Daily Business Report-Oct. 5, 2015
Rendering of the ground-floor area of Bosa Development’s Broadway and Pacific Highway proposal.
Civic San Diego Approves Two
Downtown High-Rise Projects
The Civic San Diego board of directors has approved for City Council consideration a proposed 45-story, 296-unit mixed use development at the northeast corner of Broadway and Pacific Highway in the Columbia neighborhood of Downtown.
The proposal is by Bosa Development California II Inc. It is designed by Kohn Peterson Fox Associates, which also designed a similar tower under construction across Broadway to the south. The project would have 15,130 square feet of ground floor commercial space.
If approved, construction would begin in 2016.
Lennar Project
Civic San Diego also approved the design and related permits for Lennar Multifamily Communities’ proposed 21-story tower and five-story mid-rise, mixed-use residential development at 460 16th St. in the East Village. Designed by Carrier Johnson Inc., the development would include 368 studio, one- and two bedroom apartments and about 19,000 square feet of commercial space. Construction would begin early next year.
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Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
Wins Approval from Local Planning Group
The La Jolla Community Planning Association gave its approval last week to a proposed 44,000-square-foot, $65 million performing arts center in La Jolla named after philanthropist Conrad Prebys.
If final approval is granted by the city Development Services Department, the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center — to be named The Conrad — would break ground in 2016. It would be located at 7600 Faye Ave.
The center was designed by theater experts Epstein Joslin Architects. It would include a 500-seat concert hall, a 150-person cabaret/multi-use space, rehearsal rooms, a large, open courtyard and offices for the La Jolla Music Society. It has been designed to accommodate a variety of activities.
“Tonight’s approval of The Conrad is the culmination of an extensive public outreach program to ensure we’re not only developing a world-class performing arts center, but one that is respectful and reflective of the dynamic La Jolla community,” said Christopher Beach, former president and artistic director of La Jolla Music Society, now serving as its theater and development consultant. “As a community partner for more than 40 years, we’ve paid careful attention to all design elements and addressed items like parking to create a prominent building that will quickly become a cultural centerpiece for San Diego.”
In addition to holding world-class performances, The Conrad will be available to rent for education performances, corporate conferences, weddings and a myriad of other uses by individuals, schools and organizations.
“The Conrad will enrich the cultural life of San Diego and will serve as our organization’s new permanent home,” said La Jolla Music Society Board Chair, Katherine Chapin. “Tonight’s unanimous approval is a fitting testament to our board and team’s commitment to create a new community asset developed at no taxpayer expense, in the heart of the La Jolla.”
Silicon Valley Sees San Diego
As Emerging Competition
Times of San Diego
When Silicon Valley looks at competing innovation economies across the United States, San Diego is on the list.
“You are our competition. How are we doing against each other?” said Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, at a gathering Friday of San Diego and business and political leaders.
Guardino listed Silicon Valley’s emerging competitors as Austin, Los Angeles/Orange County, New York City, San Diego and Seattle, and focused on San Diego at the South County Economic Development Council’s 25th annual South County Economic Summit.
Compared to Silicon Valley, he said, San Diego has easier commuting, homes only half as costly per square feet but less effective elementary education, though “in education we face real tragedies” in both regions.
Guardino noted that both regions have stepped up to improve traffic through an extra sales tax levy. “We’ve both taxed ourselves for transportation improvements,” he said. “Our voters like San Diego voters are visionary.”
The Silicon Valley group was founded in 1978 by David Packard of Hewlett-Packard and represents more than 390 top employers on issues, programs and campaigns that affect the economic health and quality of life in the tech capital.
Guardino said the group’s approach to issues is based on three principles:
• Data over dogma
• Winning over whining
• Being engaged rather than being enraged
He said he’s always glad to share ideas from Silicon Valley with competing regions because “when we collaborate to complete…we can improve all of our economies.”
Sequenom Enters Clinical Collaboration
With Seoul National University Hospital
San Diego-based Sequenom has entered into a clinical collaboration with Seoul National University Hospital to profile circulating cell-free tumor DNA in blood, the firm announced today.
The partners will conduct studies targeting several hundred patients across 10 cancer types, they said. The collaboration is the first by Sequenom with a leading medical center in Asia to target cancer, and “(a)mong other objectives, this study will enable us to comprehensively analyze the genomic alterations concordance between tissue and blood in different cancers,” Sequenom CMO Daniel Grosu said in a statement.
Sequenom is developing a research-use-only assay initially focused on detecting and molecularly profiling late-stage non-hematologic malignancies in instances when tissue biopsies are not feasible. The assay will analyze more than 100 cancer genes that are included in professional society guidelines, linked to targeted therapies in clinical trials, or are part of well-documented cancer pathways, the company said.
In August it announced a similar deal with the University of California, San Diego. The firm announced its intentions to develop a liquid biopsy assay at the start of the year.
UC San Diego Researchers Awarded
$30 Million in Grants for DNA Research
The National Institutes of Health has awarded three grants totaling more than $30 million over five years to multidisciplinary teams of researchers at UC San Diego under its new 4D Nucleome Program.
The 4D Nucleome Program is a collaborative research initiative aimed at better understanding how DNA is arranged within the cell’s nucleus in four dimensions (three-dimensional space plus time) and how changes in that nuclear organization affect human health and disease.
The UC San Diego researchers hail from the School of Medicine, Jacobs School of Engineering, Institute of Engineering in Medicine, Division of Physical Sciences, Division of Biological Sciences and Center for Research on Biological Systems.
The 4D Nucleome Program is composed of six separate but interrelated initiatives that encompass 29 awards to 24 different institutions throughout the United States. UC San Diego researchers will receive one quarter of the program’s funding, lead the program’s organizational hub, and contribute to two additional research initiatives.
“The NIH selected the nucleome for targeted investments in technology development and research because it is a scientific area ripe for discovery, with potential outcomes that could have a significant impact on human health,” said James M. Anderson, director of the NIH Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives.
Sentek Global Awarded 3 SPAWAR Contracts
Sentek Global of San Diego, an information assurance and technology firm for government and commercial organizations, has been awarded three Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) contracts worth approximately $150 million.
The company will provide technical assistance, systems engineering, program management and support services for three of the command’s offices.
The specific contracts awarded were:
• Program Management and Engineering Support Services to the Multifunctional Information Distribution System Program Office in San Diego.
• Systems Engineering & Technical Assistance Support Services to SPAWAR Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence Command and Control Program Office PMW 150 in San Diego.
• Risk Management Framework Support Services to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command in San Diego
Personnel Announcements
Knobbe Martens Firm Names Co-Managing Partners
Thomas Arno and Michael Fuller have been named co-managing partners of the San Diego office of Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP. They succeed Ned Israelsen, who led the 60-attorney office for 20 years.
Arno has been with the firm in San Diego for over 20 years, and his practice focuses on U.S. and foreign patent-related matters, technology licensing and client counseling in connection with intellectual property strategies. He has experience in patent protection for a variety of industries, including analog and digital electronics, computer hardware and software, communications, and drug discovery technologies.
Fuller has been in the firm’s San Diego office for nearly 25 years and oversees IP matters in a number of areas, including patent prosecution, licensing, intellectual property due diligence and related negotiations for mergers and acquisitions. He was named to the 2015 Southern California Super Lawyer list for his work in intellectual property law.
