Daily Business Report-Sept. 10, 2013
Mayoral candidates from top: Nathan Fletcher, Kevin Faulconer and David Alvarez.
Faulconer, Alvarez and Fletcher to Debate Sept. 27 in the Barrio
San Diego City Councilmen Kevin Faulconer and David Alvarez and former Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher will participate in a mayoral debate at the Family Health Centers of San Diego’s Spirit of the Barrio luncheon on Sept. 27. It will be held at the Logan Heights Family Health Center, 1809 National Ave., San Diego, 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Although at least 15 people have indicated they will run as candidates in the Nov. 19 special election, only the three men were invited to debate. “Unfortunately, our Spirit of the Barrio format does not provide enough space and time for us to accommodate all of the mayoral candidates. Therefore, we are only able to invite the top polling candidates at this time,” said Ben Avey, government and media relations manager for Family Health Centers of San Diego.
The forum will address the most pressing issues facing the city of San Diego and its neighborhoods, the organization said in a release. Luncheon tickets are $25 apiece. Questions may be submitted by emailing to: foundation@fhcsd.org.
San Diego County Home Sales Level Off
Resale home sales in San Diego County slowed in August, according to the latest regional housing statistics from the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors. Sales of single-family home sales in August decreased by about 3 percent compared to July, while sales of condos and townhomes were virtually unchanged. Compared to August of last year, single-family home sales were down, but condos and townhomes saw an increase of nearly 7 percent.
The median price of single-family homes sold in August was $483,000, down slightly from July, but still 23 percent higher than a year ago. For attached properties, the median price stood at $310,000, down about 3 percent from the previous month, but up 29 percent from last August.
More sellers are entering the market, records show. More than 6,600 homes are for sale in San Diego County. Inventory levels haven’t been that high for about 15 months. However, there’s still only about 2 months of housing inventory available. Five to six months is considered a healthy level.
“Interest rates are still at historic lows,” said Linda Lee, SDAR’s board president. “That, combined with the increases in inventory, means the San Diego real estate market remains very active for buyers and sellers.”
In August, the ZIP codes with the most sales of single-family homes include: 92028/Fallbrook – 62; 92127/Rancho Bernardo – 59; 92024/Encinitas – 57; 92064/Poway – 54; and 92009/Carlsbad – 52.
The most expensive San Diego County listing sold last month: A six-bedroom, seven-bath, 9,100-square-foot La Jolla home that sold for $13.8 million.
Supervisor Greg Cox Appointed to California Coastal Commission
San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox on Monday was appointed to serve on the California Coastal Commission and Escondido Deputy Mayor Olga Diaz was named his alternate. The appointments by Assembly Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles) were made to replace Oceanside Councilwoman Esther Sanchez, whose term expired in May, KPBS reports. “The coast is an environmental treasure and a vital economic resource for our state,” Perez said. “Supervisor Cox will provide an important voice in the commission’s ongoing work to ensure the sustainability of California’s coast.” Cox, a supervisor since 1995, has long pushed for water quality testing programs at area beaches. His district includes San Diego Bay, Coronado and Imperial Beach. A Republican, Cox fills a seat designated for a county supervisor or city council member from the San Diego coast. His term runs until May 2017.
UC San Diego in Partnership to Form Joint Chemistry Center
UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and President Alain Fuchs of the French National Center for Scientific Research, the largest governmental research agency in Europe, are celebrating an agreement to create an international chemical research center. The new center will be located on the UC San Diego campus and will aid in the development of new types of chemical catalysts. The formal agreement is one of more than 35 international partnership agreements that have been signed since Khosla came to UC San Diego last August.
The latest agreement will expand the research of Guy Bertrand, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and world leader in the development of organic catalysts, who will direct the UCSD-CNRS Joint Research Chemistry Laboratory. He came to UC San Diego from UC Riverside last year after spending decades in France directing chemical research laboratories and institutes. “The use of purely organic compounds as catalysts will eliminate the major drawbacks of transition-metal-catalysis technology, which are the excessive cost of metal complexes and in many cases the toxicity of the metal,” said Bertrand.
Investigation into Filner’s Credit Card Use to Continue
The San Diego City Council’s Audit Committee voted unanimously Monday to continue with an investigation into whether the administration of former Mayor Bob Filner violated municipal credit card policies, City News Service reports. The two-pronged investigation is focused on a trip to Paris that Filner took in June, accompanied by his San Diego police security detail, and personal expenses on the mayor’s credit card.
City Controller Ken Whitfield said he initially denied a request to have the credit limit on a p-card raised so that the police officers who guard Filner could travel to Paris in business class. City policy calls for flying in coach, and plenty of the economy-class seats appeared to be available, he said.
Whitfield told the committee members his denial was overruled by executives higher up in the mayor’s office. The trip by the security detail cost the city $21,579, according to city records.
Northrop Grumman’s Unmanned Aircraft
Systems Achieve 100,000 Flight Hours
Northrop Grumman Corp.’s line of unmanned aircraft systems have achieved 100,000 flight hours — more than 88 percent of which were logged by the U.S. Air Force Global Hawk, the company reported. The remaining hours were flown by the NASA Global Hawks, the German EURO HAWK, and the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator and, more recently, Triton UAS.
“Global Hawk flew for the first time in 1998 and was used by the Air Force for surveillance missions over Afghanistan just three years later,” said George Guerra, Northrop Grumman’s vice president for Global Hawk UAS. “Global Hawk has been used continuously by the Air Force since that time. The system has also supported disaster response efforts, science studies conducted by NASA and is the foundation of our new HALE Enterprise.
Parsons Brinckerhoff Names Sr. Supervising Engineer
Joe De La Garza has been named a senior supervising engineer in the San Diego office of Parsons Brinckerhoff. De La Garza will be responsible for the management and supervision of regional and local traffic engineering projects in the San Diego region. He has nearly two decades of experiencemanaging diverse transportation projects. De La Garza was a vice president in the San Diego office of a Southern California-based transportation engineering firm, where he managed the traffic engineering practice. He received a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Mich.
NAI San Diego Names Associate Vice President
M. Lawrence Kopp has joined NAI San Diego as an associate vice president. Kopp will work in all areas of brokerage, including leasing, sales, consulting and advisory services. Kopp received a Master’s of Science in Real Estate from the University of San Diego and is a graduate of the University of Arizona. He worked as a consultant with the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego to produce local market data reports and is part of Real Estate Alumni Association Board. Prior to joining NAI San Diego, Kopp was a research director at CBRE and the CoStar Group.
Christopher Hawkins Named Managing Partner
Christopher Hawkins has been named managing partner of the executive committee of San Diego’s Sullivan Hill Lewin Rez & Engel law firm. Hawkins focuses his practice on distressed finance and commercial insolvency. Hawkins is a past president of the San Diego Bankruptcy Forum and the San Diego Receivers Forum.He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University.
PURE Bioscience Names New CEO
PURE Bioscience Inc. has appointed Hank Lambert as its new chief executive officer, replacing interim CEO Dave Pfanzelter, who remains as chairman of the board. The company said the management change is part of a previously announced reorganization focused on commercialization of silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC) technology in the food industry as an antimicrobial agent to protect consumer safety against various pathogens. Lambert has more than 35 years of industry experience.