When Perry Dealy mentioned at a Downtown Partnership lunch news about a Little Italy developer securing a letter of intent from Whole Foods to open a store in Little Italy, CCDC’s Nancy Graham had to jump in. “Everyone has a letter of intent from Whole Foods,” she says. “We are taking bets in the office (on which one will actually happen).”

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The 10-year grind of Maxwell, Butternut and Bean will percolate no more after July 15 when “Triple Espresso” ends its record-urning run at the Horton Grand Theatre — the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre in those days. It became San Diego’s longest running show five years ago. (Your bad if you deprived your family.) For a shot of “Triple Espresso” now you must go to Minneapolis (where it may never close) or Atlanta, where it opens in March 2008. No word yet on what will drip into the Horton next.

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Students arriving at St. Patrick’s School in North Park this fall might not recognize it, thanks to Shea Homes. Chosen for a $608,000 makeover by Shea, the 1940s-era facility will get a new roof, flooring, windows, paint, refurbished restrooms — basically everything but a new structure, says principal Dan O’Neal. “It’s unbelievable," he says. "We could never take on a project like this ourselves because of the financial hardship on the school as well as the parish.”

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The median price of a resale condo Downtown was $550,000 in the first 20 days of May, up 2.5 percent from April but down 12.1 percent ($76,000) from $629,000 in May 2006, reports Realtor Lew Breeze of sdcondo.com. The number of condos pending sale during the past 30 days was 51, compared to 56 from the same period last year. The number of condos closing sale during the 30 days prior to May 20 was 47, compared to 39 from this same period last year.

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The floor of the short 7-foot-high basement in the old San Diego Hardware building Downtown is being lowered to make more space for potential clients. San Diego Hardware moved to Kearny Mesa in 2005 after more than a century Downtown, the last 80 years in the three-story Fifth Avenue building — originally a Woolworth’s. The ground floor remains vacant.

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When Rod Jones started Aztec Imaging, known for years as Aztec Business Machines, he sold and repaired typewriters. That was in 1969. Now an entire generation of professionals wouldn’t know a ribbon from carbon paper. Jones sold the business last month to Sharp Documents Solutions Co. of America, which established Aztec as its fifth direct regional sales operation through its new division, Sharp Business Systems. Terms were not disclosed. Joe Jones says his father grew the company to about 80 employees and $15 million in annual revenue. Dale Wedge will continue to preside over the local office, based in Santee, and brother Rodney will remain CFO. “Other than Rod Jones retiring and our name changing, everything else will remain the same,” says Wedge. “We’re part of a much bigger company with much greater resources.” Adds Joe Jones, “As far as your Kyocera, no worries. We are maintaining all maintenance agreements on all of our Toshiba and Kyocera equipment.”

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The Irvine Co.’s proposed tower

The Irvine Co. retained internationally known architect Henry N. Cobb to design the 34-story, 685,000-square-foot office tower it will build at 700 West Broadway on land it purchased from Bosa Development. It will have the most office space of any building Downtown. The design was presented to CCDC by Michael Bischoff, associate partner at Pei Cobb Freed, and in an online presentation — 700westbroadway.com — unique for a Downtown project. Although the top of the building will feature a flared crown, the overall boxy look is generating some criticism and comparison to the proposed Navy headquarters at the Broadway Complex where the city forced a narrower and more tapered design. Nevertheless, Robert Elliott, a senior v.p. at Irvine says, “Henry has far exceeded our expectations, producing a design that reflects lessons learned during a long and distinguished career. We will be proud to make his vision a reality, and our hope is that this building will attract new business to Downtown, a current priority of the city and the CCDC.”

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With so many large corporations looming over San Diego, it’s easy to forget that much of the city’s business base was formed by small, family-owned companies. One of those — BPI, formerly Bob’s Printing Inc. — is celebrating 50 years. In 1957, Bob Augustine began working out of his Lemon Grove garage for Culver City’s Bower Banner Co., selling pennants, banners and legal business forms. His territory covered Southern California, including San Diego. Augustine bought Bower’s San Diego and Imperial county divisions in 1977, changing the name to Bob’s Law Printing.

By 1994, the growing company had moved to 4693 Mission Gorge Place, and the next year changed its name to Bob’s Printing Inc. Augustine’s son, Richard, took the company’s reins in 1998, shortened the name even further to BPI and expanded to Colorado, Nevada and Arizona. A June 15 open house will mark BPI’s 50th.

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SDSU continues to rank among the top 10 U.S. universities awarding bachelor’s degrees to Hispanics. Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education placed the university eighth in the nation, using data from the 2005-06 academic year when 1,184 bachelor’s degrees were conferred on students of Hispanic descent.

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Pitching the concept of dual ownership, Barratt American is marketing ‘mingles units’ at its Aragon townhomes in downtown La Mesa. Ranging in size from 1,285 to 1,313 square feet, the tri-level units come with dual master suites. Prices start in the low $400,000s. ‘This arrangement allows single buyers to opt out of renting and instead enjoy the equity growth and tax relief as homeowners,’ says Mick Pattinson, Barratt’s president. Call (619) 464-0963 for more.

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Longtime Metropolitan arts contributor Charlene Baldridge is establishing her newest career — as classical lyricist. Her “Motherwit,” set to music by opera composer Jake Heggies, is being recorded by Frederica von Stade and Susan Graham and premiering at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival this summer. Baldridge will read from her poems at 6:30 p.m. June 20 in the quarterly Poetry & Art Series at the Museum of the Living Artist in Balboa Park. Admission is $5.

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The “real” Space Cowboys are coming to the San Diego Air & Space Museum on July 21. Astronauts Scott Carpenter, Eugene Cernan and Thomas Stafford will give presentations as part of a 10:30 a.m. “Meet the Real Space Cowboys” program that will be moderated by Ed Buckbee, director emeritus of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and founder of the U.S. Space Camp. The free program is presented in partnership with Omega Watches. Visitors will be able to view a new traveling exhibit featuring an authentic NASA Lunar Roving Vehicle and an Apollo 10 space suit displayed in the museum’s Walter M. “Wally” Schirra Space Flight Gallery. Schirra, who died May 3 at age 84, was the only astronaut to fly in all three of NASA’s original manned spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.

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Advanced Equities Financial Corp. has purchased the signage rights for Rob Lankford’s 655 West Broadway. The building has been renamed Advanced Equities Plaza and is the West Coast headquarters of the financial services company. Its main headquarters are in Chicago. First Allied Securities and Advanced Equities Wealth Management — the company’s subsidiaries — are the building’s largest tenants, occupying nearly three floors and 50,000 square feet. They moved into the building earlier this year from their previous location on the 17th floor of Golden Eagle Plaza on B Street. “Our growth has been extraordinary with the near doubling of our staff in just two years,” says Dwight Badger, CEO and co-founder of Advanced Equities. The two subsidiaries employ 190 persons. Advanced Equities Plaza is 24 stories high and contains 356,000 gross square feet.

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The Carlsbad-headquartered Gemological Institute of America is adding more facets to its industry weight worldwide. GIA chair Ralph Destino says the GIA plans to add more laboratory, research and education services in southeast Asia and southern Africa to its existing 21 global centers. The next opens this year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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Tenant improvements have been completed at the new 30,755-square-foot corporate offices of JMI Realty in the Paseo Del Mar building at 12265 El Camino Real in San Diego. Johnson & Jennings General Contracting did the work. A new teleconferencing center was built and a full-service gym was added. The office design incorporates the use of stone flooring, MeccoShade window coverings, specialty lighting and an upgraded security system. Carl Haines was project manager for Johnson & Jennings. Sonny Tucker and Gary Dickson were on-site superintendents. Subcontractors included Howard’s Rug Co., MontBleau & Associates, Bergelectric, A. O. Reed & Co. and Quality Paint.