 every year in energy costs, she says.
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The Conference Board reports that San Diego is tops in the nation in first-time jobs offered by the major online job boards. “San Diego and San Francisco are two of the hottest labor markets in the country for online job advertising,” says Kenneth Goldstein, senior labor economist at The Conference Board. “New advertisements on online job boards are up more than 50 percent over the last year.”
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 After 10 years in the Marina District, Howard-Sneed Architecture and Design has moved to the Julian Building in East Village. With its headquarters a conversion of three residential lofts above the Palm Restaurant, firm owners Anne Sneed (left) and Janice Howard already have become buddies with the Palm’s manager, Howard Buchanan. The food’s not bad either, says Howard. ‘Hands down the best chicken Caesar salad in town.’
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Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch has been named the Top San Diego Trademark Law Firm for the second year in a row by Trademark Insider, a quarterly publication that tracks the U.S. trademark industry and its leading law firms, companies and practitioners. In the overall national rankings — which includes all U.S. law firms, including those with multiple offices in the U.S. and abroad — Procopio placed 149th, up from 177th last year. “Procopio’s trademark practice continues to outpace a great many firms with offices around the country and the world,” notes Thomas Turner Jr., managing partner.
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Pushing Back the Ocean; Tide Turning Leadership Lessons,” a book by Karl Bimshas, Rancho Santa Fe Technology’s director of development, asserts that “people must find the strength and discipline to focus on improvement, wherever improvements can be made.” The company was founded in 1991 on a set of beliefs that a company could be a successful provider and employer while delivering quality performance consistently. The book is available for $9.95 through Lulu — lulu.com — a provider of print-on-demand books.
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Set within 200 meters of San Diego Bay at Liberty Station (the old Naval Training Center), High Tech High has the right site to write two field guides on the bay. “Two Sides of the Boat Channel” and “Perspectives of San Diego Bay” were prepared over three years by High Tech High juniors. The students will present — and sign — their urban ecology studies in a free event from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. June 12 at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. Book price is $24.95 at the museum store and on amazon.com.
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The College of Business Administration at Cal State San Marcos has opened its new state-of-the-art Markstein Hall, an 88,000-square-foot building that houses a 120-seat lecture auditorium, seven case study rooms, 14 classrooms, five computer rooms, a faculty lounge and terrace, four conference rooms, 88 faculty offices, a dean’s boardroom, executive meeting rooms, department offices and breakout rooms. The building is named in honor of Ken and Carole Markstein, who donated $5 million to provide technology and furnishing upgrades.
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 Construction on what will be the Sprinter light rail commuter service from Oceanside to Escondido has passed the halfway point. Eleven miles of track have been laid for the $385.6 million North County Transit District project, and the first of 12 new diesel engines for the Sprinter is being tested by manufacturer Siemens in Germany. The 22-mile system will include five new cast-in-place concrete box girder bridges and 15 stations on existing right-of-way along the Highway 78 corridor with a 1.7 mile loop to CSU San Marcos when it opens Dec. 31, 2007. West Coast Rail Constructors, a joint venture of FCI Constructors of Vista and Orange County-based Fluor Enterprises, is the builder. Illinois-based Veolia Transportation will operate the Sprinter with daily service from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. under a five-year, $27 million contract. (On July 1, Oceanside-based TransitAmerica Services Inc. takes over operation of the existing Coaster between Oceanside and Downtown San Diego from Amtrak under a five-year, $44 million contract with NCTD.)
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The CCDC board is recommending city approval of a loan of up to $13.2 million to United Community Inc. and Multi-Housing Investments LLC for the construction of La Entrada Family Apartments on the south side of Logan Avenue between Sigsbee and Beardsley streets in the Barrio Logan Redevelopment Project Area. Designed by Maple Dell + McClelland Architects, the project will feature 85 homes with 55-year price restrictions to provide affordable rents to low- and very low-income persons at or below 30 percent to 60 percent of area median income. Monthly rents are expected to be between $400 and $1,000.
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Studio 15 Housing Partners has won CCDC board approval to develop a 275-unit SRO on the southwest corner of 15th Street and Imperial Avenue. The agreement would loan the developer $16.5 million. The loan would have a 55-year term with a 3 percent interest payment from project cash flows. All homes will be restricted to low-income persons in the 40 percent to 60 percent range of area median income with rents restricted to $400-$700 per month.
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 Roel Construction has completed tenant improvements for a two-story, 68,000-square-foot building for Qualcomm at 5717 Pacific Center Blvd. in Sorrento Mesa. The $5.6 million project included meeting, office and lab space. Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker was the architect. DEC Engineers and MPE Consulting were design consultants.
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You may not get a date with Cupid. But you probably won’t end up on a date with Mr. or Ms. Cerberus X. Hellbeast either by taking advantage of cupid.com’s “PreDating” speed-dating for single professionals. The June 13 event at The Wine Encounter, 690 University Ave. in Hillcrest, entails up to 12 six-minute dates for $35 in two separate roundups: all singles ages 37 to 51 at 6:20 p.m., followed by active and fit singles ages 29 to 43 at 8:30 p.m. Register at cupid.com/predating.
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San Diego Repertory Theatre celebrates its three-decade Downtown engagement with a three-act rooftop gala June 24. The 30th anniversary production begins with 5 p.m. cocktails and hors d’oeuvres on the Broadway terrace of Napa Valley Grille, followed by dinner at the Westgate Hotel and the grand finale atop the Westin Hotel, under the luminance of Rep co-founder Sam Woodhouse. Of course, there will be performing, music and dancing. Tickets are $25-$250. Visit sandiegorep.com or call (619) 231-3586.
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 Delawie Wilkes Rodrigues Barker has designed a new $12 million, 27,440-square-foot addition to the Rancho Bernardo Inn. When completed in March, the project will include a kitchen, storage areas and a 10,000-square-foot ballroom.
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