Daily Business Report-June 12, 2013

Niki de Saint Phalle’s sculpture titled ‘Coming Together’ is part of the Port District’s public art collection

Extensive Cuts Made to Port’s Public Art Program

The San Diego Unified Port District is looking at a roughly $4 million budget shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1. As a result, the board of commissioners has made extensive cuts to the Port’s public art program to help close the gap, KPBS reports.

At the end of a marathon board meeting Tuesday, Port commissioners voted to adopt a preliminary budget for the upcoming year. One commissioner called it “a bloody road” getting there. Perhaps no program suffered as much bloodletting as the public art program.

Its budget was cut in half to $600,000 and $1.5 million will be drawn from its reserve fund to be used for “general purposes.” The program’s staff will be folded into another department. No new public art pieces will be added and some pending contracts canceled.

Commissioner Bob Nelson expressed regret about the decision during the meeting, but cited fiscal responsibility.

“Art is my passion. I’ve been collecting art for over 40 years. So as much as it hurts me, I think it’s the right thing to do,” Nelson said. He addressed his comments to the handful of art supporters in the audience who spoke on the program’s behalf, asking the commissioners to reconsider.

The final vote left many of those supporters baffled, especially since the commissioners approved a new public art master plan just a few years ago.

Larry Baza, a local gallery owner. is on the Port’s public art committee. He’s dismayed and believes the vote signals a coming end to the Port’s public art program. “I think it’s the death knell and postponing the obvious. And I don’t understand why.”

Read more: www.kpbs.org/news/2013/jun/12/proposed-cuts-ports-public-art-program

Summer Energy Needs Can Be Met, Despite San Onofre Shutdown

San Diego Gas & Electric can meet its customers’ electricity needs this summer despite the absence of power from the permanently shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, although users may be asked to conserve energy, utility officials said Tuesday. City News Service reports that Southern California Edison’s parent company announced Friday that the plant’s two reactor units would be shut down for good. Both units at the plant near Camp Pendleton were taken out of service in January 2012, one for planned maintenance and the other after a small leak of radioactive steam, later attributed to premature wearing of steam pressure tubes, was discovered.

Michael R. Niggli, SDG&E’s president and chief operating officer, said the utility had been planing for a “no SONGS summer” for some time.

“Knowing that the plant was out last year, we were not anticipating it would be in service this year — although we were hopeful,” Niggli said. The San Diego area lost about 440 megawatts from the SONGS outage, but many energy sources had come and gone over the past decade, he said.

American Airlines Launches Daily Service Between Miami and San Diego

American Airlines today launches daily service between Miami International Airport and San Diego International Airport. With the addition of this route, American and American Eagle now serve San Diego from each of American’s five hubs, with a combined total of 24 daily flights. This service marks American’s 15th daily flight out of San Diego, where the airline offers nonstop service to Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami and New York.

American’s new service between Miami and San Diego will be operated with a Boeing 737-800 aircraft with larger overhead storage bins and updated inflight entertainment systems.

Former Credit Union Building in Vista Sold for $1.525 Million

The freestanding pad in front of Living Spaces Furniture in the University Square project at 1960 University Drive in Vista had been sold for $1,525,000. The retail pad building with drive-through once housed the North Island Financial Credit Union and has a Nail Salon as the co-tenant. The building sits on a 42,370-square-foot parcel and is part of the greater University Square retail project that houses Target, Wal-Mart, Old Navy and other national retailers. The buyer was Valbeach Garfield LLC. with William Valaika as managing member. The buyer also owns other sections of the University Square Shopping Center. the company plans to re-tenant and redevelop the site. The seller of the property was North Island Financial Credit Union. Don Zech and Nick Zech of CDC Commercial Inc.  represented the seller and buyer.

Brookwood Financial Partners Acquires Four Points Business Park

Brookwood Financial Partners LLC has acquired Four Points Business Park, an office property in San Diego. The 124,712-square-foot, three-building business park, which is 84 percent occupied, is at the intersection of Ruffin Road and Chesapeake Drive. The sales price was not disclosed. Thomas Brown, Brookwood’s director of acquisitions, said the company plans to make significant physical improvements to the property, including enhancing the common areas, restrooms, elevators, landscaping and signage.

The acquisition is Brookwood’s third in the San Diego area in the past 20 months. In October 2011 and August 2012, Brookwood acquired Mission Valley Crossroads and Bernardo Executive Center,  respectively. The seller was represented by Bob Prendergast and Lynn LaChapelle of Jones Lang LaSalle.

Hughes Marino Hires Controller

Heather Fox has joined Hughes Marino commercial real estate company as controller. Fix previously was a senior staff accountant at a public tax and accounting firm for 10 years. Her responsibilities included preparation of individual, corporate, nonprofit, and partnership tax returns, payroll processing, accounting, and operational tasks. Fox earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Phoenix.

NewSchool of Architecture and Design News

• NewSchool of Architecture and Design  invites members of the community to view the graduating students’ senior thesis projects during the annual Student Thesis Exposition on June 21 at the school campus from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. See the design ideas graduating NSAD students have come up with for San Diego’s Downtown areas and waterfront, the U.S-Mexico border, and for sustainability efforts in Saudi Arabia. The event is open to the public and free of charge. Students will be on site to discuss their projects. Location: 1249 F St. San Diego.

• Kurt Hunker, director of graduate programs and graduate architecture program chair, has been elected a member of the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. Two members of NSAD’s architecture advisory board were also named 2013 AIA fellows: Jeff Gill and Michael Somin. The three will be inducted into the College of Fellows during this year’s AIA annual convention in Denver June 20–22.

Federal Contracts

LRAD Corp., San Diego, won a $12,231,380 federal contract from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command, Crane, Ind., for small, medium and large acoustic hailing device, mounts, test teardown and evaluation.