Daily Business Report-Sept. 23, 2016
The North Park sign. (Courtesy Lisa Field, SanDiego.org)
North Park Among 10 Hottest
U.S. Real Estate Markets in 2016
Times of San Diego
Millennials have turned San Diego ZIP code 92104 — the North Park neighborhood — into one of the 10 hottest real estate markets in the United states.
The National Association of Realtors’ website Realtor.com said homes in the trendy intown neighborhood are selling in just 22 days, compared to 78 days for the average home nationally.
The website focused on individual ZIP codes and ranked them by the average time it takes to sell a home and how many times a property is viewed.
“Homes for sale in this year’s hottest ZIP codes are selling almost as quickly as they hit the market,” said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Realtor.com. “While millennials are usually a significant presence in most markets, their sheer size and buying power have made them a force to be reckoned with in these hot ZIP codes and given them the power to shift supply and demand dynamics.”
The top ten ZIP codes also include:
76148 — Watauga, a suburb of Fort Worth
94523 — Pleasant Hill in Silicon Valley
80233 — Northglenn, a Denver suburb
80916 — A neighborhood in Colorado Springs
78247 — A neighborhood in San Antonio
94954 — Petaluma in San Francisco’s North Bay
02176 — Melrose, a Boston suburb
63126 — Crestwood, a St. Louis suburb
97222 —Milwaukie, a suburb of Portland
Realtor.com said the ten hottest markets were neighborhoods with a a large population of millennials near strong job markets.
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City Unveils Interactive Map
San Diegans Can Search Online to Find
Condition of Their Neighborhood Streets
By City News Service
City officials on Wednesday unveiled an interactive, online map that San Diegans can search to find the condition of their neighborhood streets and learn about recent and upcoming repair projects.
The map — at http://streets.sandiego.gov — is a “one-stop visual shop for finding the condition of your street based on the assessment of street conditions released this week,” said Almis Udrys, director of the city’s Performance & Analytics Department.
Users can also get information from a previous road condition assessment in 2011, and view a visual representation of the city’s overall surface street network. Previously, residents had to comb through paperwork, pdf files and spreadsheets to get such information.
“This is one of the most innovative and capable online street maps of any major U.S. city because it makes detailed information about our roads and road repairs available with just a click or tap,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said.
“It updates automatically so residents have the most accurate data on streets in every neighborhood. We’ve got all this great information about streets, and now we’re sharing it with the public through this really cool tool that makes it easy for everyone to access.”
The map is connected with the city’s work order system, so data inputted by municipal workers will feed in automatically — though the updates will only become available on the streets map quarterly, according to city officials.
The Performance & Analytics Department is making the code available to the public so it can be used by other cities, or by developers who have ideas for improvement.
The map was unveiled one day after an assessment of the city’s 2,800- mile road network was released.
A consultant found that 60 percent of the streets were in good condition, 34 percent were fair and 6 percent were in the poor category. The 2011 assessment ranked 34 percent of the roads and alleys as being in good condition, 44 percent as fair and 22 percent as poor.
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City College Awarded $2.6 Million Grant
To Boost Programs for Hispanic Students
Students at San Diego City College will see an array of new and expanded support services aimed at further boosting their graduation and course-completion rates, thanks to a $2.6 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The grant is funded through the Department of Education’s Title V Hispanic Serving Institutions Program. Hispanic serving institutions must have a Hispanic student population of at least 25 percent and are required to engage in efforts to help first-generation, low-income Latino students. Latino enrollment at City College has grown from 28 percent in 2003 to 48 percent in 2014, and more than one-third are first-generation college students.
“San Diego City College is an innovative college, and we look forward to implementing this grant to help our students achieve their goals,” said City College Interim President Denise Whisenhunt.
Among the efforts the new grant will fund are:
- Up to four new Cultural Competency Centers, also known as cultural hubs, which will be strategically located on campus where students, faculty, and staff can help build a stronger sense of community through cultural activities and social justice projects.
- New programs to reduce the time it takes for students to complete basic skills courses that do not count toward college credit.
- Development of a peer support network for at-risk students.
- A professional development program leading to more cultural awareness among faculty and staff, and redesigned courses to incorporate culturally appropriate pedagogies into the classroom.
The district’s board of trustees accepted the grant at its Sept. 22 meeting.
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Mayor Faulconer Joins Democrat Bry
To Promote Women Entrepreneurs
Times of San Diego
Mayor Kevin Faulconer joined likely new City Councilwoman Barbara Bry at Qualcomm’s headquarters Thursday to promote efforts by woman entrepreneurs in the San Diego innovation economy.
It was the first time that Faulconer, a Republican, has appeared at an official event with Bry, a Democrat, since her Republican opponent dropped out of the race to represent District 1.
“I’m looking forward to Barbara serving on the council,” Faulconer said after the event, noting that the two agree on issues affecting the innovation economy.
The Women Drive Innovation in San Diego initiative was launched by women leaders at Qualcomm, Intuit, Hewlett Packard, Illumina and other technology companies to support female entrepreneurs in science, technology, mathematics and engineering.
“Our economy is strongest and most dynamic when we have diversity at every level of our workforce,” said Faulconer.
Bry, a high-tech entrepreneur herself, said San Diego’s $52 billion innovation economy can grow even bigger if women are inspired to pursue the sciences.
The new initiative is the brainchild of Felena Hanson, the founder of Hera Hub, a co-working space for female entrepreneurs in Sorrento Valley.
While Bry’s opponent, Ray Ellis, has dropped out of the race, his name is still on the ballot, and Bry said she is continuing to campaign as the November election nears.
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Report: San Diego Apartment
Rents Rise; Rent Growth Rate Falls
Average San Diego apartment rents increased in August for the seventh straight month, but sharply reduced job growth is helping to cause a decline in the rate of rent growth, according to Axiometrics, which studies the market.
“Hiring fell off significantly among San Diego employers in July after the market experienced quite strong job growth in the first half of the year,” said Stephanie McCleskey, vice president of research for Axiometrics. “That likely affected rent growth. But still, San Diego remains the 11th strongest rent-growth market in the nation among major metros.”
San Diego employers added 28,100 jobs in the 12 months ending in July, compared to 40,000 in the year ending in June. Meanwhile, 3,384 new units are expected to come to market this year, with another 3,868 identified for 2017 completion.
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NBC 7 Producer Named National President
Of Society of Professional Journalists
Lynn Walsh, investigative executive producer at NBC 7 San Diego, was named national president of the Society of Professional Journalists at this week’s Excellence in Journalism conference in New Orleans.
An Emmy award-winning journalist, Walsh currently leads the KNSD investigative team. She succeeds Paul Fletcher, publisher and editor-in-chief of Virginia Lawyers Weekly, who has served as SPJ president for the past year.
A member of SPJ since 2004, Walsh has served as secretary-treasurer and president-elect. She is also a member of the ethics and FOI committees, and was selected to serve on the Freedom of Information Act advisory committee, which works to improve the FOIA process.
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Neal Electric Celebrates Move to Vista
Neal Electric, a company providing commercial electrical services in Southern California, celebrated its move from Poway to Vista with a grand opening ceremony at the new location, 2790 Business Park Drive.
Neal Electric is owned by Meruelo Enterprises Inc.
“The new office in Vista gives Neal Electric and its 300-plus workers a fresh, collaborative work environment and the ability to better serve customers to the north of San Diego,” said Group Vice President Shawn Rosenberger.
Neal Electric is a union shop and was established in El Cajon 36 years ago before moving to Poway in 1999 and then relocating to Vist. The company’s flagship projects include the new San Diego Central Courthouse, Northrup Grumman Building 2, LAX/Crenshaw Transit Corridor, and the East County Detention Center.
Select Electric Inc., another Meruelo Enterprises company, also moved to the new Vista site.
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Mark Muir Elected Chairman of
San Diego County Water District Board
Mark Muir, who represents the San Dieguito Water District on the San Diego County Water Authority board, has been elected the new board chair, effective Oct. 1. Muir has been the board’s vice chair for two years.
Jim Madaffer, secretary of the board for the past two years as a representative from the city of San Diego, will serve as vice chair. Incoming Secretary Gary Croucher is a board representative from the Otay Water District.
Muir’s election follows two years of board leadership under Mark Weston, a retired general manager of the Helix Water District who has served as a board representative from the city of Poway since 2011. Weston was honored at Thursday’s meeting for leading the Water Authority through a period marked by escalating drought challenges, regional success beating state-mandated water-use reduction targets and the historic start of operations at the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant.
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Cubic Opens Global Operations
Centre for Transportation Services
Cubic Transportation Systems announced the opening of its new Global Operations Centre (GOC) in the United Kingdom, which it said will expand and strengthen the company’s leading intelligent travel services offerings around the world.
The GOC is located in Stockton-on-Tees in northeastern U.K., an existing base of Cubic resources and infrastructure and the home of its intelligent transportation management system operations. The town is also near many of the U.K.’s leading, most prestigious universities, including Newcastle and Durham. This gives Cubic proximity to a vast base of potential, qualified recruits, further establishing the new operations center that will build on the company’s already impressive services footprint and help fuel future growth.
“Our services business today supports a comprehensive range of operations and maintenance needs for transportation authorities around the world, ranging from public transport to traffic management for roads and highways. As our first global operations hub, the GOC will augment our services operations already onsite in these multiple locations,” said Min Wei, senior vice president, operations, Cubic Transportation Systems. “We will continue to provide the same standards of local support we always have and that our clients rightly expect.”
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Two New Law Firms Formed
Dunn DeSantis Walt & Kendrick LLP
Elizabeth Dunn and Kevin DeSantis, formerly of Butz Dunn & DeSantis APC, along with Christopher Walt of Walt & Associates and John Kendrick Jr., formerly of Irvine-based Kendrick, Jackson & Kearl PLC, have formed the new firm of Dunn DeSantis Walt & Kendrick LLP.
They are joined by partners James McFaul and David Cardone, both of whom were shareholders of the former Butz Dunn & DeSantis firm. The new firm began operations on Sept. 1. With offices in San Diego, La Jolla and Irvine, the firm provides advisement, transaction and litigation services to its clients in California and across the U.S.
“In responding to the needs of our clients, we have developed a multi-faceted business model that allows us to effectively serve as our clients’ outsourced general counsel,” said Kevin DeSantis, the firm’s managing partner. “We will continue to become strategic partners with our clients and work collaboratively towards their success.”
Noonan Lance Boyer & Banach LLP
The law firm Noonan Lance Boyer & Banach LLP has officially launched and moved into its new headquarters in San Diego’s East Village. The firm’s mission: a singular focus on achieving the best results for its clients in the most efficient manner possible.
From the 40-year tradition of the award-winning former law firm Kirby Noonan Lance & Hoge (previously Post Kirby Noonan & Sweat), NoonanLance was formed by partners David J. Noonan, James R. Lance, Ethan T. Boyer and Micaela P. Banach and is supported by a team of attorneys, paralegals and long-time support staff.
“Whatever the case, no matter the problem, we are known for our track record of navigating the complex legal system in the most strategic way possible,” said Lance. “If you want attorneys with trial experience, who can handle significant cases with optimum efficiency, we’re your firm. We are committed to a strong partnership with our clients – your case is as important to us at it is to you.”
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Personnel Announcements
Liability and Business Litigation
Team to Join Higgs Fletcher & Mack
Attorney Douglas Butz and his professional liability and business litigation team will join Higgs Fletcher & Mack, the San Diego-based law firm, effective Oct. 3.
“Our practice fits like a glove in the Higgs’ cadre of offerings,” said Butz, who will be an active partner and lead attorney for the firm’s Professional Liability practice area.
Butz, the founder of long time San Diego firm Butz Dunn DeSantis, has been one of the leading professional liability and business litigation lawyers in San Diego for more than 40 years.
Also joining Higgs Fletcher & Mack are Butz’s two associates and attorney team members — Bradley A. Lebow and Joy Homze. Lebow has represented regional, national and international law firms in complex professional liability litigation. He has also represented clients in a broad range of commercial litigation matters, including consumer class action defense, business torts and shareholder and partnership disputes. Homze has worked for a diverse range of clients, from public entities to sole practitioners, in a variety of practice areas, including business disputes, catastrophic injury, class action litigation and professional liability defense, with a specific emphasis on the counseling and representation of attorneys and law firms.
