Daily Business Report-Nov. 14, 2014

Mark Arabo is president and CEO of the Neighborhood Market Association, which represents 3,400 small business members in the Western United States.

Small Business Association Leader Threatens

Boycott in TargetExpress Plan for South Park

The president and CEO of the Neighborhood Market Association today announced the organization’s opposition to the placement of a TargetExpress store in South Park.

“I am here to tell Target — ‘NO’, and, I will go to whatever means in ensuring that my small business owners are protected, and the citizens of South Park are protected,” said Mark Arabo, president and CEO of the Neighborhood Market Association, in a press release. “If this requires a boycott, then so be it.”

Arabo, who has most recently been in the news as a spokesman for the Chaldean Catholic community opposed to ISIS militants in Iraq, said his organization has received more than 50 calls from disgruntled business owners and members of the community asking for support of the association on the issue.

“A Target express may offer cheap prices, but these prices come at the expense of the community,” Arabo said in the release. “South Park is a community with its own culture, its own imprint. My small business members have served the good people of South Park for years. We have grown just as the community has. To see our mutual relationship with South Park’s citizens threatened by the likes of a big-box store sickens me.”

The Neighborhood Market Association is a small business organization that has more than 3,400 small business members in the West, according to Arabo, and more than 20 small business members in the South Park area.

South Park residents recently formed a Care About South Park group to study the store’s impact on traffic, local businesses and existing tenants on the property at Grape and Fern streets, site of the Gala Foods supermarket.

According to a Target representative, the company is working with City Council President Todd Gloria and various community groups on the proposed site.

“What we’ve heard from the South Park community has already influenced some of our decision-making,” said Erika Winkles, the Target spokesperson. “For example, we will not feature a Starbucks in our store because we know the adjacent coffee cart is a popular neighborhood fixture and a gathering place for residents.”

Winkles also said the store will try to offer organic produce sourced from California.

Recycling Will Provide a Third

Of City’s Water Under Plan

Mayor Kevin Faulconer on Thursday urged the the City Council to move ahead with an ambitious plan for San Diego to get a third of its drinking water through recycling by 2035.

Rather than spend nearly $2 billion to upgrade the aging Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, the city would invest in recycling facilities at three locations to make wastewater drinkable, producing 83 million gallons a day by 2015.

“It’s a common-sense approach that is environmentally friendly and economically sound,” said Faulconer, who was joined by leaders of environmental groups at the the city’s demonstration plant near Miramar field.

The Advanced Water Purification Facility is already producing water than is cleaner than natural sources. The project was praised by Scientific American magazine earlier this year. Halla Razak, the city’s director of public utilities, said the technology is proven and successfully in use in Orange County, Texas, Virginia and overseas.

“The water that comes from the Colorado River…has some impurities,” she noted, holding up a bottle of recycled water.

Representatives of San Diego Coastkeeper and the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundationthanked Faulconer for his efforts to move ahead on recycling.

Faulconer said substituting an investment in recycled water for upgrading the Pt. Loma treatment plant requires City Council and federal approval, but noted that the Environmental Protection Agency has been “very receptive” to San Diego’s plans. “We are going to be national leaders in this,” he said.

Sean Karafin, executive director of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, said recycled water makes economic sense for San Diego residents. “The science has been there for a long time. It’s tested and safe,” he said.

— Times of San Diego

Nominees Announced for Outstanding

Building of the Year Awards

The San Diego Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) on Thursday announced seven nominees for the local level of “The Outstanding Building of the Year” (TOBY) awards.

The TOBY Awards recognize quality in office buildings and reward excellence in property management. The winners will be announced at BOMA’s annual Winter Gala set for Saturday, Dec. 6 at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa.

“These properties are paving the way for commercial real estate standards in San Diego and represent leading professionals in property management,” said Kristin Howell, president of BOMA San Diego. “To be nominated by industry peers as leaders of excellence in the industry is a true honor and deserves great recognition.”

The 2014 TOBY Nominees:

• Canyon View Owners Association is nominated in the under 100,000 square feet category. Canyon View Owners Association is owned by Canyon View Owners Association and managed by Lyslie Brooks and Kristin Howell of Meissner Jacquet Commercial Real Estate Services.

• Nobel Executive Center is nominated in the 100,000-249,000 square feet category. Nobel Executive Center is owned by Property Reserve, Inc. and managed by BJ Van Aken of CBRE, Inc.

• StoneCrest is nominated in the 250,000-499,999 square feet category. StoneCrest is owned by TIAA-CREF and managed by Mary Blagg and Katherine Cox of CBRE, Inc.

• One America Plaza is nominated in the 500,000-999,999 square feet category. One America Plaza is owned by The Irvine Company and managed by Dan McCurdy of The Irvine Company.

• Kilroy Centre Del Mar is nominated in the Suburban Low Rise (1-5 stories) category. Kilroy Centre Del Mar is owned by Kilroy Realty Corporation and managed by Bernadette Blanco of Kilroy Realty Corporation.

• San Diego Tech Center is nominated in the Suburban Mid Rise (6-10 stories) category. San Diego Tech Center is owned by Beacon Capital Partners and managed by Amy Lane of EdgeCore Real Estate Group.

• Biltmore Ocean View Hills is nominated in the Industrial Office Park category. Biltmore Ocean View Hills is owned by Biltmore Ocean View Hills Association and managed by David Osborn and Kristin Howell of Meissner Jacquet Commercial Real Estate Services.

Local Businesses Get $155 Million in

Contracts for Airport Rental Car Center

Local businesses have been awarded construction contracts totaling $155 million and small businesses won a total of $60 million for work on the San Diego International Airport Rental Car Center now under construction.

About 6,000 workers are employed on the project, according to Thella Bowens, president and CEO of the San Diego County Airport Authority.

To help achieve these numbers, airport staff hosted a briefing session for San Diego’s local and small business community about the opportunities on the $316 million project. The airport tailored bid opportunities and package sizes in order to encourage and help facilitate local and small business participation.

“We are pleased that a large percentage of the Rental Car Center work has been awarded to local and small businesses,” said Bowens. “The airport places a high value on inclusion and works hard to make sure that our contracting opportunities allow local and small businesses to be competitive.”

The small business outreach program has played a major role in other airport initiatives in recent years. During construction of The Green Build, the largest improvement project in the airport’s history, more than $415 million in contracts were awarded to local businesses, with $118 million going to small businesses, according to Airport Authority.

More opportunities to work with the airport are available as construction continues on North Side Development projects and the next phase of master planning at the airport. The Airport Development Plan includes the future of Terminal 1 and the redevelopment of the former Teledyne Ryan property.

For more information, visit www.san.org/business.

Rady School of Management Ranked

1st in Intellectual Capital in Businessweek

The Rady School of Management at UC San Diego entered the Bloomberg Businessweek rankings at 51st overall in its first ranking by the publication.  The school ranked 1st in the United States in Intellectual Capital, which is a quality measure of faculty research. The Rady School’s Full-time MBA program was the only MBA program in San Diego to be ranked by Businessweek.

“The Businessweek ranking demonstrates the monumental strides that the Rady School has made on the national stage in the 11 years since its inception,” said Rady School Dean Robert S. Sullivan. “It is an acknowledgment by students of the quality academics and career development, as well as recognition by recruiters of being a top MBA program. Additionally, the school’s first place ranking in intellectual capital is a direct consequence of the Rady School’s successes in recruiting world class faculty.”

Metropolitan Transit System Names

Head of Light Rail Vehicle Maintenance

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System has named Andy Goddard as superintendent of light rail vehicle maintenance, a promotion from his previous job as assistant superintendent.

Goddard has spent more than 17 years working in the Light Rail Vehicle Maintenance department at the MTS. He is now responsible for developing and implementing the department’s strategic plan to maintain a fleet of 129 trains that provide 39 million passenger trips per year. He will also oversee a $12 million budget and a staff of 72 electromechanics, linemen and assistant linemen.

Goddard is now responsible for developing and implementing the department’s strategic plan to maintain a fleet of 129 trains that provide 39 million passenger trips per year. He will also oversee a $12 million budget and a staff of 72 electromechanics, linemen and assistant linemen.

Goddard is now responsible for developing and implementing the department’s strategic plan to maintain a fleet of 129 trains that provide 39 million passenger trips per year. He will also oversee a $12 million budget and a staff of 72 electromechanics, linemen and assistant linemen.

Summerlott had been with MTS for more than 19 years.

MTS operates 93 bus routes and three Trolley lines on 53 miles of double-tracked railway.  Every day there are about 300,000 passenger trips taken on MTS bus and Trolley services.

 

‘Mini-Dorm’ Ordinance Amendment

Clears City Council Committee

A proposal designed to help code enforcement officers crack down on so-called “mini-dorms” near college campuses in San Diego was passed unanimously Thursday by the City Council’s Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee.The proposal, which needs to be approved by the full City Council, addresses single-family residences that are rented out to large numbers of students and, in some cases, become a neighborhood nuisance.

Longtime College Area resident Ann Cottrell told the committee that nearly 700 single-family homes near San Diego State University are rented to students. While the residential neighborhoods around SDSU were developed as three-bedroom, two-bathroom houses, 40 percent of the rentals now have between five and 10 bedrooms, she said.

She said the bedrooms are shared, living rooms have been divided to add sleeping areas and garages have been converted to give students places to sleep. “These homes were designed for two adults and their kids, and certainly were not designed for six to 10 adults with cars,” Cottrell said.

There are two sections of city law that define rooming houses. The proposed changes would narrow it down to one definition — that of a residence where three or more rooms, excluding kitchens and bathrooms, are rented to multiple tenants under separate rental agreements or leases, either written or oral.

Members of the College Area Community Council  said mini-dorms cause problems by bringing too many cars, which are parked on lawns or paved front yards, or take up curbside parking spots. The high occupancy raises noise levels just by people coming and going, and also increases trash and hastens wear-and-tear on the homes, according to their report.

No property owners spoke at the meeting to defend their rental policies.

— City News Service