Erik Judson, who had shoe leather responsibility for building Petco Park, is using his expertise to lead a new venture under the JMI corporate umbrella, JMI Sports (jmisports.com). Formed in January, the company was selected by Goodyear, Ariz., to develop a $65 million baseball spring training operation that can house two teams. The L.A. Times says the Dodgers are a possible tenant. Judson, a principal in JMI Sports, also is working with the University of Oregon for development of a new arena and with other cities on downtown sports complexes. “The experiences we went through in San Diego (building Petco) are very valuable to other communities,” says Judson, who also remains executive v.p. of external affairs overseeing the Padres’ ballpark event sales and marketing department and the club’s community relations department. “My most important client is the San Diego Padres.”

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The smiles Downtown will be just a bit brighter for five days starting May 16. That’s when 1,900 people will be in town for the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry-Annual Scientific Session at the San Diego Convention Center.

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Del Mar’s Back Room boutique is front and center with Hollywood hipsters pouring their hips into such brands as Robin’s Jeans, Rock & Republic and Denim for Immortality. The Back Room grew out of sisters Staci and Amy Wax’s Del Mar Kids, which sells tres chic togs for tots. The clothing and accessories store says its devotees include Mariah Carey, Geena Davis, Jennifer Love Hewitt and ‘Gilmore Girls.’

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The advocacy heat for a new airport is going up. The Alliance in Support of Airport Progress in the 21st Century, which calls itself ASAP 21, late this month begins a series of public forums called “San Diego Speaks. We Listen.” United in the belief San Diego needs a new airport are a wide range of civic groups. (Details are at asap21.net.) While the Airport Authority already has an extensive public information effort, “We can be a little more forceful in talking about what the consequences could be with demand far exceeding our capacity,” says Erik Bruvold, v.p. of the San Diego Regional EDC. and a designated ASAP 21 spokesman. “We can be a bit more forceful in talking about the tradeoffs that would exist in all the options.” While ASAP 21 will take a position on the airport option that appears on the November ballot, Bruvold says it will not campaign for passage.

The group does expect to remain active in the 15-20 years it takes to build a new airport. “There will be politics and public discussion all the way along,” Bruvold says. “ASAP 21 believes airport infrastructure is important to our future. Not just our economic future but I’d also say our quality of life. If it is hard to fly in and out of here to see family, that affects our quality of life.”

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SDSU expects to enroll 8,822 new undergraduate students for the fall 2006 semester, including 4,730 first-time freshmen. The projected new undergraduate enrollment is 9.3 percent higher than the 8,070 new undergraduate students (including 4,069 first-time freshmen) who enrolled in fall 2005. The average high school GPA and SAT score for SDSU's current pool of admitted first-time freshmen is 3.54 and 1102, respectively. Last year’s pool had an average high school GPA of 3.58 and an average SAT score of 1093. The average GPA for the current pool of admitted undergraduate transfer students is 3.11, the same as for last year’s admitted transfers.

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Attending San Diego’s National Conflict Resolution Center Peacemaker Awards were, from left, Mayor Sanders, Houston Mayor Bill White, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels and Steve Dinkin, president of the center. White and Eckels won Peacemakers for their bold display of civic cooperation and problem-solving that provided aid and shelter for 25,000 evacuees of Hurricane Katrina.

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Don’t expect the City Council to make significant changes between now and June 30 to the $1.3 billion general budget proposed by Mayor Sanders. But next year, if the pension issue calms and the city’s credit improves .… The council’s Office Of The Independent Budget Analyst has released its analysis of “The Bottom Line,” a 41-page report from the Center on Policy Initiatives that lays out how San Diego is a low-tax city and suggests a number of ways to boost revenue. While the city budget office says this is not the appropriate time to consider most such measures, it is warm to the idea. “It often gets lost or forgotten in the course of our daily lives that the city provides a wide array of services; those services cost money; and the costs to sustain service levels desired by our residents may require new revenue sources,” the report concludes. “The IBA encourages an open dialogue in the near future between the city and the public regarding the desired level of services and means to pay for them.”

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Cardinal Health has signed a $78 million deal to occupy a 411,000 campus in the Pacific Corporate Center on Sorrento Mesa. The health care company will occupy an existing 93,000- square-foot building along with a 318,000 square foot building that landlord and developer Kilroy Realty Corp. is building. The move-in date is the third quarter of 2007. Kilroy’s committed development pipeline totals 861,000 square feet and is 100 percent preleased. "Cardinal Health is a terrific tenant with strong credit and we look forward to adding them to our list of key customers," says John B. Kilroy Jr., KRC's president and CEO.

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When Cooley Godward loses an associate, it’s often to in-house counsel of sexy clients or to a major IP law firm. Craig Knox is going to neither, but to Irving Hughes, the tenant-rep real estate brokerage. Knox isn’t a lawyer; he was a Cooley rainmaker with two master’s degrees from Stanford and an undergraduate degree from SDSU. He’ll be a v.p. at Irving Hughes.

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Chula Vista’s South Bay Boat Yard unveils a new name — The Marine Group LLC — as work gets under way on its $6 million lift, pier and office project. New lift equipment will increase capacity from 100 tons (vessels 90 feet by 22 feet) to as much as 665 tons (vessels 220 feet by 54 feet) to accommodate the megayachts’ megabusiness. The expected wave of new work will pay off $7 on hotel rooms, restaurants, shopping and entertainment for every $1 spent on maintenance and repairs, says company vice president Todd Roberts. ‘This will be a tremendous benefit to the community and we’re doing this without government subsidy,’ Roberts says. California Bank & Trust provided a $3 million loan. Project contractors include RE Staite Engineering, MW Construction, Whillock Contracting and Triton Engineers. Completion is expected in December.

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A trio of high-rise condo projects have landed CCDC design approval. Home Coastal Inc. was OKd for its 22-story, 184-condo mixed-use project on the north side of B Street between Tenth and Eleventh avenues. The project, which includes 201 parking spaces, borders one of the busiest entrances into Downtown. Grand Pacific Tower, a 21-story, 74-unit condo building at Fifth Avenue and Ash Street with 95 underground spaces, also got the nod. Same for Strata, Intracorp San Diego’s mixed-use project on the northeast corner of the block bounded by Ninth, Tenth and Island avenues, and Market Street. Requiring the relocation of a popular dry cleaner, the development will contain 236 for-sale condominiums and 278 parking spaces. It includes a "green" roof with substantial landscaping to help reduce the amount of urban runoff.

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With 68 percent of San Diego’s nonprofit executive directors planning to leave their jobs within the next five years, principally for retirement, San Diego’s social network is facing a problem. On May 31, USD hosts “Generation Next,” an 8 a.m. to noon event billed as a call for action to nonprofit leadership. Overseeing the presentations and discussions will be Frances Kunreuther, director of the Building Movement Project and author of “Up Next: Generation Change and the Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations.” Also featured will be specific findings from a USD Center for Applied Nonprofit Research study on nonprofit executive transition. The cost is $25. Call (619) 260-7442 to register.

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Oceanside’s troubled SeraCare Life Sciences Inc. (SRLSQ) is leaving California. The biomedical products company is moving its operations to Milford, Mass. Once considered a rising star in North County’s biotech community, the firm bought the Milford plant earlier this year. SeraCare was rocked in December by irregularities in its financial statements that were followed by its stock losing half its value. The company fired its CEO and three other top executives in March and trading in the company stock was halted by Nasdaq on March 15. Two weeks later, SeraCare was delisted. It’s now on the pink sheets. Near the end of April, SeraCare stock was trading at $4.19 per share, giving the firm a market cap of $56 million, about a quarter of its value late last August, but substantially above its $2.20 low.

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The Rock ’N Roll Marathon returns June 3 to San Diego. In the three days prior, the event’s Health & Fitness Expo is expected to once again be a sell out at the San Diego Convention Center, its more than 100 exhibits attracting 36,000 people interested in free samples, interactive displays, sweepstakes and discounted running paraphernalia.

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David Peckinpaugh, an Ohio meeting planning executive who spent a few years in San Diego County in senior management jobs with two hotels, will succeed Reint Reinders as president and CEO of ConVis. He starts June 5. Peckinpaugh, 48, was chief marketing officer for Ohio-based Conferon Global Services, the nation’s leading meeting planning and event services firm. He and his wife Jill have two children. Peckinpaugh was with La Costa Resort & Spa in 1986-87 and the Manchester Grand Hyatt in 1993-1995. No local candidates were interviewed for the ConVis job. While nationally feted, Reinders was under local pressure the last several years as the city’s financial troubles led the City Council to remove large chunks of hotel tax dollars from the ConVis budget. Plus, a failed ballot initiative he was associated with to raise the bed tax and pump more into visitor promotion also would have greatly restricted the city’s ability to distribute the funds, earning few supporters on the 10th floor at City Hall.

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Listen this month for the sound of checks being written in Rancho Santa Fe as the campaign heats up over a $44.5 million bond issue to pay for a new K-6 elementary school. The RSF district has just one school, which is critically overcrowded. The problem is, the school board wants to put the new campus outside the Covenant, seat of power for the horsey enclave. Neighbors of the proposed school smell a plate of rotten caviar, and are putting up a stink. Since three-quarters of the district’s voters live within the Covenant, and studies show the new school will relieve traffic on Covenant roadways, the bond measure’s victory on June 6 seems likely. But opponents’ designer pockets are deep — one opposition leader is Gerald Parsky, a financier, UC regent and GOP heavy hitter. And all they need is just over 45 percent of the vote.

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Burnham Urban Retail Group is marketing the 22,725-square-foot retail component of the Park Terrace residential condo high-rise under construction adjacent to Petco Park on the block bounded by 10th and 11th avenues, Park Boulevard and K Street. Intracorp is developing the project, which will include 223 residential condos in two towers. A 14-story tower above one retail component will be completed in April 2007. A second mid-rise building with eight stories above a retail component will be ready for occupancy in January.

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North County gamblers, rejoice! Those tired of driving Casino Corridor on Highway 76, or down I-5 to Lindbergh Field for a flight to Vegas, soon will have Vision Airlines to help get a piece of the action. The Las Vegas airline begins its nonstop schedule between McClellan-Palomar Airport and Sin City May 12. The four weekly flights include a free shuttle ride to passengers’ hotels. Warren Kaplan, Vision’s manager of business development, says one-way tickets will sell for $89, $109 and $129. The one-hour trip will be made on a 30-seat Dornier 328 turboprop. Two other carriers already fly from Palomar to Vegas, but both stop enroute.

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To meet what it sees as rapidly growing, international demand for sophisticated outdoor water monitoring systems, SonTek/YSI is boosting its research and development staff by adding at least a dozen new engineering, technical and sales positions. “Building on our existing R&D intelligence is taking the business to the next level,” says Peter Dierauer, v.p. of technology. “Water scarcity and quality, along with climate change issues around the world, continue to present challenges and opportunities that can benefit from an augmentation of progressive technology expertise and applications knowledge.” SonTek manufactures acoustic Doppler instrumentation for water velocity measurement in oceans, rivers and lakes.

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Small Business Tax Information Day is set for May 19, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at USD. Slated to participate are the IRS, state Board of Equalization, Employment Development Department, Franchise Tax Board, Social Security Administration, SBA, County Assessor’s Office, Department of Homeland Security, city of San Diego’s business tax program, State Compensation Insurance Fund and Cal/OSHA Consulting Services. More info is online under free seminars at boe.ca.gov.

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City College’s Students in Free Enterprise chapter won the championship and a sweep of six special competitions in April’s 2006 SIFE regional contest in Long Beach. The students earned $4,500 in prize monies, which will help pay for travel to the national competition in Kansas City, Mo., in May. City College has earned second place in the nationals in past competitions. More than 3,000 SIFE business students from the San Diego area competed. SIFE advisers are Barbara Hansen and Leroy Brady.

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Alliant International University has renamed its California School of Business and Organizational Studies as the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management. Goldsmith, a corporate consultant and executive coach, has been named a university professor at Alliant. The school is headquartered at Alliant’s Scripps Ranch campus. Goldsmith has authored or co-authored 20 books, including “Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organization Change,” “The Next Generation” and “Human Resources in the 21st Century.” The school has been using his books for years.

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Sissy Spacek

When Sissy Spacek had finished speaking before a 1,700-strong, mostly-female audience at the YWCA’s In The Company Of Women luncheon, it was Michele McDougal’s job to deliver the Academy Award-winning actress back to her hotel. McDougal even borrowed fancy wheels for the trip, only it wouldn’t start. Spacek, accompanied by her daughter, Madison, who ran the slide show that accompanied the actress’s talk, was unfazed. Looking across Harbor Drive, she said, “Isn’t my hotel just over there?” And so it was the three strolled the Gaslamp Quarter on a Tuesday afternoon, back to Spacek’s Hotel Solamar. The day was even more positive for the YW, which raised $343,000 at the eighth annual event.

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Speaking of Hotel Solamar, it has been named by Condé Nast Traveler as one of the world’s hottest new hotels. Based on location, design and service, Hotel Solamar was one of only 130 new hotels around the globe to receive the “Hot List” honor in the May issue of the magazine.

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With Sony Electronics as a new platinum sponsor, CommNexus San Diego is connecting circuits to BREW 2006, May 31 to June 2 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, and “Business Strategy for Human Resource Leaders” with the UCSD Rady School June 5 to 7. To register for the events, visit commnexus.org.

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George W. and Anna Gunn Marston have a certain star presence in the Stu Segall/Kirkwood Productions American telenovela “Trailers,” now shooting for the fall. The 100-year-old Marston House stood in as an East Coast estate for one day’s shooting and the next day found production in the shadow of the Marstons’ own obelisk in Mount Hope Cemetery.

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David Peckinpaugh

On May 13, five local women will receive the 2006 Making a Difference for Women Award from Soroptimist International of San Diego. The honorees are Cynthia Kangas, program director for the YMCA’s Mary’s House; Sharon M. Lawrence, executive director of Voices for Children; Zara Marselian, CEO of La Maestra Amnesty Center and Clinic; Louise E. Pearson, a teacher with the San Diego Unified School District; and Dorothy Vails-Weber, a psychologist and organization development professional. Tickets for the 34th annual event, which include a luncheon, fashion show and boutique, are $70. The event begins at 10 a.m. Contact Paula Day, (619) 475-5020 for more.

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Dr. Charles Kennel, an environmentalist and director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is one of eight members on Wells Fargo’s new national Environmental Advisory Board. Kennel also serves as vice chancellor and dean of Marine Sciences at UCSD. Later this year, Kennel will step down from his position at Scripps to lead a new UCSD initiative that will examine crucial environmental problems and focus on environmental sustainability.

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Dog Day in May, an afternoon tea and auction, is planned May 20 from 3 to 5:30 p.m., at Casa del Viento, 540 Gage Lane, Point Loma. Sponsored by the San Diego Edinburgh Sister City Society, the event is raising money to place bronze statues of dogs Bum and Bobby in the Gaslamp Quarter. Bum was adopted as the city’s official dog more than 100 years ago. When San Diego and Edinburgh, Scotland, became sister cities in 1977, the idea arose to designate as brother dogs Bum and Greyfriars Bobby, a dog who for 14 years guarded his master’s grave in Edingburgh. For reservations, call (619) 233-4692. The story of Bum can be found under the Kids link at gaslampquarter.org.

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The newest sweet spot in San Diego is at 30th Street and University Avenue in North Park, where brothers Sean Davis and Lachlan Oliver have opened Heaven Sent Desserts, one block from the freshly refurbished North Park Theatre and the 224-condo La Boheme under construction by DR Horton. Davis was in the Army and Oliver was in the Air Force. Between their travels, they acquired European ways of making desserts out of pancakes along with the good old Yankee ingenuity to mix deep-fried truffles with caramelized bananas and scooped ice cream into one dessert. Heaven Sent, (619) 793-4758, is open seven days a week, from breakfast to after theater.