Daily Business Report-Oct. 1, 2015
The Chula Vista bayfront
Report: South County Economic Growth
Three Times Faster than County Overall
The 23 ZIP codes that define South County outpaced the overall county’s growth in GDP, personal income, and employment from 2010 to 2013, according to a report from the National University System Institute for Policy Research.
The report will be unveiled by Kelly Cunningham, economist at the National University System Institute for Policy Research, at the South County Economic Development Council’s 25th Annual Economic Summit on Friday.
South County has seen GDP increase 37.6 percent from 2010-2013, a rate three times faster than the county’s overall rate of growth. This growth has been fueled by an increasing number of high-tech and professional service companies located in South County, continued growth along the border, and gains in the “Working Waterfront” of the San Diego Bay, according to the report.
South County’s personal income increased by 69.4 percent during the three year period, and employment grew by 29.2 percent. This indicates that people are living and working in South County, as opposed to commuting to other areas.
“People tend to spend more money where they live rather than where they earn money. This brings more prosperity localized to the South County region,” Cunningham said.
South County’s largest employment, income, and sales increases came from professional, scientific, and technical services, according to the report. These are typically skilled, high-wage positions, which contribute to a strong multiplier effect on other local businesses, Cunningham said.
South County has experienced this growth partially because it is smaller and has more room for growth than the rest of the county, Cunningham said.
“It’s very impressive — having that kind of growth is almost stunning,” Cunningham said.
Click here to view the full report.
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Developers to Build 635-Unit Housing
Project on Former Rock Quarry in Carlsbad
Presidio Residential Capital and Cornerstone Communities have broken ground on The Reserve, a 635-unit community covering 156 acres on a former rock quarry in northeast Carlsbad.
The retail value of the project, which will have 293 single-family detached luxury townhomes and 342 luxury apartments when it opens in 2016, will exceed $200 million.
Located west of College Boulevard and south of Route 78, The Reserve is intersected by Buena Vista Creek and home to El Salto Falls, which the San Luis Rey Band of the Luiseño Indian tribe considers sacred. The San Luis Rey band plans to build a tribal resource center at the eastern edge of the falls, and a Native American monitor has been on site during grading to look for artifacts that might be uncovered.
So far, the grading has unearthed several ice-age fossils, including Columbian Mammoth and prehistoric bison parts that have been given to the San Diego Natural History Museum.
More than half of the acreage will be designated as open space. The development includes natural features and trails that integrate into the city trail system.
At the north end of the planned development is the historic Marron Adobe, built in 1839 and one of the oldest structures in Southern California. Cornerstone said it will make use of this important resource to get area schoolchildren involved in the community. For example, students who visit the hacienda will be able to paint tiles that will be incorporated throughout the community and enter contests to name some of its streets.
The project is Cornerstone Communities’ fourth joint venture with Presidio. The companies are also developing Pacific Ridge, 317 units in Oceanside; Tuscany Village, 212 units in Bakersfield; and Otay Ranch Village II, 225 units in Chula Vista.
UC San Diego to Host Contextual Robotics Forum
UC San Diego will host a one-day event on Oct. 30 that will focus on the future of robotics for medicine, autonomous vehicles, first-response scenarios, consumer applications and more.
The second annual Contextual Robotics Forum will feature nine keynote talks from world-leaders in robotics and related technologies including Marc Raibert, president of Boston Dynamics; Rob High, vice president, Watson Solutions, IBM Software Group; and Todd Hylton, executive vice president of Brain Corporation.
Matt Grob, CTO of Qualcomm, and Tom Pieronek, vice president of basic research at Northrop Grumman are among the industry partners giving opening remarks along with Albert P. Pisano, dean of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
Attendees will have several opportunities to interact with the forum speakers, UC San Diego professors and graduate students presenting robotics demos and posters.
A cross section of UC San Diego professors and students working in converging fields of computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, controls, emotion detection, high-performance computing, energy-efficient computing and hardware, embedded systems and soft robotics will present their latest work at the technology showcase following the keynote talks
The Contextual Robotics Forum is part of UC San Diego’s efforts to help strengthen the robotics ecosystem in San Diego and the greater California/ Baja region.
Latest Poll Shows Overwhelming
Support for Desalination Projects
The Hoover Institute released a statewide poll Wednesday that shows Californians overwhelmingly support the building of desalination facilities on California’s coast. Eighty-two percent of those polled support building desalination facilities, with 57 percent strongly supporting.
The poll comes as Poseidon Water is about to open a seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad that will deliver enough drinking water to serve 300,000 San Diego County residents. Poseidon recently submitted an application with the California Coastal Commission to build a similar facility in Huntington Beach to provide 50 million gallons of drinking water per day to Orange County homes and businesses.
“It is clear, Californians not only need, but fully support desalination,” said Scott Maloni, vice president of Poseidon Water. “Desalination not only can be part of the solution to our state’s water shortage, it provides local communities with an independent, drought-proof source of high quality drinking water. It is important that the Coastal Commission staff deem our Huntington Beach permit application complete so the commissioners can act on this much-needed, publicly-supported, and environmentally-sound project.”
Community Housing Works
Transfers Homebuying Programs
Community HousingWorks announced Wednesday that it is spinning off and transfering its homebuying programs to Springboard, a national consumer financial services nonprofit.
CHW officials said the move will allow it to embrace its rapid growth and statewide expansion through a sharpened focus on developing and operating beautiful and safe apartment communities and delivering supportive services on site at these communities.
Officials said Springboard has the technology and platform needed to support the expansion of the complex and tightly regulated homebuying program services.
“Building on Springboard’s existing call center and technology platform, Springboard will be able to scale quickly, broaden its reach nationally, and help more underserved families buy homes and build equity,” officials said.
Community Housing Works’ current homeownership center staff will be retained by Springboard and continue providing mortgage lending programs for first-time homebuyers.
According to Community Housing Works, the agency can now focus exclusively on expanding its multifamily communities and services across the state and strengthening its presence in San Diego.
“By sharpening our focus, we can both grow with the needs of the people we serve and expand statewide, while deepening our presence here in San Diego,” said Sue Reynolds, president and CEO of the agency.
General Atomics Gets Contract
For Catapult Launch System
San Diego-based General Atomics has been awarded a Navy contract for up to $29.6 million for work on the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) that will be used on the future aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford.
The EMALS system replaces the existing steam catapult currently being used on U.S. aircraft carriers.
County Helps Lead Solar Permit Improvements
The county Board of Supervisors adopted ordinance changes Wednesday designed by the state to improve permitting for solar rooftops — but supervisors said it was really just a formality because the county has been using the new improvements for years.
“The state is finally catching up to the county,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob. “We’ve been doing this a long time.”
The County’s Planning and Development Services Department was actually invited by state officials in 2014 to participate in the statewide team that helped update the California Solar Permitting Guidebook.
The new regulations, among other things, require California governments to create solar permit application checklists to simplify and streamline permitting for small rooftop systems and allow permitting online. They are part of Assembly Bill 2188, which was passed into law a year ago.
Planning officials said they had already introduced steps to streamline the solar permitting process before they introduced online permitting two years ago. Planning and Development Services reported that it has seen a 500 percent increase in solar permits in the last five years, and issued 5,991 last year alone.
Don Orsillo to Broadcast Padres
Games on Radio and TV Next Year
City News Service
Popular Boston Red Sox announcer Don Orsillo signed on to broadcast select Padres games on radio and television next year, the team announced Wednesday.
Orsillo, 46, was let go by the New England Sports Network for reasons that have not been disclosed.
“We are excited to add Don to our broadcast lineup,” said Padres President and CEO Mike Dee, a former Red Sox executive.
“Over his 15 years broadcasting Major League Baseball, Don has established himself as one of the premier play-by-play men in the game,” Dee said. “We look forward to both his fun-loving personality and outstanding play- calling ability resonating with Padres fans during what we expect will be a very long career in San Diego.”
In 2017, Orsillo will become the Padres lead television announcer on Fox San Diego, succeeding Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg, who plans to call games for one more season and then retire. They’ll be joined in the broadcast booth by longtime analyst Mark Grant.
On the radio side, the Padres announced that Ted Leitner will return for his 37th season, with Jesse Agler joining him. Eduardo Ortega will do Spanish language play-by-play for a 31st year, along with former Padres catcher Carlos Hernandez.
Uncovering the Secrets
Of the Adolescent Brain
UC San Diego-led study will explore the developing minds and brains of 10,000 children
UC San Diego News Center
A cross-disciplinary team of UC San Diego social and medical scientists will lead an ambitious, longitudinal national study to probe the mysteries of the adolescent brain.
The national team will seek answers to questions ranging from the origins of resilience and creativity to identifying biological and behavioral factors that put some youth at increased risk of mental, emotional and academic dysfunction. The effects of substance use on the still developing teen-aged brain will be a particular focus of the study.
More than 10,000 children between the ages of 9 and 10 will be enrolled at 20 research institutions across the country and followed for 10 years. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development — ABCD –Study was initiated by the Collaborative Research on Addiction at NIH (CRAN), a consortium of institutes that include a focus on addiction research, but several other institutes will contribute as well. The costs for the first five years of the study, distributed across the national consortium, are expected to be about $150 million, and total awards to UC San Diego over that period are expected to exceed $32 million.
Sanford Center Marks 1st Year
With Unique Textbook for Nonprofits
Times of San Diego
The Sanford Education Center at National University celebrated its first anniversary Wednesday by publishing its first textbook and recognizing a humanitarian and educator of the year.
“This is a $40 million program that we’re doing now, and it all started with Denny,” said Michael R. Cunningham, president of the university and chancellor of the National University System of private colleges.
Philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, who donated the seed money for the center, said that after just one year the center’s programs “are changing the world.” He said one of his goals in establishing the center was “to help train people who ask philanthropists for money to do a better job of it.”
The new textbook, “Cause Selling The Sanford Way,” is aimed at helping nonprofit organizations maximize their fundraising potential. The book will be available on Amazon.com next week.
“This is the only textbook for fundraising in the country,” said Cunningham. “This book is about creating great fundraisers.”
Receiving the first of what will be annual awards were philanthropist Conrad Prebys as “Humanitarian of the Year,” and David Lorden, superintendent of Lakeside Union School District, as “Educator of the Year.”
The Sanford Education Center in Torrey Pines operates two programs for training teachers — Harmony for children in the sixth grade and under, and Inspire for older students — plus the Institute of Philanthropy f for training nonprofit leaders.
Cunningham said the Harmony program is already in 2,500 schools with 50,000 students, while the philanthropy program is aimed at making the $1.4 trillion nonprofit sector more efficient.
National University is working with nine other universities across the country to promote the Sanford educational programs at schools nationwide.
Balboa Park Named to
Great Places in America List
(But we already knew that)
The American Planning Association today named Balboa Park as one of six Great Public Spaces on the organization’s annual Great Places in America list.
APA’s Great Places in America program recognizes streets, neighborhoods, and public spaces in the United States demonstrating exceptional character, quality, and planning — attributes that enrich communities, facilitate economic growth, and inspire others around the country.
The association described the park this way:
“The 1,200 acres of San Diego’s Balboa Park, located just north of downtown, have been San Diego’s flagship public space for more than 100 years and have come to represent the recreational heart of the city. Over its long history, Balboa Park has been used for a diversity of purposes — such as the 1915 and 1935 Panama-California Expositions, training ground for the U.S. Navy during World War I, and various public events and cultural institutions — and today, it is home to the world-famous San Diego Zoo, 15 museums, multiple indoor and outdoor performance spaces, gardens, dog parks, trails, and restaurants…”
“Public spaces are essential as gathering places and recreational venues in our communities, and designing them to be innovative, multifunctional, and culturally beneficial requires thoughtful collaboration and planning,” said Carol Rhea, president of APA. “The Great Public Spaces of 2015 illustrate how to effectively create spaces that enhance the lives of residents and visitors alike, and we commend them on this tremendous achievement.”
Opened in January 2015 and scheduled to end in July 2016 is San Diego Invites the World: The 1915 Expo, a commemorative exhibition of the original exposition showcasing commerce, arts, and industry from that era and the exposition’s role in San Diego’s history.
