Daily Business Report-April 24, 2014
High rises 701 B St. and 707 Broadway in Downtown San Diego
Downtown San Diego Now Dominated
By Two Landlords
By Jason Hughes | Hughes Marino
With Emmes’ recent purchase of 701 B Street and 707 Broadway to add to their existing high-rise portfolio, which includes 401 West A Street and 1230 Columbia Street, Emmes now ranks second to The Irvine Company in Downtown San Diego high-rise ownership. Their four buildings now account for 1.45 million square feet of space, versus The Irvine Company’s 2.8 million square feet, which is distributed over six high-rise buildings (750 B Street, 401 B Street, 225 Broadway, 101 West Broadway, 501 West Broadway and 600 West Broadway).
Manchester Pacific Gateway
Moving Closer to Reality
Good news for large tenants wanting some fresh downtown Class A office space options. We are in discussions with the Manchester Pacific Gateway for two of our larger clients to anchor the project’s first building, which will be directly across from the USS Midway Museum. Manchester’s first building along Harbor Drive will be approximately 225,000 square feet and will have pristine, unobstructed bay views forever. When the development is complete, it will be the crème de la crème of office projects in all of San Diego County.
Once fully built out, the 16-acre Manchester Pacific Gateway will comprise Three class A office buildings, (totaling more than 850,000 square feet), three luxury hotels (with nearly 1,600 rooms), 271,000 square feet of retail space and two levels of underground parking. Public uses will include a museum and cultural space, plus about 4.5 acres of landscaped open areas including a waterfront park, cafes, public art and entertainment venues. We’re excited to see the transformation that this development will bring to San Diego’s downtown waterfront.
Ballot Measure Would Raise San Diego
Minimum Wage to $13.09 Per Hour
By City News Service
City Council President Todd Gloria proposed a ballot initiative Wednesday that, if approved by voters, would increase San Diego’s minimum wage to $13.09 per hour over the next three years.
Gloria first proposed the idea in January, at the time calling for a “meaningful” hike without specifying how much until a news conference Wednesday at City Hall. The proposal, which needs City Council approval to be put on a ballot, also would give employees five paid sick days per year.
Gloria said he spent the past three months talking to stakeholders on all sides of the issue and looking at studies on the subject. He said details of the proposal could change, pending City Council discussions.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former Mayor Jerry Sanders, now the CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, both issued statements opposing the ballot measure.
Gloria said nearly everyone acknowledges the current minimum wage, set by the state at $8 per hour, is too low.
“The San Diego proposal would have a major, positive economic impact for workers and their families and on the San Diego economy,” Gloria said.
“To those who fear losing their businesses, please remember that these additional wages will be spent by workers on necessities like food and services — it will go right back into San Diego’s economy.”
Audit of Balboa Park Centennial Group Under Way
A financial and performance audit of a volunteer group that tried to put on a yearlong celebration of Balboa Park’s centennial is underway, the San Diego city auditor said Wednesday. At a meeting of the City Council’s Environment Committee, Auditor Eduardo Luna said the investigation into Balboa Park Celebration Inc. should be completed next month, with a report released in July.
“We’re assessing BPCI’s compliance with the (memorandum of understanding with the city), and specifically we’re looking at determining sources and amounts of BPCI funding, determine how those funds were used, what was received, and also what’s outstanding,” Luna said. “In addition, we’re also assessing the city’s involvement in oversight over BPCI.”
The organization voted last month to fold and turn over its activities to the city, which now plans to stage a celebration anchored by the annual December Nights festivals and two other major — but so far unspecified — events next year. — City News Service
Rady School of Management Receives $1 Million Endowment
UC San Diego has received a $1 million endowment from Carol Lazier and family to help establish the Center for Social Innovation and Impact and the Endowed Chair in Social Innovation and Impact at the Rady School of Management.
The endowment also will fund faculty leaders’ social venturing initiatives. Social venturing allows Rady School faculty to conduct research in areas central to social challenges, such as sustainability, poverty, health, education and social norms. Social venturing highlights successes of an enterprise on the broader impact they have on the well-being of society, not by profit loss and gain. The Center for Social Innovation and Impact will serve as the center of the school’s social venturing objectives and will focus on graduate-level students across the UC San Diego campus.
Medical Marijuana Permit Applications Start Today
By City News Service
Today is the first day that people who want to run a marijuana dispensary in San Diego can apply for a conditional use permit. The City Council gave approved to a set of zoning regulations that would allow up to four collectives to legally exist in eight of nine City Council districts.
The restrictions on distances between dispensaries and houses, schools, churches and the like preclude any from being in council President Todd Gloria’s district, which includes Downtown, Hillcrest and North Park.
Until the city starts issuing the conditional-use permits, all collectives in the city are considered illegal. The mayor’s office said the permit process could cost $100,000 and take six months to one year.
The city is investigating complaints against 57 dispensaries, according to the mayor’s office.
The conditional-use permit would be good for five years. Collectives operators also will need to get an public safety permit annually from the San Diego Police Department.
By city ordinance, collectives may not be within 1,000 feet of public parks, churches, child care centers, playgrounds, residential care facilities, schools and other dispensaries, and not be within 100 feet of residential zones. Dispensaries also are barred from having on-site medical professionals — a law intended to prevent such businesses from becoming “one-stop shops.”
Scripps Research Institute Scientists Find New
Point of Attack on HIV for Vaccine Development
A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) working with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative has discovered a new vulnerable site on the HIV virus. The newly identified site can be attacked by human antibodies in a way that neutralizes the infectivity of a wide variety of HIV strains.
“HIV has very few known sites of vulnerability, but in this work we’ve described a new one, and we expect it will be useful in developing a vaccine,” said Dennis R. Burton, professor in TSRI’s Department of Immunology and Microbial Science.
The findings were reported in the May issue of the journal Immunity. The discovery is part of a large effort to develop an effective vaccine against HIV. Such a vaccine would work by eliciting a strong and long-lasting immune response against vulnerable conserved sites on the virus — sites that don’t vary much from strain to strain, and that, when grabbed by an antibody, leave the virus unable to infect cells.
Cubic Corp. Names UK Businessman to Board
Steven John Norris, a UK businessman and former government minister, was appointed to Cubic Corp.’s board of directors and its nominating and corporate governance committee. Norris is a recognized authority on transport and infrastructure issues. Previously he served as a member of the Cubic Transportation Systems strategic advisory board.
In addition to Norris, Cubic’s board of directors consists of Walter C. Zable, executive chairman of Cubic; William W. Boyle, chief executive officer and director of Cubic; Bruce G. Blakley, retired partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Edwin A. Guiles, former executive vice president of Sempra Energy; Robert S. Sullivan, dean, Rady School of Management, UC San Diego; and John H. Warner, Jr., former executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Science Applications International Corp.
Chemistry PR Hires Senior Account Executive
Paloma Colón has joined Chemistry PR as a senior account executive. With a background in public relations, marketing and event planning, Colón is responsible for executing successful and creative campaigns for a variety of clients and to built strong media relationships. Most recently, Colón served as the marketing and public relations director for Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers, a San Diego-based jewelry store.
Previously, Colón worked as marketing manager for Cosmetic Laser Dermatology. She has also conducted marketing and PR campaigns for the San Diego American Red Cross, San Diego Museum of Art and Univision-New York.
A San Diego native, Paloma earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from San Diego State University.
Correction:
Biographical information about Juanita Brooks, one of SD METRO’s Best Attorneys for 2014 in the April issue, contained typographical errors caused by a glitch in our system. In fairness to Brooks, we repeat her bio here.
Juanita Brooks, a partner in the San Diego/Southern California office of Fish & Richardson, is one of the country’s most respected — and busiest — IP trial attorneys. Over the past two years, she was lead counsel in 13 patent trials — a blistering pace considering there are about 75 U.S. patent trials annually. A master storyteller who connects with jurors, Brooks makes the most complex technology simple. In addition to IP, her practice encompasses other types of complex litigation including product liability and qui tam litigation. She has handled more than 150 trials in her career and her average yearly caseload includes more than 20 active patent cases.
Brooks was one of only six lawyers who earned the honor of being named Litigator of the Year by American Lawyer earlier this year and she contributed to Fish’s IP practice group being named IP Litigation Department of the Year finalist by American Lawyer.
While Brooks tries cases in venues across the nation, she is also active in the community and played an important role by assisting the Southern District of California in both the original drafting of and the subsequent amendments to their local patent rules. She has served on the board of directors for the Western Center on Law & Poverty for eight years and has handled pro bono litigation for the organization that assists the region’s underserved residents.