Has tech supplanted tourism as San Diego’s third largest industry? Apparently. The Economic Census of 2002, a report issued every five years, pegged San Diego’s economy at $117.6 billion. Scouring its details, economist Kelly Cunningham found that two decades of growth in what he calls the “professional service technology industry” was worth “at least” $7.4 billion, moving tech into third ahead of the visitor industry ($5 billion). The tech group, which includes communications, computer and software, biotech and information tech, trailed manufacturing ($25.1 billion) and defense/military ($10.1 billion). Cunningham, who works for the San Diego Institute for Policy Research, says tourism and tech remain the strongest growing components of the regional economy, which hit $150 billion last year and should reach $157 billion this year.
***
The 82 arts and culture groups receiving funding from the city of San Diego spent $132.2 million in 2006 and attracted visitors who spent $442 million, concludes a report issued by the city’s Commission for Arts and Culture and the San Diego Regional Arts and Culture Coalition.
***
The median price of a resale condo Downtown was $549,000 in the first 20 days of June, down $1,000 from May and down 11.3 percent ($70,000) from $619,000 in June 2006, reports Realtor Lew Breeze, who tracks 92101 market data at his sdcondo.com. The number of condos pending sale during the past 30 days was 35, down from 42 in the same period last year. The number of condos closing sale during the 30 days prior to June 20 was 40, compared to 45 from this same period last year.
***
 |
The USS Midway Museum is being promoted on 5 million cans of Pepsi being distributed this summer throughout Southern California. The deal provides a free youth admission with a paid adult admission. It is a perk negotiated for supplying the beverage at Midway concessions.
***
No iPhone yet? No worries when it comes to online access of San Diego Metropolitan’s most popular features. At our new sandiegometro.mobi you can read customized versions of The Daily Business Report, Reel Story movie reviews, Business Datebook and Arts & Events Datebook. More content is coming. Editor Tim McClain — tim@sandiegometro.com — eagerly awaits your comments.
***
  
|
CCDC and the San Diego Redevelopment Agency have selected Related Cos., a private real estate development firm, San Diego-based CityLink Investment Corp. and Carrier Johnson as a joint venture team to negotiate the proposed development of a major mixed-use project at Seventh Avenue and Market Street Downtown. The $300 million project — contained on a single block — will have 42 stories of market rate and affordable housing, hotel, retail, street-front commercial and cultural space and a police storefront. The developers will build a 650-vehicle public parking garage that will be owned and operated by CCDC and the Redevelopment Agency.
***
The first Downtown condominium project by Corky McMillian Cos. has secured design review approval from the CCDC board. Located on the majority of the block bounded by J, K and 14th streets in East Village, the project is a proposed seven, 11 and 23-story (65 to 236 feet tall) residential tower development. Containing 222 residential units and about 8,000 square feet of street level retail uses, it also involves the rehabilitation of a historic building and the addition of a public plaza.
***
|
Galloping in to East Village’s growing round-up of restaurants is Cowboy Star, a 5,000-square-foot restaurant, bar and butcher shop at 640 10th Ave. between Market and G streets. Described as “fine dining meets Old West romance,” the eatery promises fireplaces, exposed beam ceilings, private dining and a display kitchen serving up “a unique Western menu” for lunch and dinner. When it opens in September, the retail butcher shop will be the only one Downtown. Owner is Cloghan Concepts, architect is Matthew Ellis/Blue Motif Architects and executive chef is Victor Jimenez, most recently of Jordan at PB’s Tower23 Hotel.
***
|
***
Art Madrid, elected to his fourth term as mayor of La Mesa last November, says he has every intention of running again in 2010 and — if successful — trying for a sixth term in 2014. “Why not?” says Madrid. “I’m 73 going on 18.” The Hispanic mayor, whose great-great-grandfather was from Spain, retired from Pacific Telephone Co. in 1991 after 35 years, but life after that only got busier. He spent 10 years on the La Mesa City Council before going after the mayor’s job. It’s a part-time job that pays $25,000 a year. “That’s below poverty level,” he laughs. Obviously, he’s not in it for the money.
About six years ago, Madrid was the target of ugly remarks by local skinheads, but took it all in stride. “The reality is that there are some people who don’t think they should be represented by someone with brown skin or a Hispanic name,” he says. “But others judge you by the results you deliver, by your integrity and intellect, not racial reasons. You must demonstrate you can be a leader.” Madrid, a Republican, apparently has convinced a majority of La Mesa voters that he is just that.
***
|
***
 Frank Milian, president and COO of Jet Source, with a jet mockup.
|
Jet Source has established a new business alliance with Spectrum Aeronautical to offer a new fractional jet ownership program to be launched in September. The jets in the program will include the Spectrum 33 and Spectrum 40. The fractional ownership program will have three options tailored to suit the interests of businesses, individuals and licensed pilots in private travel, the company says. Frank Milian, president and COO of Jet Source, announced the new program at a 10-year anniversary celebration at the company’s Carlsbad headquarters. Under the program, fractional shares will be available for purchase in increments of one-eighth shares with each of those shares representing 100 hours of flight time annually. Jet Source will provide flight crews and management, operational and maintenance support.
***
 Capt. Dave Grundies
|
Capt. Dave Grundies (USN Ret.) has joined Computer Sciences Corp.’s Naval Information Systems Center as director of strategic plans. CSC provides support services to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, for which Grundies worked as chief of staff when it moved to San Diego in 1997, and to other commands. He is a retired aviator. Grundies is the southwest region v.p. for the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association, a Holiday Bowl Red Coat and serves on the board of the Navy League.
***
 Diane Powers’ Bazaar del Mundo Shops, which is celebrating two years at Juan and Taylor streets in Old Town, has expanded its Kitchen Shop to display its collection of hand-crafted kitchenware and home décor from Latin American and other artists.
|
***
Developers of the Nine 2 Five Place office condos Downtown say their Balboa Executive Club will take the 12,500-square-foot sixth floor and the 8,000-square-foot rooftop. The membership club will offer dining spaces and a rooftop swimming pool. “It really will be a place for everyone, a young professional or family,” says J.T. Fox, general counsel for the Los Angeles-based Dolce Group restaurant company and partner with Errol Roussel in the club. Fox says he and Roussel are investing between $4 million and $6 million into the club, which is expected to open in early 2009. Lifetime memberships will be offered for $13,000 with monthly dues of about $198.
***
 Daniel Spinazzola
|
Daniel Spinazzola, founder and chairman of Diversified Restaurant Systems Inc., is 2007’s “Nice Guy of the Year” as named by the nonprofit Nice Guys organization. For years, Spinazzola has been a contributor and fund-raiser for several community organizations. “His achievements as a businessman are matched only by his generosity and caring for others in our community,” says Ken Fisher, Nice Guys president. “He is a dedicated community leader who has been a long-time contributor to many organizations in San Diego, including the Nice Guys. He exemplifies what the Nice Guys organization and its members are all about.”
***
Wilbur Smith Associates Inc. has won a $475,000 contract from CCDC to inventory the parking supply and demand Downtown and within a quarter mile outside Downtown’s boundaries. The firm has completed more than 20 downtown parking studies in California. The San Diego study is due next summer.
***
 Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy Walther (a Calexico native) spoke at the groundbreaking for the second plant at Kyocera’s solar photovoltaic module maquiladora in the Tijuana Industrial Park. When finished early next year, the new two-story plant will encompass 223,000 square feet of production space and quadruple annual production capacity from the current 35 megawatts to 150 megawatts. Kyocera International is based in San Diego.
|
***
Now’s the time to prepare for a bird flu pandemic. That’s the thrust of a Cal State San Marcos Extended Studies course for business leaders and employees. The course, “Business Risk Assessment & Pandemic Continu-ity Planning,” will be held on Wednesdays between July 11 and 25 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Extended Studies. Call (760) 750-4020 for more information. The cost is $275. “The question of a pandemic is not if it will occur, but when,” says Catherine Dellas, director of business education. “The larger question, however, is how businesses will function. Our goal is to prepare them as much as possible so that the answer is positive.”
***
 Craig Clark has received the Ernie Hahn Visionary Award from the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club. The award is presented annually to a person, business or organization that develops and enhances a quality workplace and community using thoughtful business planning. As president of C.W. Clark Inc., the Naval Academy graduate set up shop in the Golden Triangle in 1974, when only a two-lane blacktop between La Jolla and Miramar bisected the triangle. His latest projects include the Marketplace at Liberty Station, Escondido Marriott Hotel and the $300 million mixed-use bayfront project proposed for the old Lane Field Downtown — a few blocks from Hahn’s Horton Plaza.
|
***
A year after being named the first multifamily complex to receive a Recycler of the Year award from the Environmental Services Department, the Downtown Horizons condo project has done it again. Using an innovative box system on each floor, residents of the 211-home tower boosted their recycling from 20 tons to 30 tons and saved thousands of dollars in trash collection costs. Those who want to learn from the project’s experience can contact Mike Weinberg at (619) 756-6060 or mike.weinberg@cox.net. A photo essay of the effort is at maxlearning.net/horizons-recycle.
***
|
Point Loma’s Liberty Station is the location for the first in a string of lodging resorts “for travelers seeking fun and adventure” that will be constructed under a new brand being launched by Marriott International Inc., Nickelodeon and Miller Global Properties. The first of the new brand — Nickelodeon Resorts by Marriott — would be a 650-room resort at Liberty Station that would incorporate a 100,000-square-foot water park and a variety of pools and interactive attractions. The resort, designed by Gensler, is expected to break ground in January 2008 and open in early 2010. Each resort will have a variety of attractions ranging from state-of-the-art swimming pools plus entertainment programs featuring popular costumed Nickelodeon characters such as Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants.
No comments on record for this story.
This is a public form for the free exchange of comments. Foul language, threats and anything overtly mean or nasty will be removed.